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Episode 49 - Will ADHD Meds Change My Personality?
77 Plays1 year ago
Paul and Martin (co-Mayors of ADHDville) chat about ADHD medication and whether it affects your personality. We answer a bunch of comments on our social feeds so maybe your comment is read out! That's something to tell the grandchildren eh?
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Put quill to paper and send us an email at: ADHDville@gmail.com
ADHD/Focus music from Martin (AKA Thinking Fish)
Theme music was written by Freddie Philips and played by Martin West. All other music by Martin West.
Please remember: This is an entertainment podcast about ADHD and does not substitute for individualized advice from qualified health professionals.
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Transcript
Martyn's Tidy House Ambition
00:00:01
Speaker
Back in the room, back in the room. So Martyn, what's, give us an update then on your, because in the last last episode you were talking about, you decided to like have, you had an ambition of having every single room in your house tidy all at the same time. How's that going?
00:00:23
Speaker
It's going, it's going okay. You haven't arrived there yet. You haven't peaked yet. I haven't arrived there yet. I haven't arrived there yet. I mean, if you're watching on YouTube, if you're... know what behind me looks like normally. There's loads of stuff on this on this desk over here and that's all being tidied away. So I'm working on this room currently and all the rooms that I have cleaned up are maintaining their cleanliness. So I'm on that path. It's so cleanliness and ordinalness.
00:01:03
Speaker
Yep. Yep. So every room gets a deep clean, a decluttering, a reorganization. Um, yeah. Right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's the full works, the, the, the full Monty.
00:01:22
Speaker
All right. Okay. And, and so we're all invited around to your house then when it's, when you, when you've, when it's finished. Well, no, because if I have other people around, they'll just muck up the place. You know what I mean? So I'll just... I'd be relieved. What? That it was a mess.
00:01:42
Speaker
yeah
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah. I just see it as work now. like Oh, that's more work. You know what? I watch, I watch, you know, I don't know if you watch like house programs, like, you know, when people go and buy houses, right? Yeah. Those ones. What's cool? um was One of you take up location, location, location.
00:02:06
Speaker
Right. Homes under the hammer or whatever. Right. Yeah. Right. And you and you see these houses and you look at them and and I've got to that age where I'm thinking, oh, that's going to be a ah real bastard bastard to to to to dust. Right. You know, like I'm looking at that chandelier going, isn't that nice? I'm thinking, oh, no, I've got to dust that I've got to dust. No, no, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not dusting that.
00:02:34
Speaker
Well actually now you mentioned the last house that I rented in Palermo because I don't know how it is in in the States but in in Italy you have to return that your apartment to how it was when you first rented it yeah and I decide okay so it's pretty normal really so I decided the first week I was there to repaint the whole of the like hallway and entrance way and with a dark blue and it was white before and that was fine until until the last two weeks of when I actually leaving I had to repaint it white and it take took three coats and there's like a rose it's like uh uh it's like art decor ceilings with rose like the rose features and everything yeah and it's five meters tall and I didn't have a ladder that was tall enough
00:03:31
Speaker
So I was dabbing the ceiling, like slowly but surely, which is like paintbrush, kind of like strapped to a pole. And it took two weeks solid of like three coats. Oh, it was a nightmare. That is insane. That was insane. Anywho. Anywho, on that unbelievable bombshell, welcome to ADHDville.
00:04:20
Speaker
A dear doctor's bill.
00:04:25
Speaker
yeah bad you're thinking i'm painting the sistine chapel looks at me i something like that me me and leonardo yeah that was thinking eventually i'm paul why did you just keep it white for heaven's sake i know i was supposed to like i was like supposed to be going out with friends and i had to like cancel so no no i'm painting the ceiling So anyway, anyway, hello, I'm Paul Thompson and I was diagnosed with a kind of combined ADHD nine months ago.
Introducing the Hosts and Podcast Focus
00:04:59
Speaker
And I'm Martin West and I was diagnosed with a combined poo poo platter of ADHD in 2013.
00:05:07
Speaker
Yeah. So we're just two mates who, by coincidence, after 39 years of friendship, discovered that co-ADHD is hurrah! Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Now, it's really important to say this is an entertainment podcast about adult ADHD. It does not substitute for individualized advice from qualified health professionals. So don't take your advice from us, especially me. We're just here as a kind of all-inclusive ADHD park bench with room for everyone including your doppelgangers, your alter egos, your double doubles, your chaperones, and your best booties, buddies. Okay, still here, then grab your jetpacks, your pedilos, your space hoppers, your Fiat 500s, or any other transportation methods. Let us take you to Hadesteville, an imaginary town that we've created here in our minds. where we like to explore different parts of the A, the D, H and the D.
00:06:07
Speaker
Well, they they'd like that. And we start off as always here in the town hall in the mayor's office where we the joint mayors of ADHD will take care of business.
Podcast Agenda Overview
00:06:20
Speaker
Let me just get my agenda out. OK, we've got three things on the agenda. One, as you probably guessed from the podcast notes, we're going to talk about does meds ADHD meds change your personality? Question mark.
00:06:35
Speaker
Then we've got, then we have rather an exciting saint update. Yes. So if you've been following the whole saintly next door neighbour thing. They're not next door neighbours. They're actually the same house, but yeah.
00:06:52
Speaker
Right. Oh yeah. Same house. Same house. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. all Just different. Almost like a sort of. Just different cloisters. A roomie, like ah a roommate. Yeah. Yeah. So we have an update, which which which I haven't heard. So I'm excited about that. And then we've got a quiz right at the end because you know, because we love a good quiz. We love them.
00:07:16
Speaker
And we kind of are a bit of a run on the kind of saints and gods and and a pope and Jesus's foreskin and all kinds of stuff. Blimey. Yes, I've had comments about that. ah yeah So this is a little bit racy.
00:07:40
Speaker
ah uh so yeah um where am i oh yeah so well we do we do have a warning on we we do have an official warning on our podcast that that this there is sometimes so fruity language for fruity behavior. um All right, so let so where are we going to head off to? I think it's the library, Martin. Paolo.
00:08:12
Speaker
All right, well, let's bring the car around, um which ah which I have, which which um I've had the word mare written on both sides in big letters on it, so that I felt like the ADHD, the people of our lovely town, don't necessarily know that we're right the meds sometimes. I think they sometimes forget. yeah So when you see a cameraman, you'll see a sort of word. Is it comic sans, the font?
00:08:50
Speaker
oh You know what? I knew you were going to say that. I was as I was saying it, I was thinking Paul's going to be thinking about the font. He's going to be going. Oh, yes. If it was basic, it would be maybe just like a Helvetica bold. And then I was thinking, but, you know, what would be the opposite? And I was like, Comic Sans. Yeah. So just just for you, it is in Comic Sans. Fantastic. Because I thought that you'd yeah You'd find that i ironically amusing. Well, if i've I've always thought if I did ever teach at a design a university, I would set the challenge to design students, to design something completely in Comic Sans. If you could do that, you could design anything.
00:09:41
Speaker
i I hold the idea that you could actually do something pretty cool with Comic Sans. Not easy. That would it that would that would be the the brief. Take Comic Sans, do something, make it look cool. Yeah. ah right and know All right. All right. So, theme for this week.
00:10:09
Speaker
Yeah. Well, we first off, yes, we haven't done the ah the theme tune to the library. Oh, OK. Fair enough. So so sorry about that. We have to do the library theme. I thought we'd so I thought we'd sack this sound effects is an old record recording that I can read. So it's so it's at our archives. Fair enough.
00:10:39
Speaker
All right. So the big question is, do ADHD meds change your personality? No, they don't.
Do ADHD Meds Alter Personality?
00:10:49
Speaker
There we go. that's good that's hot up Thanks for coming. Thanks for joining.
00:10:56
Speaker
lesson Yes. And I think as everybody, you've got the like, you've got to tee us up. All right. so so I was on the American Psychological Association site just so that I i could define what we mean by personality. um Because yeah when you take meds, there's all kinds of reactions that you have.
00:11:20
Speaker
some are physiological, you like you feel tired or your heart's palpitating or something like that. um Or there's all there's a behavioral change, like, oh you know, I'm staying in more or um something like like that, but that's not what personality is. So personality, roughly according to the ah PSA, is and it refers to the enduring characteristics and behaviours that compromise a person's unique adjustment to life.
00:11:58
Speaker
including major traits, interests, drives, self-concept, abilities, and emotional patterns. Now, obviously, personality helps determine behavior. It kind of leads into it, but it's not really behavior. I thought think the interesting thing in that is um It also comprises a person's unique adjustment to life. so that seems to like That's what sounded interesting to me as well. Adjustments. Right, because this like if you do have ADHD, part of your personality will be your adjustment to life. It will be an adjustment to it. It also incorporates a bit of
00:12:42
Speaker
masking as well that can all right kind of be rolled up into your current personality yeah oh mask is definitely an adjustment isn't it a negative one but yeah and trauma responses yeah yeah yeah but also the other adjustment um for me anyway my recent ADHD history is post diagnosis adjustment It's like massive oodles amounts of adjustments. It's like, right oh, oh, it's like tons of stuff that I but had i had like written down as like, you know, written in stone. It's like, oh, it's not true at all. all right So yeah, just like that adjustment thing. Right. You know, yeah, because I think that actually you're right in that I think overall in the longer term,
00:13:41
Speaker
knowing you have ADHD is actually a bigger change to your personality than your pre-diagnosis. I like that thought. Yeah. I like that thought. Totally. Yeah. I've got a couple of notes and notes on that.
00:13:57
Speaker
um because they are they one one of the things that kind of ah One of the reasons why this thing came up is is because it's mentioned quite a lot on TikTok. If our listeners that um who follow ADHD,
00:14:13
Speaker
um issues on tickktoo TikTok which I recommend because there's a lot of good stuff out there. um is that there's ah There's a lot of feedback with people especially partners, family, ah loved ones are kind of like thinking oh you know the meds are going to like there's going to be some kind of you know fundamental change in in their personalities, right? And I, put more from my personal experience, I remember a couple of friends and my partner, they kind of looked at me because clothes i saw it's a bit skewy, like, ooh.
00:14:51
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I felt like I was like, Oh, maybe it was a little probably a bit of my own perception. But I think it was definitely there. There was like, just like, you know, there's like the irises in there, that the the yeah the eyes were like slightly more like penetrating, you know. oh So what's happening? Your little spidey senses were peeling off. Oh, it's going to become even more of an asshole than it was before. Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:28
Speaker
ah general
00:15:32
Speaker
Actually, that that i I did read a really kind of fun little quote online from someone who's talking about ADHD in their and their personality. And this person said, I'm a miserable, nasty, ah miserable, nasty grouch off my meds. If that's my real personality, fuck that guy. Right. Okay. Nice. I like that. Yeah. Yeah.
00:16:02
Speaker
so right right Because I think, you know, but when you think, oh, wait is it going to change my personality? I tend to think what pops in your mind, and maybe this is you, Paul, you you tend to think of all the nice things but about you first. Oh, mom I'm curious. I'm funny. I make jokes. i I'm a creative person. And you forget.
00:16:23
Speaker
the kind of, you know, oh, you know, I get i ah get angry too too much or I'm, yeah by my you know, part of my personality, and which aren't so so good. you yeah like I guess there's probably a familiar ah of part of us that like secretly hopes that it will like iron out a few creases in our you know on the negative parts of ah of us. ill but I would say that um because I take Adderall and I've also been on Vyvents or Elvents if you're in the UK and on that side it's definitely smoothed out my
00:17:09
Speaker
um uh my rsd my um my rejection sensitive dysphoria i'm much better with it so i'm not i'm less quick to kind of get annoyed or angry um by so so that's so that part of my personality has improved i would say Yeah. Yeah. um I, ah my, so my story is a bit, is a bit strange because I, my kind of tell it briefly, because ah it's in some, it's in a few couple of old, old, previous podcasts, I've stopped meds because ah basically,
00:17:53
Speaker
um the meds, I was ah tried two different types of meds, neither of which really work, they just spaced me out. And my ah National Health Service like so psychiatric consultant told me, oh, there's nothing more he can do for me. So at the moment, I'm waiting. So so yeah, it was, I found, for instance, that the meds that I did try, the first two types I tried, the first one was Richlin and the other ones.
00:18:25
Speaker
I can't remember. um It was an awful off-label ah medication. They did make me like spaced out, a bit buzzy-headed, and so I didn't feel like I could be myself. So I'm waiting. Personally, I'm waiting. I've kind of liked that space, actually, of discovering, you know, paul post without Lumet, but I'm also equally, equally lily-lily.
00:18:55
Speaker
I'm curious about finding the right meds for me that will help me with things like you were just talking about Martin, you know, like ah helping me with some aspects of my personality that I'd rather iron out a bit.
00:19:10
Speaker
Right. Yeah. look Because that's the thing, right? Is that if if the meds, I mean, we I would. Yeah, we are definitely pro meds. Where they work, right? Yeah. On this particular totally. Yeah. um And yeah, if you get if if you don't feel right on them.
00:19:35
Speaker
then then you know either come off them or change them or speak to your doctor or find something else. and you know maybe Maybe you have to go up, maybe maybe maybe you have to go down, but you know the the point is if you can find something that kind of vague yeah Of course, for you, as far as going up and down, I've also heard people say, you know, I've told stories of huge differences between really tiny adjustments between the of the dosages can make massive differences, either up or down. Right.
00:20:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But for me, I found that what I've tried the Ritalin especially, it didn't give me any clarity, which was that, you know, the main thing that I was, you know, hoping for. And um yeah, so I'm just working out for myself at the moment. Yeah. I mean, I, my, my experience is, is that it generally improved who I was.
00:20:36
Speaker
And like when I go on on online and look at other people's stories, generally, there is a kind of a sense that it doesn't change their personality. It just helps with some of those negative parts of themselves that actually they can they can be more of them themselves. Right. Yeah. yeah be I think it's just like a double double whammy really is just but it's both the meds but also having the diagnosis and and going on that journey of self discovery, you know, and unlearning is like a double whammy, isn't it? It's like, I think it's I feel more authentic now than I've ever felt with or without meds.
00:21:27
Speaker
Right, yeah, no, I think that's yeah, that's really a good thing. um So back in the middle of June, we asked people on TikToks what they thought. And the um ah so it might be a good time to kind of just start reading some other people's points of view. Yes, yes, yes. um So Kat Renee.
00:21:52
Speaker
Your name is says ah my ADHD was a little more chill, but then brought out my autism. Either way, my personality really hasn't been changed. It allowed my real self to shine through.
Impact of ADHD Diagnosis on Identity
00:22:05
Speaker
Right. So I think that's pretty, pretty similar to what. Yeah. but I guess, you know, unmasking, I mean, blimey.
00:22:17
Speaker
just like realizing that you did mask for a start, you know. yeah And then like the slow process of um unpeeling, peeling away the mask, it's just like, it's, you know, it's like, ah kind of like a rebirth. It's amazing.
00:22:35
Speaker
Right. there there There's this weird thing where people will get diagnosed with ADHD. Right. So and then they'll get the meds and then they'll start taking the meds. Yeah. and it And it's all kind of even though they may suspect they have ADHD, there is there is a bit of a psychological difference. Right. When when a doctor professional says you've got you do have ADHD, there's a kind of like a you You can start down that journey of acceptance, I think. I think yeah there's there's something about that kind of official stamp and then you can kind of start to deal with it. So you're talking about you realize how much you're masking and you realize a lot of what you your behavior, your personal personality is like's like somehow tied up with ADHD. Right. And then you also take meds at the same time.
00:23:34
Speaker
And what can happen is that is it is like is you know is that is that you you you find that you have more anxiety because you've got to go, oh my God, I do have ADHD. Oh, so that's the masking thing and that's the masking thing. And now, oh, so that masking technique doesn't quite apply anymore and I can't quite mask like I used to. yeah now i Now I'm feeling more anxious I've got more anxiety because yeah the masking doesn't work like it used to. You don't have the same relationship with it. because so trying to take Then you're trying to take drugs on top of that. yeah trying to So I sometimes think that It's this weird cocktail of stuff that happens all at the same time. It can be a bit overwhelming. I've heard i seen a list of people on TikTok you know and there's the initial euphoria, but also also there can be and a phase of like of you know being a bit overwhelmed with the amount of like info, you know, coming in and unlearning and deconstructing and reconstructing. And someone once said that they did they say.
00:25:01
Speaker
ah they The belief system collapsed. Some people did say that. That was another that was another episode. So been what persons said, which I found really unbelievable, they found that their belief system like shut down because it's like, oh, everything that I thought I knew about myself turned out to be untrue. So who the hell am I? And that could be a scary place.
00:25:28
Speaker
Mm hmm. Right. Absolutely. Yeah. And then you've got then you take meds on top of that. And sometimes you kind of you might think that the meds are not working or something because you're more anxious than you were before. But actually, it's it's really more to do with you dealing with having ADHD rather than the. Yeah. so So I think we took two different paths. Your path currently is is you find out you have ADHD, you've played drugs a bit.
00:25:58
Speaker
um but But you're now going to kind of like work out who you are without the yeah the drug. So go through that ah that psychological process and then yeah at some point maybe you you find a ah drug to kind of... Pop out the other end and find and an alternative. Yeah.
00:26:15
Speaker
Right. Whereas I did the other thing, which was, I found out I had ADHD. I went, okay, took some meds and I did meds for quite a while but before I actually really started to process what ADHD meant or the masking. So all of that, that journey yeah happened happened way after the whole drugs thing. okay So they so they're never really kind of clashed at the same time. oh Okay. Okay. Interestingly. Okay. Well, I think it that brings up the subject of, you know, it comes up quite a lot because that's ah one of the reasons why
00:26:55
Speaker
we were it's inspired to do this this podcast was that the ah particular dynamic with this discovering late in life, and know you know, to get something on TikTok and other social media, you know, so, you know, late discovery and they they're in their 30s. Wow, can you imagine it if you like media 56 and you discover it. But there there are some advantages of that as well, because you've done some hard work, hopefully by that time with yourself. You know, you've had a kind of like a crisis at some with mental breakdown or blah, blah, blah. You've, you know, you've jumped over obstacles and jumped through loops and et cetera, et cetera. You've maybe got to know yourself quite well.
00:27:43
Speaker
Um, maybe be got to a point also with like, oh, okay. Even if I'd something does fundamentally changed my life. I'm kind of ready for anyway. Cause I've always survived anyway. So just bring it on wherever, you know, just that makes sense.
00:27:59
Speaker
Yeah. I think when you're younger, you're less, you you don't realize, okay, something bad can happen. And you've, you've kind of, it's a bit like uncharted territory, but when you get older, you've done a lot of, you know, be through a lot of normally be through a lot of difficult experience. You, you worked out in the end, by the time you're 57, like me, like, actually in the end, I always survived. I was, I was okay. You know, so whatever happens is all right.
00:28:27
Speaker
Yeah, because by the time you get to that point, and you've probably had a a a a crisis or two. Yeah. And you've looked into the hair avoiding. You've had a pair of crises. Yeah. And you've and you've kind of gone, Yeah, you know what I can I can deal with the worst. Yeah, when ADHD comes along, it won't sink you. Yeah. Right. Well, yeah, when ADHD comes along, but you know, but when your whole Journey through that um through your ADHD diagnosis. so Yeah Exactly. It's like when I had a crash was about 12 years ago I had to feel feeling like I was like sent back, you know reset, you know, you know, it's like I was set back to factory settings, you know and I started from scratch factory settings And and that was that was hard. It was a hard crash and
00:29:24
Speaker
Um, right but this time around, like 12 years later with the diagnosis, I felt like I was ready for it. Yeah. That's ready for like, you know, the journey and you know, playing with it and whatever. So yeah, pretty on whatever.
00:29:41
Speaker
I've heard that that you can do a factory reset on yourself by, so isn't it by ah you you stick your finger up your bum and sneeze. And that's how you right right how you do a system reset on yourself. Oh, okay. i think I think you can get in confused through resets and colonic irrigation.
00:30:06
Speaker
Oh boy, I've never had one of one of those although that dust does remind me that I've got my colostomy coming up. Have you? Yeah. ah Okay. but A fun episode. Yeah. Go on. Yeah. Well, apparently it's really liberating.
00:30:24
Speaker
All right. of It's really good for you. Yeah. You'd be liberated of of your own. There was that program with the the weird Scottish doctor and she used to give colonic irrigations to famous people.
00:30:39
Speaker
Oh, I heard about that, but I never watched it. And they deadlized, they'd like give them a colonic irrigation. out prime I think it was Ruby Wax did it. She said, it's like um sweet corn came up you know in a result. She says, I hate sweet corn. I've never used sweet corn in my life. Had a sweet, sweet, sweet corn.
00:31:05
Speaker
Get into my bowels. here's what your It's just ham. It's just full of ham. Spicy salami. Mine would be ham. Come on to ham a little bit oh are week later.
00:31:22
Speaker
Back to the subject. to someone else so um Someone else on the TikTok said they make me nicer. Like laughing, crying, laughing. So I think that's that's a that's interesting. And then they went on to say, I'm frustrated when I am scattered on meds. I glide through three quarters of my day.
00:31:49
Speaker
And I said, oh, that's interesting. ah said I said, and then someone pipes in and says, this is garden arts, pipes in and says, i I agree with this. when i'm and what i'm When I'm medicated, a lot of the emotional dysregulation from being so scattered and unable to function goes away, likely because it creates order out of chaos in our brains. Yeah.
00:32:19
Speaker
Yeah. I could have reminded of our of our friend as David, isn't it, with our our recent guest? Yeah. The famous TikTok video of him. He cried when he first took meds. You know, he felt like he had a clear head for the first time in his life.
00:32:38
Speaker
Yeah. All right. That's most of the comments there. So I thought yeah i think, um yeah, so I would just say, oh, oh Alexandra, sorry, I have to bring her. Alexandra, who is our one and only Greek podcasts. Fabulous. Hello. Fabulous. Hello, Greece. great Hello, Greece. Hello, Greece. Hello, Grations. She says, I prescribed some meds, but I didn't feel any change, good or bad. I think I need to change to something else. There you go. Same as me. so but
00:33:27
Speaker
Yeah, so the sales people find the right stuff or not, they put 10% for 10% of ADHD is they're actually they're on any meds that help 10%. You know, it's not a small number.
00:33:43
Speaker
No, it is. I've got a thing here, other than in a male and the the perception I had, and it's like, wouldnt you when you start taking, them you've just been diagnosed, you start taking the meds, your partner or your, you know, your loved ones or your friends are like this, they're kind of like slightly more sensitive to you, like just trying to perceive this as any kind of changes in you. not Actually, what I went through at that time was just being massively distracted by this like shiny new toy in my life, you know, post diagnosis. So that can be an aspect as well. You know, I think my girlfriend, she felt a bit left out. You know, there's a lot of complicated, you know, play between perceptions and what's going on in her head. and And quite normally, I think I was really distracted.
00:34:35
Speaker
And I think the time she felt a bit like left out, but until I couldn't, I couldn't, I personally, the way I handled it, those kinds of things, if, if I've got something to work out in my head, I generally won't talk about it to someone else until I've gone at least a quite a long way loud down the line of understanding myself before I can like talk to someone else about it. And that could take time, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:04
Speaker
So I think think in in conclusion, I think it would be fair to say that if you if you are on meds and you get your meds roughly right, yeah then meds won't intrinsically change your personality. bat might improve some of those parts of your personality which aren't which which which aren't so so so great. right So it it might actually help you become a little bit more who who you are. But as you as you say,
00:35:37
Speaker
mit yeah know all our brains are different. Men's will work in a different way with each each of us. No two people are alike. Yeah, your mileage may may vary. um You know, if meds work great, if, if they don't, then, ah yeah, then, um you know, yeah, it's, it's gonna be a little bit harder. But, but yeah, I mean, you can still have a, have a good life and eat ham. Yeah, if you like. I think for the general pattern I've seen from ADHD is generally the post-diagnosis and the meds. A vast majority of people are a really positive element of their lives in terms of self-discovery, so it's all good, all good.
00:36:30
Speaker
Cool. Well, let's jump in the car. Yes, it will go to the coffee place because then we can have have a bit of a drink and we can yeah ah get a saintly update. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. um And then we and then we'll do the quiz after that. So let's jump in our in our Comic Sans car and get a get a cup of coffee.
00:37:17
Speaker
i'm gonna have a green tea i feel i'm gonna have an iced tea can i get you anything iced tea iced tea yeah All right, and very nice, very nice. And a granola bar. Ice tea and a granola bar. I like a granola bar. Crunchy. Yeah. um that All right, so you you you have an update. Update, yeah. Well, let's just kind of like, so hang on a second. Yeah, hang on, yes. So if you don't know, if you this if you've ah if you not listened to any of our podcasts, behind the wall,
00:37:54
Speaker
we should be looking on on the yeah so behind you Paul ah there is a room in your in your very very old house in Italy where a almost saint yes a saint in waiting a saint in waiting so it's just that stage before official saintdom yes kind of have this little layer Yeah, exactly. And so a lot of waiting room, you know, like the waiting room in, um in Betelgeuse.
00:38:28
Speaker
Oh, no, I've seen it. ah That was that was a film I haven't seen in so long. OK, I guess he's like waiting the Saints. Oh, yes, yes. And he but know yeah he gets a number. He gets a number for the reception to like see how long he's got to wait. And it's like 10,000 or something. And it's like this this kid next to him. So a really tiny little kid, shrunk, tiny alien thing. It's got the next number.
00:38:58
Speaker
it seems like tries to like swap the numbers anyway she says she's there trying to swap numbers so she's been waiting uh 700 years to become a saint right right and then uh all right so you're saying that So part of your rent agreement is you get slightly cheaper rent because occasionally, although no one has, as far as you were concerned, they come round to that room. Yes. so Usually only ah ah only um officially when it's her birthday.
00:39:38
Speaker
Okay, which and this is now they have an open day but now because oh this is the other thing I've found out I've got some other news All right this until four years ago.
Living in a Former Shrine
00:39:50
Speaker
This wasn't a house It was only a visitor center so ka people could literally they would call and make an appointment with the church and come and visit the shrine of Stefano quince on the okay so We're the first people to actually use this as as a house since she died. So your room is the gift shop? Yeah, probably. Could be the gift shop. Probably somewhere around there's this like a tea towel, you know, or a pencil case.
00:40:29
Speaker
i think I think we did say that, that that that there should be some St. Stefani merch going on that you're studying. Yeah, three for one you know on Fridays.
00:40:43
Speaker
All right, right so So there's that and then anyway Some people there was how I know the how and how I know the fact that this used to be an Open place so people would visit her shrine is because them two women knocked on the door and three days ago three days ago knocked on the door yeah what you want oh is this the is this the what do you want what do you want
00:41:21
Speaker
yeah yeah And so she said, oh, is it still open? She said, what is still open? The visitor house, the house of the saint of Stefania Quinzani said, oh no, sorry, it's a private house now.
00:41:41
Speaker
Oh, really? And so my girlfriend, she said, well, why don't you come in any way? Because she by that time, she'd sold the story that she she when she was last here, she'd been ah diagnosed with ah a life threatening disease. And she came here specifically to pray to the two Stefani quincean that he was all right, um for um to be cured of her of her problems.
00:42:09
Speaker
Wow. And she's still here. So maybe this, you know, Stefano, Stefano, she answered her prayers. Wow. There you go. nice And so she was coming back to kind of like yeah her her her respect. and the And you're like, I'm sorry, but your name's not on on the list. Yeah.
00:42:35
Speaker
yeah and enjoy And you're wearing the trainers. Yeah. so So that's not it. Well, I was working at the time when they came through to the courtyard at the back, I was working at the back of my doing this sculpture at the moment. And someone's like dressed for a huge phallus. What the hell is going on?
00:43:04
Speaker
with her faith. No, it's not a fallacy. um it's um and she said oh and since She went up and she prayed to Stefana, Queen Sarni, and she came back down and said, oh what are you doing then? She said to me. And I said, oh, I've got this commission by the Museum of of Iron in Brescia.
00:43:29
Speaker
Oh, it's interesting. So what do you do? So you're an artist? Yeah, yeah. I said, but I also teach at the local school. I said, oh, we're looking for a teacher as well. For English, for conversation English at our school, middle school. Would you like to come and work for us? Jesus, what? Yeah. I said, well, actually, I do have to... Work just falls in your map, in your lap. It's just like... I sort of did a business deal.
00:43:57
Speaker
Ah. Wow. Yeah. There you go. There you go. Nuts. Yeah. ah Isn't life weird? Yeah. And there's two really nice people actually. And my girlfriend said the sense that, oh, they're nice people. I've had, because we've had worse. I've had, I've heard people standing outside and swearing at us because they don't think it's right that this place should be a private house.
00:44:27
Speaker
And they're they're upset with the church Catholic Church, the Vatican, the Pope, whatever, that is that it's not that they can't just come and visit one and wouldn't they whenever they want to.
Saintly Visitors and Community Reactions
00:44:41
Speaker
So there's a bit of resistance, Martin. Oh, wow. All right. that is well Thank you for that update. There you go.
00:44:53
Speaker
Oh man, she is the gift that keeps on giving as far as this podcast is concerned. Yeah. which is handy correct because we' you know we are sitting up a gift shop. Exactly. Because, ah yeah, she was, a if I remember rightly, she was described at this time as ugly, but had really nice hair. Really nice hair. And and she she didn't like that fact. and So she pulled the hair out with her own hands. She pulled Yangta hair out.
00:45:30
Speaker
yeah Fistfuls of her own hair. Right. So now she's just all ugly. She's just all ugly. New hair. so Yeah. so ah ah So I was thinking shamp shampoo. So if you had little bottles of shampoo with the weight on it. Brilliant. That's brilliant. I mean, good. Yeah. Well, you could have anti-conditioner.
00:45:51
Speaker
Yeah. It makes your hair fall out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But these, but it's massive business in Italy, souvenirs, huge. I always think that rats and go was who, who, who was the only Pope to actually resign from the Pope, Pope, Pope hood. He resigned. I think that's because the Vatican, I think the Vatican told you to go because he wasn't selling enough souvenirs.
00:46:20
Speaker
Enough merch. Enough merch. Look, have we got all these, uh, yeah, we've got all these, uh, cassettes. So we've got these like little candles, little Pope, little Pope snow globes. Yeah. They just are not, not shifting. Candles are the big one. It's the big one. You can go to most supermarkets in Italy. You can find Pope candles.
00:46:43
Speaker
but Have you seen like, I don't know whether it's a big thing in your place, but in your country, but you can have, you can buy those, those religious looking candles, but yeah they've got like secular, like movie stars or TV characters on them. They're like, they're quite amusing. Movie characters.
00:47:10
Speaker
like a Yes, yes, yes. So yeah rather than having Pope John Paul II or whatever, it it would be like, you know, Donald Duck or... yeah Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. No, no. er All right. right let's Let's head on into into possibly better territory with with with a quiz. Yay!
00:47:37
Speaker
oh
00:47:40
Speaker
I've been tragically bad up to now with the quiz. I don't think I've won any of them.
00:47:49
Speaker
I can't remember what you did last last time on the saint quiz. Badly. If you can remember. I think I got one right. ah Remind us in the comments. ah So I've kind of done the same thing. So yeah I've got three saints. All right. Yeah. And the idea is to work out what they're the patron saint of. All right. Yeah. I remember. I'll give you three options. All right.
00:48:19
Speaker
All right, so let's start with Pope Isiodor. I think his name is Spanish. He was the Archbishop of Seville. ah huh um He was into his books. He was very scholarly. ah huh um He was all about, you know, kind of trying to educate people.
00:48:44
Speaker
um ah And you might like him for maybe this this reason alone. He standardized the comma and the period, the full stop and the colon.
00:48:58
Speaker
Wow. So he's a guy. um I'm ah massively into my into good in in good the good good use of the comma. but Correct use of the comma. A nice grammatical mark. Yes. You're you are in favor. of So yeah. So but okay I'm going to guess, I can already guess, he's a patron saint of syphilis.
00:49:24
Speaker
cool Am I right? Am I right? No. Oh, no. hello Okay.
Patron Saints Quiz
00:49:31
Speaker
I'm um just trying to kind of make that mental leap. Was it codon?
00:49:35
Speaker
zi color so ah Yeah, probably. Anyway, all right. So you've got Izzy, Saint Isidore, the patron saint of the internet. The patron saint of typography. Right. Or the patron saint of oranges.
00:49:54
Speaker
See you put typography in there to just as a because you know what I'm like with typography and you putting it there as a like a It's like you as a hook with a big juicy mackerel on the end What was the third one? Oranges I'm going with oranges. Oranges are from Seville He's a painter's saint of the internet no Yes. But how does that happen? Because he was a very scholarly, learned man. Very learned. It's like 600 years before the Internet was invented. yeah Oh, yeah, I mean, like, yeah, it turns out there are there are plenty of painted saints of modern things. OK, I didn't know that, you see. Yeah. All right. All right. Second one.
00:50:51
Speaker
Right. St. Joseph of Cupertino, which I think is actually where Apple's based, right? In yeah based in san francisco San Francisco, Silicon Valley. He was a 17th century priest.
00:51:10
Speaker
ah And his kind of, ah his trick was, was that he could float around. Okay, he could elevate. Yeah. I can elevate. I can do that. I can do that. And just and then he would attract large crowds. Okay. Through the fact that he was just floating about. Okay. i and I used to have a repetitive dream that I did that. At least once a week I would do that.
00:51:39
Speaker
Is that the flying dream? I had a couple of flying dreams, but the my most the most common dream I had was just general elevation, hovering, hovering, especially downstairs.
00:51:56
Speaker
where no one can see you. You can just yeah hover off off the couch yeah into the kitchen. Exactly. Well, that sounds like a positive dream. I think think probably. If you ask me, because because if if you were like, oh, and I was floating around out of control and I was going into walls and stuff, that'd be bad. But it sounds like special skills, crowd pleasing moves.
00:52:22
Speaker
right i like that but it's probably like the dream i had of you martin when we were standing on fifth avenue together all right and i was a superman literally dressed as superman the whole thing but what just dressed him i was superman and i looked to my left and you were there and you looked back completely unimpressed I was like, what, what are you doing? It's like Superman. And you said, yeah, so what? Yeah. Cause I dunno. Cause if you go around time square, there's all these people dressed as Elmo. That's why. I mean, it's like, uh, what are you doing? Are you trying to exist? Yeah, but there was an understanding, you know, those things with dreams, there was an understanding, um, you know, a mutual understanding that I was actually Superman.
00:53:17
Speaker
ah like I like that. Because it what it says to me, right? What it says to me is is is your you you're like, I'm special. I'm special. You're turning around to me as as as your mate. yeah And I'm going, what? well yeah What? i't you I don't care. You're like, I'm special, Martin. I'm special. I'm special, God damn it. And you're like, george should we go get a coffee? Yeah.
00:53:44
Speaker
Oh man, I'm such an um uncaring friend yeah in this this. Just not giving you the validation yeah that you were obviously looking for. Yeah, exactly. ah Fuck you. All right. In a nice way. Yeah. I i ah deserve that, to be honest, in your dream. So anyway, this, this this um,
00:54:09
Speaker
this What is it? where we're oh We're number two. Yeah. So Joseph of Cupertino, he would float around right and and and the crowds would gather and then the priest would try and hide him somewhere else. yeah But eventually he would just float out.
00:54:29
Speaker
and then everyone would go look there's that floating bishop again but that's that floating priest um so maybe just had the colotic irrigation feeling particularly liberated ah you know i think that's what it must feel like yeah so i wish i had that as as as option d is he the patron saint of colotic irrigation but he should be you put it in there I'll choose it. Yeah, I think I might have to write to someone. I'll choose it just for cut for comic effect. All right. Well, what I did have was, is he the patron saint of champagne? Oh. Is he the patron saint of of of air travellers? Right. Or is he the patron saint of birds? Birds. It's a bit vague.
00:55:17
Speaker
champagne champagne birds champagne because you were thinking bubbles and floating he's the patron saint of of air travellers okay and air traffic control and all things I thought Christopher was patron saint of travellers I think he's our air travel, specifically air travel, air travel. All right, I'm looking at the clock. I've got five minutes to get this in under an hour, um which we which we won't do clearly. so
00:55:53
Speaker
Who cares? The third one third one isn't it isn't actually a saint. so In and new fact, the the the church at various points have of tried to squash this one. right like This is so since St. Gein fort, the Guinea fort.
00:56:16
Speaker
um this was ah This is in France in the 13th century, but if you can imagine. see patient side of as gi So what what happened was this ah this um this father i and was looking after after his he's a baby, but he decides to go out hunting right instead.
00:56:42
Speaker
He thinks, you know what, I'm just going to go off with my mates. I'm going to leave my baby in the hands of this animal. Right. And then he comes back. Recipe from the babies disappeared. There's stuff everywhere. Right. There's blood on the floor. Right. He's like, what the hell?
00:57:05
Speaker
He finds the animal that he foolishly left in charge of his baby for some bizarre reason. Mr. Wolf. Right. And then and then that an animal was ah paid the price for that. But then he found the baby under the bed my with a with a dead snake.
00:57:30
Speaker
So what happened was this animal had actually saved the baby by having a bit of a battle, a battle royale. um um So he was, so he felt, he felt very wrong to have dispatched his pet. Just feeling wrong. Right. And then he set up a shrine. ah so this This is a Guinefort. So the question is,
00:57:58
Speaker
What animal was the baby protector? Was it A, a cat, ah D, a dog, um or C, a mongoose?
00:58:17
Speaker
French. Mongoose is African, isn't it? So it's a bit niche for that time of history. I think they only live in Africa. I know that they do hunt snakes and quite successful in particular.
00:58:36
Speaker
Yeah. A piece of ponchon, they have a mongoose. You come among us as a ponchon for battling snakes. But a bit too exotic, I think, in this case. I'm going for the stray. i'm going I'm going for the dog. And you'd be right. Oh. So the the not actually a saint, St. Guinefort, Guineafort, was a dog.
00:59:05
Speaker
There we go. There we go. Okay, so I've got one right. I, if, if I remember rightly, I think that's what you got last time as well. So it was like, a yeah. Cause I think last time I got one, it was patron saint of beards or mustaches comes to mind. Yes. Where she grew a beard. Yes. God, I think something like that's right. Like that. Yeah. Oh, because she didn't want to marry. She she didn't want to get arranged arranged marriage rights. So she spontaneously grew hair on a chinny chin chin.
00:59:43
Speaker
Fabulous. Okay. Nice one. Nice quiz. Nice quiz. All right. okay Let's rock it forward too. um Let's jump in the car again and yeah let's head to the post office. Yes.
01:00:04
Speaker
Okay, so your feedback is vital referr to us and we we will read all your comments in the future ah that are sent to us. We'll read them out on our future podcasts. So got have we got anything, Martin, on our post bag? We do, we do. Where is it? I had some written written down here somewhere. Oh, good Lord.
01:00:31
Speaker
ah
01:00:34
Speaker
Here we go. All right. So we had one from Lee Connor, who's on TikTok. She she replied,
01:00:46
Speaker
on YouTube about last week's episode. Last week's episode was um it about ADHD and people pleasing. And we were talking, I don't know if it was quite a while ago, but we were talking about you and your omelette that you had in the staff county. Oh yes, oh yes. and know but And then we were talking about what you would have on it. And you said it was ham, ham, ham, ham, ham. Very vague. Right.
01:01:15
Speaker
Right. And she says, I'm weighing myself at the food revelations, the ham, crying face, laughing. I had to comment at three minutes because you're just too funny.
01:01:32
Speaker
Right. I hope she's in the kitchen and then have to clean up, you know, the light later on. Mm hmm. She says another amazing podcast from you, too. I always appreciate the vulnerability, relatability and all the laughs the most. Nice. Well, if you can't be vulnerable in your late 50s, when can you be?
01:02:00
Speaker
When can you be? Exactly. And then I have another one actually from, we'll pull this up somewhere. Alexandra, who actually I talked about a little bit earlier, um our our Grecian okay ah podcast. list She said about last week's episode, it was so good and so relatable. There we go. Nice. Cool.
01:02:27
Speaker
Yeah. Oh Yeah. yeah big gap excellent So Excellent. Okay. So where yeah, if you've got any comments, shove them in the comments section where they belong. They are really, really appreciated. Absolutely. All the feedback.
01:02:44
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. and and we And we thank all all of you for listening. It makes a huge difference. um Yeah, absolutely. All right. So um this just leaves me to say ADHDville is delivered fresh every Tuesday to all purveyors of fine podcasts. Please subscribe to the pod and rate us most hammy.
01:03:09
Speaker
And feel free to correspond at will in the comments, but wait for those more if you wish to see our beautiful beautiful losses. seventy four um sun fields And if you want to pick up a quill, you can email us at adhdvil at gmail dot.com. You can come and write to us on TikTok because it's a whole thing over there. i think We're also on the YouTubes. So see you there. But in the meantime, be fucking kind to yourself. And I beseech you fellow ADHDers. Know thyself. Suck to the hounds. Come hither and get the flesh.
01:04:18
Speaker
yeah we can like
01:04:47
Speaker
Lovely.