The Life Coach, Diana Mercado Marmarosh, MD

Transcript

[0:00] Your daily habits will make you or break you.

[0:06] And small decisions really do add up.

[0:14] Paging dr. cook paging dr. cook dr. Turk you’re wanted in the o.r. dr. KO you’re wanted in the.

[0:25] Music.

[0:33] Welcome to the prescription for Success podcast with your host dr. Randy cook.

[0:41] Hello everyone and welcome to prescription for Success I’m dr. Randy cook your host for the podcast.
Which is a production of MD coaches providing leadership and Executive coaching for Physicians by physicians.
To overcome burnout transition your career develop as a leader or whatever your goal might be.
Visit MD coaches on the web at my MD coaches.com because you’re not in this alone.
And don’t forget that CME credit is available when you listen with us just look for cmf I in the show notes to learn how.
My guest today is the founder of overachieve life coaching.
The coaching service with a focus on improving time management and informed by her own life experience with ADHD.
So let’s hear my conversation with dr. Diana Mercado Mama Roche.

[1:42] I am really excited today to be speaking with dr. Diana Mercado marmarosh did I get that right.
Yes okay and we like to be on a first-name basis here so if it’s okay with you.
I’m going to call you Dianna and you’re going to call me Randy awesome and I’m looking forward to the conversation the other you really have a fascinating story and.
As always I like to begin with your very first interest in medicine but in your case I think I want to go back a little earlier.
Tell us about your background you spent your family spend some time moving between Mexico and the US and Back Again.
Although you were born in the US but tell us a little bit about your beginnings.
Yes so I’m Mexican-American but like you just mentioned my parents were Mexican and.

[2:41] They would do kind of like a caravan like they would get,
permission to come to Seattle and to basically to Washington State in to California to work in the produce as immigrants migrant workers.
Produce and it would be like an ordeal because it was my grandma my grandpa like my aunt’s my uncle’s like everybody would come so you could imagine they would come
they would Harvest and then they would go back to Mexico and with the money that they would get like that would carry them for months and months and months
and so in one of those trips back I was born in Texas and that’s how I was you know a US citizen so to say but I grew up in Mexico to allow us 10 and so.
Did that I remember I must have been three or four years I remember having that experience of going to.
To the daycare to pre-k you know as a migrant worker and going back and forth but I don’t remember learning
English per se but I do remember obviously growing up in Mexico till I was 10 and then my mom deciding that.
It was time to move to the States because my dad was going back and forth to Houston at that point working as a construction worker.

[4:00] And she didn’t want to be kind of like a single parent with three kids I was the oldest and so that’s been there,
they decided to move even though it was only one hour away because we lived in a Border Town obviously it was a.

[4:16] Life changing experience for me because you know all the sudden I went from you know being the top of my class and like you know.
Almost third grade to going back to like first grade English Second Language and well that was something that I really had an interested in and I wondered if you if because of the.
The travel during your Early Childhood if you were just.
Bilingual from the start but but not so right when you all made the the decision to stay in the u.s. it really had to have been a profound culture shock for you right.
Yes and no not in the sense because everybody look like me it was almost like Little Mexico I would say but in the United States but yes in the sense that.

[5:03] People didn’t speak some of them spoke Spanish and not everybody did but in my classroom we were supposed to be speaking English right so that was a little bit of a shock in that sense I remember learning
the word also was one of the first words and I kept thinking they were talking about bears like I would hear the word also an in Spanish it means like they’re also
but they were talking about in addition to or you know also like
and so the every time I would hear that word over the oh intercom I would be looking around like waiting for something to come in and like attack me and I was like but they can’t it like and my mind would be like but they can’t
they don’t have Bears I’ve never seen Bears here why do they keep warning as of all bears it was a funny thing until later on I found out what it was
but yeah it’s just things like that that you never like forget you know and then you laugh about it now so were you.
Were you acquiring English.

[6:02] Basically by immersion or did were you actually getting some instruction in English and how to use it yes so I was.
Enrolled in something that is called English Second Language or ESL it’s a special program where they’re learning to teach you the English.
But they’re also have Spanish teachers who are trying to teach you the English so it’s kind of like by immersion and so I remember
like always saying after school because I wanted to learn the thing but you know I that point I didn’t realize I had ADHD and I was I’m very hyperactive child and my parents had to come in and like
to try to get me to stay still and to behave in to whatever and they would give me work and I would do the work but then
then I would get bored and I would be distracting other kids and so slowly because I was you know picking it up I
they started.
Promoting me every six weeks to another gray level to another grade level to another grade level at oh wow so I finally like caught up where I was supposed to be at that’s really fascinating.

[7:19] And with that sort of trial by fire how did you evolve to the point where you thought it would be.
A good idea to go to college and later medical school I gather that no one in your immediate family had ever done anything like that yeah nobody in my family had even gone to college like so yeah
but you know I think with most.

[7:43] People who are immigrants like they have this idea in their head that you know America is the land of opportunity so they just strongly believe that you could become.

[7:54] Anything you want to be common that you know education is really going to be the key to unlock
a future for yourself and if there was anything that they had instilled in US was that hard work would would yield results and
because at I did not know I had ADHD I did not have that
Essen the back of my mind like us a lingering or a something telling me that you’re not good enough or whatever because I didn’t know what I was getting myself into per se
it was
new and curiosity and I didn’t know what to expect so I just figured well we’ll see what happens and I love to travel and I love to learn about different cultures and because we come from humble beginnings I
I realized right away that the only way for me to travel was to say
this educational program over here I need to go to that and then they couldn’t say that I couldn’t go so then we would have to find a way to fund raise the money for me to go somewhere whether it was to go to you know Washington d.c. for a leadership conference
and eventually I found a program as a sophomore in high school I was called upper bound math and science it was a six-week program
where.

[9:17] I had the opportunity to get selected to go to Oklahoma and that’s the first time that I finally was around other individuals of different ethnicities other than just Mexican-American per se and,
and that was the opportunity where I was in a setting of being around doctors and surgeons and.
Different people that I otherwise would have never had the opportunity from.
Where I was coming from and so I thought I was going through this programs because of the math part of it I thought it was I was going to be doing like international business at some point and I was going to get paid to travel the world and but I
realize quickly even though I got my scholarship
to st. Mary’s in San Antonio for International Business I realized quickly during my first semester that it was not
business it was that I wanted to be a doctor and I that’s when I switched.

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And now let’s get back to our interview.

[12:52] But from your standpoint you really just it was never in your head that they were any barriers any place you just you were just going to get the job done
it what point during your years at st. Mary’s did you make the decision that you were going to apply to medical school and how did that process work out so during my first.
Semester even though I was admitted to.
Two for scholarships for business I decided that really it was science that I wanted to do and I wanted to become a doctor and.
And it was never
I doubt in my mind that I was going to become a doctor but I needed to be realistic in the sense that I had seen a lot of people
who were in my eyes smarter than me or had better grades or had better test scores and they were not getting into med school right away during their first or second trial so what I decided to do was to have a back-up plan for myself I decided to
become a high school teacher for Science and.
And that way if I didn’t get in right away I would have the opportunity to continue studying and improving my application and then I would.

[14:12] Eventually get to med school that’s a lot of wisdom for a college kid in my experience I knew I did not like
I knew I was not going to do that so I knew that second best or or I knew that even if I became a teacher eventually that was still going to be a really good skill to have us a doctor because I figured if I can teach anything to high school students I can teach anything to anybody after that
but with that background.

[14:45] The medical school application process was that fairly uneventful so yes but here’s the thing like
I only got one interview like in Texas you only like when I was going through this you have to
match that means you decide your top and they decide they rank you and then you match right well I only had one interview so
I mean obviously I knew what my first choice was right as because I only had one choice and I went to I got
you know the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and
I remember like I at that time I didn’t realize it was the dean who was interviewing me.
And she asked me she said what are you going to do if you don’t get into med school this year and then.

[15:42] And I told her I understand that it’s a privilege to even be here and be given this opportunity because my my MCAT score was not.
The hottest one I mean but my GPA was like you know it was good because I knew how to do hard work and I told her that I said I understand that.
A standardized test does not reflect everything but if I’m given the opportunity I will outwork anybody.

[16:11] And she gave me the opportunity I did have to do a 6-week like pre pre
medical school program it was not just me but I was with the people who were like the you know English Majors or different people who were like smart but didn’t maybe have a very strong
background in The Sciences but they said hey it’s like once you get to med school it’s like a fire hose it doesn’t matter what you took everybody’s on the same level and.
And I think that was a blessing because then I walked into med school with having like,
30 people I already knew and had a very strong connection and then that got us through you know when things got harder and that’s cool I’ll bet that was quite an advantage.
And as I understand it it was during what your first year or first couple of years in medical school at you
discovered that you had a th yes it was actually during my first semester of ADHD that I discovered that I had ADHD and I had no clue.

[17:24] It was also during the first year of med school that my father had died got and diagnosed with stomach cancer and it was stage four and he was 46 so it was like a big shock to me and like they told they told
the surgeon room I remember having the conversation with it and he said he has maybe two months to live even if this if this
you know he’s like I just took all his stomach and I’m making his intestine be
act like a stomach maybe he has two months to live so I didn’t know what that meant so that meant I was flying home every Friday evening.
And then I was flying back.
Monday 5 a.m. because if I were to drive it was a seven hour drive each way to the valley and I could not do that to go to Houston back and forth and and so my roommate at that time said Deanna I think.
There’s something going on I don’t know if you’re just anxious or stress or you know you have all this pressure of you like you can’t fail because you know you you want to do this for your family and for yourself
and then you have the fact that your dad
my pass away soon and so I don’t know if you’re anxious stressed depressed or what just just go get tested see what’s going on.

[18:41] And what I noticed was that I was like I would come very close to passing my classes but I was getting like 60s or 65 sand like.
What I.
Answer I would get and everything else I didn’t answer why was just going see all the way down the line and hoping that some of those were correct because I ran out of time to answer my questions yeah.
Because you ran out of time yeah and so then they did a neuro test a neuropsych test that was like 9 hours long and that’s when they told me no you’re not you’re not depressed you’re not.
Anxious you have ADHD and they said you are two years behind where people should be in your current like.

[19:27] Education level and you would have thought that that’s what would happen
upset me but I was upset that they had labeled me as ADHD because in my mind like I thought I was like the oldest
the perfect one I was the smart one and if I didn’t have that going for me then what did I have left so that’s where my brain went to so it’s for some people maybe getting diagnosed would have been like
okay now I have a name for it
but for me it was like oh my God I’m broken and therefore I can’t let anybody know because then this is gonna like they’re gonna realize they made a mistake to let me in,
that’s what my brain kept telling me wow so so what was your approach had how did you do that so.
I dealt with knowing what I’d known to do best which was buckle down and study as hard as I can yeah and,
I did take some medications but again I didn’t I was a first year medical student I really didn’t understand how the medications work I didn’t
realize that you know 5 milligrams of Ritalin.
Are short-acting and they’re only going to help me for a few hours I didn’t know to advocate for myself and ask for like along.

[20:45] Those like an 80 mg or or something extended release in hiding,
no.2 then advocate for increasing of those or changing of those because in my mind when I did take those five milligrams they were helpful for a few hours and so
I didn’t want them to take that away from me because those few hours like where everything.
So what we’ll how did that sounds like a serious problem how did you fix that how did you get to a point where you could function.

[21:17] Well I started to realize that.

[21:23] If you left it to me to try to read it was going to be very painful for me to try to read all that information but if you
told me that I could go talk to a tutor who understood what was really the priority and talking it out I could
pick up what was the priority because for me or
for anybody with ADHD everything that comes out us is considered a priority so you could imagine how hard it is that you can’t even
realize what the big main points because to me all of them are the main points and so then I figured if I had a tutor that they did really good in this class when I went to go talk to them
I can try to study pictures I realized that studying pictures would help me or to try to interpret stuff and I realized that
good night would go walking or running if I could listen to the stuff.

[22:21] Then that would help me I now I understand why that work while I was there I didn’t know but now I understand that when I was running I was dying creasing my dopamine and I could function and I could remember stuff hearing stuff but it was like I was ingesting it versus if you’re asking somebody to
passively sit there for hours or if you’re asking me to come and sit in a lecture
of course I’m going to be looking around at all my classmates because that’s more interesting than whatever’s on the front of my screen right so you could imagine I was a social butterfly but I would get myself into trouble so when I really needed to study
I just needed to go you know to go run or to do something,
actively while I was hearing or to talk it out with somebody so I could hear for what they would emphasize was important.
That’s fascinating and you just kind of figured that out on your own.

[23:15] Yeah and I think I didn’t get diagnosed in high school because or in college because in high school probably because I was running 10 miles because I was in the cross-country team you know so that was given that was probably my medicine right and then in college
when I was struggling I realized that.
I was eating using food as a way to help to try to concentrate but then I started running and I started running
my weight came off in my grades went up but again I didn’t make the connection it’s not until like years now now I can look back and tell you but then I had no idea I was just trying to like,
you know and then it came to a point where I think I weigh over study to where you way over study and then you doubt yourself because you’re like it can’t be this easy it must be something I didn’t study and don’t you
obviously click the wrong one would you never even heard of that word but you put it there because it must be that you didn’t study that one
that’s really interesting and it’s my understanding and you should correct me right away if I’m
incorrect about this but it’s my understanding that women are frequently under-diagnosed,
with ADHD because apparently they manifested in a somewhat different way and for that reason there are often overlooked you think that.

[24:41] Was part of.
The issue and your case I think I could have been a couple of things yes it’s correct that females tend to be diagnosed later in age because they tend to have the inattentive type and.

[24:57] I think I had it in as a kid I think I had the hyperactive type that’s why my dad had to be.
Called from work and sit there so that I could behave right but as then you go through menopause sorry as you go through your menstrual period that’s what I meant to say when you go through your menstrual period.
Now females that were hyperactive become kind of in act like.

[25:20] Inattentive and so you could easily see why females might be missed because they might be in the back of the room just daydreaming they’re not
causing a ruckus like my dad didn’t have to come and sit down in high school it was only during middle school and you know an elementary but later on like.
You know it was not a problem and it could also be that then when you get yourself into a
activities that you do like like I was doing the cross-country team and I was also working and I was also in the NHS I was doing so many different activities that I didn’t have
time to over second-guess myself and but little time that I had I would do the staff and I think
that was with my medicines per se right and so yes I think as you get older because all the sudden
whatever systems you had in place are no longer as effective
probably after the birth of a kid or after you get promoted or after you get to law school or some type of higher education
you are gonna start to see who what’s going on here and sometimes it’s easier for them to be like well she’s smart
she’s not deaf clearly not ADHD because everybody just dissociates like a little kid running around but the thing with ADHD is that it does not affect your you know your intellect like it’s just an executive disorder that may be you.

[26:47] Might not have like impulse control or you might not have prioritization in place or it might you might might look like you’re disorganized but the thing is that.

[27:00] I think because I had the goal in mind like
I would overcome some of those things but oh God did I have time blindness like I could never like if you told me get here at
at three like I really had to put on my phone that the test was at to because if I put it was at three I might have missed the test you know it’s just,
because you don’t realize we want to just think of like how long something is going to take but we forget like all the steps before then
that you need to have gone through to be able to do the task and so we were so bad at like figuring it out together.

[27:44] Well I got to tell you I’ve heard quite a number of.
Survival stories in the process of doing the.
120 or 130 episodes that we’ve had but this is unquestionably o one of the most riveting that I have heard and I think it’s just amazing
that you’ve been able to accomplish what you’ve accomplished and I want to go on and talk about some of those accomplishments.
You clearly managed to survive medical school and you decided that Family Medicine was going to be your life’s work how did you come to that.
Decision so I.
In my mind I always thought actually I thought it was going to do adolescent medicine I really love the kids and but in my I didn’t realize that I do less.

[28:38] I first I apply for residency for Pediatrics.
That’s also a funny story I actually went with one of my friends too
to a second look dinner she was getting interviewed for Family Medicine and here I am the right place at the right time talking to dr. Khan at that,
time he was the director for Family Medicine Residency program and I was talking to him and I told him I wanted to do adolescent medicine and he said did you know that you could go through Pete or through Family Medicine to get to adolescent medicine and I was like I had no idea
anyways and he told me you know Baylor right now has two programs you should consider applying for this other program.

[29:28] Because I was off cycle I did not pass my step.
The very first time I missed it by one point and I didn’t know any better I took my test two weeks after my dad had passed away I should have probably.
Waited but I had studied so much and I said no it’s now or never and I took it and again
you second-guess yourself sometimes when you probably way over study and I
that’s what happened to me but at that point I couldn’t see it that way I just said no I cannot have you know you only can you only get three chances to take steps and I did not want to.
Do that and so I decided I was going to go all in and.

[30:17] Take a time during med school to go to do another program to study for the step the point is I ended up.
Graduating off cycle meaning I was gonna graduate late
and because I was going to graduate late even though I went to going and interviewed for like 10 different pediatric programs and they knew I was graduating late and they were willing to wait for me.
Dr. Khan at that point said Jana you know you might want to consider coming.
To us for Baylor you know you might want to consider that because in this other program that just gotta prove you know.
You might qualify they might wait for you for being off cycle and so I went home that night again I wasn’t there for
for me to be interviewed I was there just to support my friend but I went home that night and I called my my mentors and I said do your mind going back in time
and just everywhere there’s says Pediatrics just put family medicine because either way I’m going to get to adolescent medicine and they’re like sure so I went home I changed everything I applied
and I ended up at Baylor and so.

[31:35] After I went through through the residency I realize that.
I really belonged in family medicine because Family Medicine.
You have no idea what’s coming through the door like it could be a kid oh it could be a it could be a teenager it could be you know a pregnant lady it could be
anything really and I think because of my ADHD and always wanting new things and not wanting to be bored
I realized that that was the perfect field for me because it was enough to keep me on my toes
and enough for me to know a little bit of everything,
but enough for me not to get bored with the same thing over and over and I guess that leads into.
My next level of curiosity and that is.
Was the reality of your ADHD less challenging as a resident.
As opposed to what you had dealt with in medical school or was it just simply a whole new thing that had to be dealt with what was it like for you I think.

[32:48] I think it was challenging of course.
Because again you know they would tell you go talk to the patient and
you know now we’re not has later here I come back with this you know and they’re looking at me like where the hell were you and I was like talking to the patient and they’re like.

[33:09] What were you talking to them about I’m like anything they would tell me you know again because I could not prioritize what was like you took a pretty good history to me I was it was an amazing history you know and then they were like
how did you get to that and I was like I don’t know they just tell me things you know and so of course like I I don’t have any problem talking to anybody but then came the part of writing it
that’s where I hate it the part like I hate to write like the notes and that’s what was would get me into trouble and of course they would
tell me to go do this thing and I would go do that thing and they’re not realize that other thing was more of a priority because again to me everything was a priority and so it.
It was you know trombone are trying her but I’ve been truly I figured it out and I had amazing amazing mentors and I you know I’m so grateful for that but.

[34:09] Yes it was the charting was always complicated and again I never.
Ask for them to adjust my meds I was always on the 80 milligrams of concerta from the beginning of my medical school all the way through residency and then I actually completed residency and.
Then they’re like Deanna you need to go like have your own psychiatrist like you can’t continue coming to the student health like you’re not a student anymore and so when that happened that’s what
really started to derail me because.
I was told by a random psychiatrist that didn’t even know me more than two minutes that
you know I should know better that I was a physician and that I outgrow ADHD and so he didn’t want to look at my neuropsych evaluation he didn’t want to look up my.

[35:07] My bottle that said I was on Concerta he said I didn’t need meds and he walked out of the room and I it took.
Yeah and it took me 10 years for me to like ask for help again because.
I told myself what dad’s The Specialist and I’m in Houston and Houston is like the capital of the world in medicine so I should just suck it up like that’s what I told myself.

[35:33] And I pay for it dearly I mean I was always like 200 to 300 like charts,
open you know for a decade and every month of course I would close them but I was spending like 22
to 30 hours outside of work I wasn’t really telling people how much I was working because I was embarrassed and I didn’t want to I thought it was the.

[35:59] I thought it was like a low cost for having the privilege to take care of my patients
hi I’m Rhonda Crow founder and CEO for empty coaches here on RX for Success we interview a lot of great medical professionals on how they grew their careers how they overcame challenges.
And how they handle day-to-day work.
I really hope you’re getting a lot of great information but if you’re looking for an answer to a specific problem management or Administration challenge.
Or if you’re feeling just a bit burnt out like maybe you chose the wrong career.
Well then there’s a faster way to get the help you need now it’s not counseling it’s coaching.
RX for success is produced by MD coaches a team of Physicians who have been where you are I know you’re used to going it alone.
But you don’t have to get the support you need today visit us at my MD coaches.com to schedule your complimentary consultation.
Again that’s my MD coaches.com because you’re not in this alone.

[37:09] We’ll get back to our interview in just a moment but right now I want to tell you a little bit about physician Outlook
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[38:12] And now let’s get back to today’s interview clearly made enough of the right decisions to get you in a very good place and it truly is a remarkable story.
And I’m going to shift gears just a moment because.
I’m very interested in where you have taken your.
Skills and your concerns and your expertise to an entirely.
Higher level and that is with your coaching project would you like to tell us how that got started.
Yes so it was never my intention to go back and do another thing like life coaching right
it was never my intention I thought once I was done with med school like that was it who would pass my board exams I’m good for 10 years I thought that’s it right but then as many of us went through the,
pandemic together I started to realize that.
Doesn’t matter how much I was trying to function I really was not really functioning Ike Ike
even though I was trying to listen to audio books on how to adult better or how to you know do this and that.

[39:35] I realized that something had to change and I just happen to run across.
Podcast with Sonny Smith who is a physician who is a life coach
herself and she had a program that I joined in October of 2020 which was called empowering women Physicians and she had CME that she was offering through it and so I joined not knowing anything about coaching I figured it might have been you know a good leadership
dating or whatever and that’s why when into it I remember doing a questionnaire that talked about burnout and in my mind I was not burned out
you know even though I kept thinking I should go and get a surgery because that means I get some days off but I.

[40:25] I did not realize that that was like burnout you know I had no idea what that was I just thought well what do you expect
I’m a mom at that time I had a 2 and a 1 year old and I like I was saying I was running the clinic I was running the I was also the
the medical director for the nursing home I was just in so many things and I just thought this is the norm this is what I signed up for and so
through that program I started to realize that.
Oh my God all my thoughts were not facts and that I could question whether some of those thoughts.
Could be let go of like what like that that ADHD was just a neutral fact and whatever I decided to make of it
would determine how I would then feel and have I would then behave and so that was a very big Revelation for me realizing that some of those sneaky thoughts that
sometimes we have like you know you’re not a good writer or you’re too slow or you’re always late or like even though.
They seem subtle and they don’t seem like you know and your brain can very easily justify why all those are true I didn’t realize that I could change the narrative I could learn about my ADHD I could.

[41:46] Seek help you know and so it was through that program that I started to realize that I had options and and again it was never my intention to go
become my coach myself but in her program she had a life
coaching thing and she had a business coaching thing and because I had just invested five thousand dollars in this program my husband was like pay attention to all the classes that they’re having right and I said okay I’m going to pay attention so I went
from again.
Feeling like I had no time in my mind to pay no attention in on this program which was taking about 12 hours per week but part of it had.

[42:34] Peer coaching so you are being coach one on one by another physician and one of those Physicians
what called herself a charting coach so I was smart enough to book two sessions with her at the beginning and towards the end of that eight week program that I went through
and she gave me some key pointers on how to start changing my narrative and how to implement some things
and then I decided
hmm maybe I should look into ADHD again maybe I should start taking meds or maybe I should make an investment in an ADHD coach if
this physician has helped me I wonder what it would be like for me to now to start to get curious about how my brain actually works instead of fighting against it like walk into it
in in like really do it and so finally on February of 2021 I decided.

[43:32] That I was ready to talk about my ADHD and I went into a.
Podcast that’s called ADHD for smartest women with Tracy at sukkah and she’s actually a lawyer out of California and,
I shared my story there episode 111 and I.
It was through sharing have that story that I started to get so many emails from all over the world
of medical students and Physicians from you name it from Australia from Canada from Brazil you everywhere,
and they were thanking me for speaking up about something that they didn’t realize other people were going through.
And that’s when I decide it.
I don’t see anybody specifically saying that they have ADHD and they’re a physician and they can help others so that’s when I decided.

[44:30] I’m going to create a course I was gonna teach them that they can come and.
There’s not gonna be any judgment here because believe me we’ve already done judged yourself too much and that didn’t help
and what if there’s a different way you know what if there is a different way where you actually put yourself in the center
of it and and realize that ADD ADHD starts and ends with you like you
it’s never going to go away but you can build systems to help you to compensate and it’s not,
just affecting you but it affects everybody around you it affects your patient’s it affects your family you know and so when I started to learn that you know people with ADHD could have.

[45:20] Twenty years less of life expectancy compared to somebody who didn’t have ADHD I was like oh my God I don’t even smoke I don’t want to die earlier if I don’t even smoke and so I decided that okay.
I needed to do something.
And I was my best investment and and that if I didn’t do it nobody else would and so slowly I started to get my.
Charting under control and then I started to create this program and I called it transformation or group coaching of since then I’ve
I’ve done this for the last year and a half and I’ve been able to help about 65 Physicians of all different Specialties and it necessities
to an 80% of them have ADHD but 20% of those Physicians don’t have ADHD who have gone through my program
but they have identified with the time blindness or the procrastination or feeling like they don’t have a handle on their schedule and their schedule is running them or feeling like
death by 1000 click through the EMR you know and yeah I don’t know.
Of course I’ve been retired for a few years but during my years in practice.
I don’t remember ever being around anybody that thought they had enough time to do all the things that need to be done.

[46:47] So you were you you have become the solution to an enormous problem that it sounds like it’s been with us for.
Quite a long time and just simply nobody was paying attention would you agree yes I think.

[47:04] It was in deciding that.

[47:07] Instead of asking why is this so painful I decided to change the narrative and as how can I make
this thing that needs to be done be a little bit more fun how can I practice medicine in my own terms without feeling like you know I’m a victim to the system and of course their II I don’t want to talk about the fact that you know of decision cannot be the quarterback
and the water boy at the same time you do need a good system right you you need.
People supporting you but if you already walk in defeated like.
It’s kind of hard for you to how the rest of the day when life throws you whatever is going to throw you for you to feel like you know you’re always.

[47:55] In the negative with your energy right there must be a.

[47:59] Tremendous feeling of gratification for you because of all this am I overeating or not no yes I mean
now I’m able like I tell people all the time now I’m able to
Deke from my healed wound like I’m no longer bleeding per se you know now I can talk about it from a place of.

[48:19] Passion from a place of and I didn’t even know what self-care or self-compassion was like I had no idea what that was of course I always gave to everybody else but
I didn’t realize that I needed to give that to myself first and how and how much of an impact
it would make if I just saw myself as a human being with a human brain who is meant to freak out
and nothing’s gone wrong there is just I’m my brains trying to keep me alive but it’s overcompensating and it’s
actually preventing me from being you know acting right and so I think
now that I’m able to see it that way,
it has shifted so much like I’m no longer looking to my husband or to my work to give me a sense of validation like now I know okay
I’m worthy just as I am and of course my make mistakes we all do but
it’s what you do once you realize you made a mistake so that you can correct course and keep going.

[49:33] Well once again Deanna this has been a very inspiring story and I really appreciate you taking the time to share with us
but we’ve come to the point of the show that I really liked the best and that’s where I get out of your way
so that’s what I’m going to do right now I’m going to close my Mike and dr. Diana Mercado marmarosh is going to.
Give us her personal prescriptions for success.
If I could talk to myself my 10-year old version I’m 40 now if I could talk to my 30 year old version of myself my prescription for Success would be that.

[50:14] A life worth living Begins by owning my own story I would tell myself not to.

[50:25] Think of myself as less than not to feel shame not to be in victim mode to set some boundaries.
Most of us don’t set boundaries because we feel like we’re going to let somebody down but when you set some boundaries
you tap into that self-care and self-compassion and you put yourself
front and center and you realize that a life worth living Begins by owning your story and not necessarily believing
everything that your brain is telling you.
Because sometimes those things that it is telling us might be somebody else’s opinions.
And they might have been okay they might have been helpful enough to get us to this place but they might not necessarily be something that you on purpose choose to keep doing.
Because where you want to go my.

[51:32] I mean that you need to continue to change and selfic evolve and grow.
So that you become that next version of yourself.

[51:45] Then second piece of advice I would tell myself is that.
You are your most important acid you do need to invest time.

[51:59] And invest money to be your own Advocate and that might mean getting a second,
third or fourth opinion from your physician from your counselor from a therapist from a life coach realize that
an investment in yourself.
Is really the only thing that is going to continue to improve yourself as an asset you know most things like a car.
Or a house.

[52:36] They depreciate as soon as you buy them but with you the more you invest in yourself in your mind in your physical well-being.
The more that you get to.

[52:50] I think creative and use those gifts and skills to improve yourself and improve everybody else around you and.

[53:02] Third takeaway point that I would want my 30 year old self.

[53:09] To know is that your daily habits will make you or break you.
And small decisions really do add up.
That one percent rule that they talk about on daily habits or Atomic habits it makes a difference if you tell yourself oh wow exercise tomorrow I’ll do that tomorrow those.
One percent deviation to.
The not doing the things are going to eventually get you to missing the mark versus if you tell yourself no
today is the day now is now and you decide and you are intentional and you did you begin your day with what your intentions are.

[54:01] And you Journal about it or you write it down then you have the possibility of of doing that and within those daily habits
you need to make sure you’re reading and if you’re not reading because like me I can’t sit down and read you need to make sure you’re listening to those audio books that are going to be expanding your brain and realizing that you
don’t have to stay in this close-minded
it frame you have to continue to expand be a lifelong learner and be willing to use this habit.
To increase your energy and to let go of the people that are not serving you.

[54:46] So my three things would be remembering to own your story.

[54:53] That you have the power to change the narrative remember to invest in yourself so that where you’re going.

[55:02] You don’t have to have evidence if you’ve never been but you just have to believe that you are worthy to continue to get there and surround yourself to people who can help you to get there.
And that your habits really determine the type of future you’re going to have.

[55:24] Well dr. Diana Mercado morose.
I have to say that you have accumulated a great deal of wisdom in your 40 year old self
and I appreciate you being here to share that with us it’s been a lot of fun talking to you before we go I want to give you an opportunity to tell our audience so where you can be found
so please share what you will whether it be email addresses or websites or whatever you have sure thank you so much for this opportunity please feel free to reach me at
ADHD Dash live coach.com you can also find me on Instagram or Tick-Tock Beyond life coach.
And you and I’m here to help in any way dr. Deanna Mercado marmarosh it’s been a great pleasure speaking with you today and thank you again.

[56:22] Thank you so much for listening with us today.
We’d really appreciate a review from you and a five-star rating helps give our podcast much more visibility and that helps us reach more listeners.

[56:35] Exclusive content is available on our patreon page including membership only material like personal rapid fire Q & A sessions with our.
And to be sure you never miss an episode visit our website at RX for success podcast.com to.
And while you’re there learn how to get CME credit from cmf I just by listening.

[57:01] Special thanks as always to Ryan Jones who created and performs our theme music and also to Craig Clausen.

[57:10] Clausen solutions group who produces the show.

[57:14] Finally remember be sure to fill your prescription for success with my next episode.