ADHDifference

ADHD: Personal Reflections of a Dopamine Hunter + guest Ryan Turner

• Julie Legg • Season 2 • Episode 46

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Julie Legg speaks with Ryan Turner — motocross rider, recruiter, content creator, and founder of Dopamine Hunters. After receiving his ADHD diagnosis in adulthood, Ryan began reflecting on a lifetime of intensity, stimulation-seeking, and relentless energy that had previously felt chaotic and misunderstood.

Through motocross and other high-adrenaline pursuits, Ryan discovered that the environments many people see as risky or extreme can actually bring calm, focus, and clarity to ADHD minds. That insight inspired Dopamine Hunters, a growing community, podcast, and documentary exploring how dopamine drives passion, performance, and purpose.

Ryan shares candidly about late diagnosis, substance use, self-medication, education systems that miss neurodivergent children, and why interest-based learning is often the key to unlocking potential. This episode is an honest and energetic conversation about finding healthy outlets for ADHD intensity and creating spaces where neurodivergent people can thrive.

Key Points from the Episode:

  • Ryan’s late ADHD diagnosis and emotional aftermath
  • Growing up masking ADHD while siblings received support
  • The connection between ADHD and substance self-medication
  • Why adrenaline environments can calm ADHD brains
  • Motocross as regulation, focus, and community
  • The idea behind Dopamine Hunters and how it started
  • Interest-based learning and why traditional classrooms fail many ADHDers
  • The “hidden 20%” of students with internalised neurodivergency
  • Burnout vs healthy stimulation for ADHD minds
  • Reframing hobbies as exploration rather than “quitting”
  • The link between ADHD, dopamine, and purpose
  • Ryan’s mission to create a platform for neurodivergent stories

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ℹ️ DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or ADHDifference. Read More

RYAN: There's definitely a thing there with like the motocross and with like even just driving to the track, taking in the scenery and stuff like that really chills me out. And being there and talking to the friends who a lot of these guys are very similar to me. So, you already feel you're in a community of everyone's high on energy and adrenaline and definitely good dopamine waiting to go and race, get out there and then it's really, really, really exciting. I'm not going to... so living on the edge of fear.

JULIE: Welcome to Season 2 of ADHDifference. I'm your host, Julie Legg, ADHD advocate, author of The Missing Piece (a woman's guide to understanding, diagnosing, and living with ADHD), and an unapologetic doer of many things. This season, we're turning up the volume with a global lineup of brilliant guests, bringing their lived experiences, insights, research, strategies, and resources. And of course, along with a healthy dose of humour and humility. Whether you're neurodivergent yourself or just curious, there's something here for every curious brain. Let's dive in. Today I'm joined by Ryan Turner, motocross rider, content creator, senior recruiter, and proud neurodivergent. After being diagnosed with ADHD, Ryan began looking at his life through a new lens. What once felt like chaos, the intensity, the need for stimulation and the constant drive started to make sense. Instead of fighting that energy, Ryan decided to understand it. That journey led to Dopamine Hunters, a growing community, podcast, documentary, and book exploring how dopamine shapes our passions, fuels high adrenaline pursuits, and drives everything from extreme sports to gaming, creativity, and even everyday habits. Ryan, thank you so much for joining me on the show today. Thank you very much for having me. Now, you describe living with ADHD as like riding a roller coaster you've built yourself. Exciting, unpredictable, but exhausting when the track never ends. Can you take us back to before your diagnosis? And what did that roller coaster feel like day-to-day? 

RYAN: Okie doke. Right. So, my family are all neurodivergent to be quite honest. I got a blood brother and a foster brother and they were diagnosed quite young but they were all very external. This is a long time ago now. We're going to over 20 odd years ago before ADHD was really a big thing I think and even nowhere near the amount of research and definitely not social media or anything like that was around. So, I think there was like a big stigma on it with most people whether it was real or not, even back then in the early 90s. But for me, I wouldn't, I definitely didn't know then. I wouldn't have considered myself to have been someone who thought differently to everybody else. Even though I know looking back now after being diagnosed how much I was if that makes sense. So my brothers got most of the attention. My mum would talk and talk and talk and talk. She wouldn't stop. She's one of them and I'm very similar to her. And my dad, he I now realize I just think he's got a lot of autistic traits. Right. This is where I'm actually on the autism waiting list as well because I've been told a lot of the things that I do have and the mannerisms I've got and the way that I do things I've got autistic traits as well. And the more research I've done on it, the more I'm like, Jesus Christ, there definitely is something there. So, just going back to like what the question is, when I was young, I was quite I was a much more of a reserved kid, but I'd definitely be staring out of the window and I was very good at masking. And I think back then I just thought I would play the game to sort of like be who people wanted me to be and act along with people's go along blankly. A really, really big people pleaser even though I was really into BMX racing and always being outside and playing climbing trees and all that sort of thing but verbally I think I was much more shy back then. And but my brain would be going quick but I wouldn't wasn't really getting that out. That's looking back at it now and then just a quick fast forward, I would say because of my foster brother he had a social worker. We was at an event and she'd been introduced to my now partner Claire. She was aware that I was most likely ADHD, but because I was always been a high achiever, someone I mean, I'm a carpenter, so I always managed to look after myself, whereas my brothers didn't seem to be able to look after themselves as much because I was one of those people that I'd still make it work for me. But really, really struggling with it my whole life, let's be honest. Yeah. And still am now. This is and this will be the conversation is going to get a lot deeper than this. So looking back at it, I just think I was like a little kid that was just run wasn't even aware that you had these problems, but your... but because you're young and you got all the energy in you, you could deal with it and not burn out as quick, you know, because your brain is a sponge and you're soaking up the atmosphere. But the thing is what you're not being given at that age is the tools to be able to actually train your brain to think in the right ways about whether you can recognize whether you're getting burnt out or whether you shouldn't really be procrastinating about things over and over again or ruminating about a problem or reciting a conversation that you're going to have with somebody over and over and over again. All of those sorts of things where this is where the conversation is going to be going to talk about is like and I'm sure they're doing lots of work with this within schools and communities, but it's being able to get a young person's mind to realize actually what it's like to be ADHD and to learn the triggers that are going to set you off on a wrong direction like a wrong dopamine hunt or whether you're going in something whether you should be channelling turn into something worthwhile. 

JULIE: I was actually going to agree with you just reflecting on the childhood thing. I think the earlier that it is identified and the more tools and the more understanding we can have at a younger age. Yeah. Then we don't need to go through all the things that we both have gone through the masking. Yeah. Coping mechanisms that might not be healthy or good but doing what we need to survive in that moment. And if we would have kept it earlier, then it would save us a whole lot of potential grief or misdirection, much more. 

RYAN: I mean, I mean, I'm sure you're aware of like all the obvious things that they talk about now, like the rejection sensitivity, dysphoria, and the things like the... Let's just touch on that for one minute. The 20,000 negative comments that a child's have before the age of 14. And obviously I read this like over a year ago and I was like that's it just resonated with me so much that it still carries on into your adult life and even now and I'm going through some issues at the moment like I said like I wanted to talk to you about. At the moment I'm... I'll be bluntly honest with you. I'm struggling with it at the minute. I got diagnosed a year back in August. I was on the waiting list for a year and a half. I went completely stone cold sober last year from drink and drugs and sertraline and smoking and everything which was great for the... it was really hard to deal with to do obviously like for anybody and I done this for two reasons. One because they told me I had a small blockage in one of my arteries and the other reason I just done it because I just simply had enough. I'd got flu or COVID or whatever at the beginning of last year and I decided right I'm not drinking anymore. Not doing anything anymore. I'm not depressed. I haven't got anxiety. They're killing me certainly but it was dumbing me down. It was making me slow or slurring my words. People were saying to me you're not as quick, not as sharp, putting on weight. And over the course of the year now it'll be 14 months in a few days. I've sort of done this full circle of like I felt started feeling really, really good. Got diagnosed with the ADHD. I've been on the waiting list for a year and a half by the way and then chose Right to Choose and then they got me done and they said yeah 100%. I scored like 87% on the WA test that they do. And then they said "Oh you still got to wait a year for the for the medication." That's all right. But what have you been doing? But they didn't say this, but it's like what the research I've been doing about 85% more chance of being addicted to substances and alcohol because you're ADHD. Like I said to my partner, I said thing is that I was searching for something to switch my brain off to calm me down to chill me out. So it's either... so what I traded it for now is I got back on my motorbike, got back racing again because I used to do that when I was a youngster and I had a 15 year gap from that. Got back into motocross. I was fortunate I could do that even though it's very costly at the minute. I'm not going to lie. I got back into that and realized that there's this massive community of people doing motocross that are all very similar to me and they're all chasing this high risk environment to chill them out and to like to get into a tunnel vision moment where you could like be relaxed. So I think that's why a lot of people ride motorbikes to be honest because you do get in that zone and you're very, it's very controlled environment but you're in complete control, was just you and the machine and nothing else. And I think that's with a lot of extreme sports. This is where I started seeing this is where Dopamine Hunters sort of came from because I realized that the therapy for people with ADHD and they know this the standard one was "Oh someone with ADHD is someone who can't sit still." That's what it used to be. A boy of 9 years old. They never thought about women. Never thought about adults. They just thought about old kids. They can only they can't sit still and they grow out of it when they get older. And we can just either give them role in at school or we can just take them out the classroom and chill them out for a little bit. But the truth is you had kids like me and probably yourself sat there in the classroom. The other the hidden 20% sitting there with it internally going and going and going and going and going. Also a big dose of dyslexia on top of that. You can't keep up with the writing on the board. You can't keep up. The numbers are jump... numbers are jumping around everywhere. Very difficult to retain any information because your brain and I don't know if you relate to this. This is was my pro... one of my problems as well. I always felt I was on a case of something's going to go wrong. And everyone say "You got to be more positive, right? You got to be more positive." That's a very easy thing to say to someone. And that's just feels like a criticism when you say it to someone like that. You got to be more positive. Don't give you any more reason than why you don't read all the mindset books and that when you're when you're 6, 7, 8, 9 to 12 years old. But the truth is I started to realize how important especially when it comes to autism as well. I got to say this that it's all very well you trying to teach a kid with ADHD how to deal with their ADHD or how to think better or whatever, but you've got to really back it up with the reasons why. Because they want to know why things are the way they are, why you learn things, why what is going to be the outcome of me learning this. Not just learn it and in a year's time I'm going to do a test, get a given a piece of paper say I remembered everything and you might get a job from it. 

JULIE: I wanted to rewind back to just to acknowledge when you were talking about stimulants and self-medication. Yeah. Unhealthy self medication whether it be through drugs or alcohol. Yeah. Looking for that dopamine and then onto that excessive dopamine. And I'll talk with you about Dopamine Hunters very, very shortly. But I just wanted to go, yes, I completely get that. Seeking some form of dopamine not necessarily to put us on a high, but just to bring us down to a chill level, which apparently neurotypicals experience this sort of level playing field. You mentioned also about thinking about even into adulthood looking around thinking something might go wrong. That traces back to these 20,000 negative or corrective thoughts as a child and rejection sensitivity when it's almost fear looking for you know, risk mitigation I guess. 

RYAN: I've been studying the brain and reading neuroscience books as in a very basic form trying to retain as much information as I can. And I'm pretty sure most people now know what the amygdala is and know what the hippocampus is I'm sure. And like people, so you got one that deals with your fight and flight situation and you got the other part the hippocampus which deals with your memory and can retaining information. If one is overworked from how I understand it in layman's term, if one is overworked the other one isn't. Mainly what I'm getting down to is, I as a youngster because I think I was I was quite shy especially when I was in my formative years because we moved around a lot as well. We moved from really critical ages from like six and then 11 to from like from an age of like going to primary to juniors and then juniors to high school. So I had to make friends again very quickly. So all your fear of having to get that society get that going again that's that increases your amygdala to work overwork yourself but also I think with ADHD people we tend to catastrophize quicker than anybody else because we're problem solvers and we are hunter gatherers. And that's what, that's how Dopamine Hunters came out as well the idea is the fact that we would have been the hunters the looking for the danger keeping the lookout in the night because we can't sleep. I can't sleep. I don't know about you, but I cannot sleep since I've since I've been off of everything. I sleep for about 2 or 3 hours a night and then I'm up again. And I did when I was a youngster. My kids never really sleep properly when they were young. And my mum told me she never slept very well when she was young. So, okay, now I can see this l see this pattern. But my point is if you've got a child that's constantly being told he's not quite right, he's not, he's got something wrong with him or and then they're constantly being put on edge to be scared and your amygdala is swelling up and then you're told read this book, read this paragraph and remember it and write it down. If the brain is not in geared for remembering, it's not going to learn it. It's not going to pick it up. No matter how many times you read it, that's why when we read books, it's very difficult. I'll read if I have to read my book. I started reading properly. Not saying I have never read a book. I started reading properly when I decided that I was going stone cold sober. Started reading about ADHD. Started reading about mindset rewiring the brain. Reading about business study, studying business, studying just how to live better you know. But once you got that interest-based learning and you become not being scared then you start retaining the information. So I can learn all this now but you wouldn't have been able to learn it when you was nine. When you were diagnosed with ADHD what shifted for you. I mean was it relief or a validation or confusion or all of the above? It was hard. I'm not that was a real... Even though I knew that the answer was going to come back that I am after doing the questionnaire and waiting that long. But I was quite angry with my parents. The fact that my brothers had got all the help and I really hadn't. I've been left to get on with it. I still sort of feel a bit like that now if I'm honest. I don't even know if they really understand it fully themselves because they've been around, because they're quite old now. And I think that they are too long in the tooth and they've had it from my brothers for so long. And now I think that like for me to try and describe all this to them, which I am and they do know about it, I think that they just find it very hard to digest. I think a lot of people are nowadays. So I was quite angry with that side of things. I was really emotional about it. I cried a couple of times if I'm honest. I was like going to the motocross track to the racing with my girlfriend and I was like opened up to her about it. I was like this is going to be quite a big deal for me even in my career which it has been which is unfortunate but like it's the reason why I had to start this because I wanted to make a difference. I also couldn't come to terms with the fact that I think that the reason why my education suffered because of it and I don't think it's fair that nothing was done about it and nothing wasn't made aware of it at a younger age. I feel like I've been robbed of an education if I'm honest because of being missed and especially when you know, that there was people around you at the time that thought you were probably neurodivergent. All right, it might have been 20 years ago. I get it. But the thing is I just think that it's very hard to sit there now and go, "Oh, it's okay. It doesn't matter." And it really does because I think the amount of things that have probably held me back in the past and I started thinking my memory started coming back. I thought well that's why they said that that's why they said this this and this. I mean I went to Westminster back in the summer to a roundtable meeting with Adam Dance who's a MP for Yeovil in Somerset. And he was basically advocating for dyslexia to be well, all neurodivergency, to be sort of like screened in school at a younger age and sort like to try and get these kids help quicker sooner and faster and basically stop having this massive hidden percentage of kids that are getting bumbling through school. And what is happening is they're bumbling through school and they're not quite enough to go on the register, but not quite enough to need help, but they're not going to be good enough to pass the grades that the typicals have set. You get pumped out the school the other end, and they got two chances. They're either going to go into a low paid job and maybe get somewhere but or if they've they haven't been messed up and they've got their head screwed on, start their own company because they got to be their own boss because as we have I I'm learning that fast. It's like I should always need to be my own boss because I can't deal with hierarchy. I can't deal with it. Or unfortunately these kids there's a percentage of them they end up in prison. End up in prison because crime is the easiest way they can get paid or whatever and they're hanging around with those groups of people or the worst the top of the list the worst one is they're committing suicide. And there's a massive percentage of that and I'm not, I'm not having it. I'm not happy about it. This is why I'm so like wanting to create a media company or whatever you want to call it, a charitable media company, which is what we're doing by basically telling stories from unsung heroes in sport and not necessarily just sport, in any in business as well. But the ADHD crew, your artistic crew, the hidden 20% to be able to be sung to have a platform to say "Well I might not done so great in my grades or I might not done so great in my education because the education system wasn't built for me but, in the right environment I can thrive." And we went to Chichester University to talk to a professor to see whether the research is worth doing and so about extreme sports within in ADHD, not just sports as in like exercise. So, everybody knows going for a run or going for a walk or any type of exercise does help clear the mind and it helps. It's not just physical, it's mental as well. Yeah. And they've done those tests. But what I'm talking about is the shift between being in a high risk environment but in a safe environment. This is why we're talking about sim racing so that they can possibly invoke a state of hyperfocus, which is obviously what you get with ADHD a lot if you're interest based learning, you know. So, yeah. Yeah. So, I'm not saying necessarily it's always car racing or motocross or whatever, but we're talking about these sort of areas of life that are exciting and really cool to talk about to a child that would make them be able to lose the stigma about being neurodivergent, but also invoke an area in a classroom or outside of a classroom to learn in a way that is suited to their needs. This is a big project and I don't plan on it being to be finished for a couple of years or at least I think we're talk now we're talking to racing drivers. I'm talking to a female motocross world champion tomorrow. Like especially girls be more included in motorsport. But they also done a little side track of children with neurodiversity and saying how much it sort of brought them on and brought them out the shell and given them confidence that they need. There's a bit more to it than just playing games on like racing. There's more. It's more about we're going to be setting up like a proper cognitive experiment. Probably testing myself first. It's a big deal. 

JULIE: Very, very exciting. Very hands-on and no wonder you're absolutely full on. Flat out honestly. Going back to motocross, you're a motocross rider and someone [obviously amateur] and someone drawn to high adrenaline environments. So, we're talking about this high stimulation pursuits being therapeutic when they're channelled well. And I want to know the line between healthy stimulation and burnout because of course with our hyperfocus we can go. 

RYAN: This is the thing isn't it? This is the thing. This is the thing. It's the lightning in the bottle. I wish I had the answer to be honest because I know that there's definitely a thing there with like the motocross and with like even just driving to the track, taking in the scenery and stuff like that really chills me out. And being there and talking to the friends who a lot of these guys are very similar to me. So, you already feel you're in a community of everyone's high on energy and adrenaline and definitely good dopamine waiting to go and race and get out there. And then and like yesterday, like I say, I literally raced yesterday. It was very wet, very muddy, a lot of reasons to complain, but still even now thinking about it, it brings me a lot of joy of the fact that I've gone and raced. Yeah. and doesn't matter about where you're placed or anything like that. It's the fact that it's really, really, really exciting. I'm not going to say like living on the edge of fear. It's a very hard question to answer. Let's be honest. I mean, what are your thoughts? What do you think?  

JULIE: I love… I used to when I was younger, jumping out of planes and bungee jumping and I had a motorbike and I loved it. And so for me it was a natural it was a natural roller coaster. The dips weren't so low. Maybe it was quite a slow decline after a lovely adrenaline high. But I guess if you're doing it for joy, that makes it easier than doing it for job, maybe when you're forced to do it every day, every day, every day, burnout might come when it's a little bit... 

RYAN: Exactly. Yeah, you're right. You're right. I mean, and I think I guess even like with like doing this, doing Dopamine Hunters. I mean, my partner said that... said like "You're going... you might get to a point you'll burn out." Because this is what ADHD people are renowned for having lots of hobbies, aren't we? Yeah. Yeah, but the but my truth... it's funny because I actually did write a LinkedIn post about this literally I think it was this morning. I was talking about it is fact that people, my dad used to say to me say "Oh you give up on things or you give up on things and you don't you don't see them through." But I'm like now at 46 years old. I'm saying I got to say dad you're wrong because everything that I wanted to do I did end up doing. It just took longer or went to it for a bit of time, then came back to it, and then went to it and came back to it. But I mean, when I look back through my life, so maybe that's what it is like you, if you're allowed to, if you're allowed to. Like these racing drivers are, especially the ones that are in pro level, allowed to achieve what they want to achieve, you will naturally know where your burnout point is and go, "Well, okay, that's enough." And then I'll go and do something else. But I think the misconception is the fact that people think sometimes look at ADHD as somebody giving up like when it gets hard. I mean give up when it's hard. It's more like if they lose interest for a reason they might give up but you always seem to find they come back to it. I just think I mean I've been into a lot of different things throughout my life. I I mean I learned to play drums. I used to love fishing. I still love fishing. I used to do boxing. I do motocross racing. I do, you know, I'm mad on building radio-controlled cars, stuff like that. I at 46, I still love all of that. Love all of it. And I mean, they say boys never grow up, but I truly believe that a lot of them do. A lot of them, whatever growing up is, I don't even know what that is anymore. What is growing up? I mean, really, what is growing up? I mean, if you're not still having fun when you're older, what was the point? I don't get it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. But, I just think that ADHD people are very much more the explorer type of person. And I think we would have been out hunting I don't know wild animals, bring them back home to the village and you'd have been burnt out but you'd have chilled out by the fire. And I don't think anybody would have started moaning at you. "Oh, you've given up. Get back out there and hunt another animal." Do you know what I mean? I don't think anybody would have told you that. And but nowadays you seem to be told to keep going and going and going and going until you do burn out. And some people seem to be able to have that. And let's be... let's face it, right? We are talking about a brain a chemical in your brain that's a deficiency. So if you have a neurotypical person that has a dopamine with a dopamine drip that's just going constant and is regulated, then they don't get burnt out as quick. They can go to sleep. they can regulate themselves and the working day they're probably only giving the 20%. Whereas I've read this as well like it would always be going into work giving your 100%. I mean, don't get me wrong, everybody wants to do a good job, but the thing is, you've given so much that is what would burn you out. But then you have people that are still doing a good job, but they can just regulate that whole feeling. And it's like, well, if you can't regulate that feeling because of an actual brain chemical, no amount of learning is going to no amount of one type of learning fits all is going to change that. That's why it's important to develop a way that children can learn in the to either handle their way of thinking, handle their different types of thinking and learn in different ways. I think the classrooms are overcrowded for a start. The teachers are burnt out. Teachers especially are in England. It's burnt out. They can't handle it. And if we to pile on everything to them to teach to one person at the front of a class to teach 30 kids but they've all let's face it almost probably more like 40% of them are different to the other 60%. It's not going to work. It's already just to implode. So I think not the time is now to for like a total reform on the curriculum in probably all over the world. 

JULIE: Ryan, please tell me more about Dopamine Hunter itself. What inspired you to start it? And in a nutshell, tell us. You've got the podcast, you've got the documentary, community. Go for it. 

RYAN: My giving up drinking and smoking and the sertraline as well and other substances, but also having the diagnosis of ADHD. But then what really kick-started it is obviously I was going racing to first and I was enjoying racing. But I back in June/July time I went into the amateur veteran championship, so like people over 40 but it's like an amateur one but still quite, quite prolific, quite good. Anyway, on the Sunday, I raced on the Saturday. I was doing great. And then on Sunday, one of the last races, I got taken out and broke three ribs. Broke these three ribs last year and then I was sat at home on my own for weeks, not being able to breathe, not really being able to move. And I had loads of footage on my phone. I'd already been journaling. I'd missed this. I've been journaling since January and been writing a lot about the problems that have been happening in my life with how people were treating me because I felt like my either my mental health was in decline or something was becoming apparent and that's how it started and it was definitely the ADHD and I was like well. I was coming to terms with the most likely because I was on the list I was like I probably am I, think I am and I was reading the books and so all that started coming out into my journals. And it started with me, because I'm a carpenter by day, with an idea to make a carpentry company to do with ADHD for people with ADHD to come and make things on an ADHD bench in my workshop and use it as a tool to have a community with those people. Weirdly enough is I manifested that and that has sort of come to light which is crazy. Can't believe it. This actually comes because I ended up making that bench throughout last year as well and I donated it to a guy who runs a charitable community which they it's called Men in Sheds and they help old people with dementia and people with neurodivergency and I gave them the bench to use. And now he is the guy that is helping me with Dopamine Hunters actually doing my helping me with my business plan. It's like he was an angel come out of the sky out of nowhere. He came onto my buildings like asking for wood if he lived down the road and it's only last year and it's like it's just sort of like grown really naturally but like organically but like in a way that like almost like it was meant to happen. So that happened and then yeah and then obviously with the racing. I just try in the nutshell sort of thing, I decided that I was going to just do a podcast literally just a podcast. I thought, well, I'm going to do a podcast and start talking to my friends at motocross about ADHD and about motocross because I'll incorporate motocross into my ADHD. That's what I thought. I thought, well, I can make something of this and so that it. It lets me explain my own story so I feel better about myself and I can help other people not feel the way that I did growing up with it and maybe help some people not feel like they're less of a human being because they got ADHD. You know, that was the truth. That's the be and end of it is I just wanted... I didn't want my kids to go through what I went through at school. I didn't want them to grow up feeling ashamed of it or feeling like or being made to feel ashamed of it. So I thought, well, if I can build a platform that can show off people that have got ADHD as opposed and not as a superpower, but just that the different... there's a different, there's a different way out there for people to be themselves and not and it create less stigma and just put like really exciting stories on big stages. And that's where the head my head just went this could happen. Everyone thought I was mad. Everyone there's still people that think I'm mad. I think it's a crazy, I think it's such a massive idea. But once I started getting traction on LinkedIn because I started it on LinkedIn. My partner said, "Well, you need to put up a LinkedIn page if you're going to get it anywhere." As soon as I did that and I started learning how to use it, because I don't use a computer for nearly 20 years. I'm a hands-on carpenter. So, I'm really, really rough and ready with my content creating. And everybody probably knows this at the moment, but the more that I've done it now, the more people are coming forward to help me in the next series, the next series podcast series, and we've started filming more of the racing. This year, I'm going to have well, in May, I've actually got a proper TV crew cameraman coming to film us this year. So, I just kept on going and going and going and meeting more and more people. And I mean, I've got a list as long as my arm of commentators, racing drivers, motocross people, doctors, wow, nurses, teachers that are all coming forward on more is happening now. I mean, I can't go over it all. I'm hoping to start making some events here, live in person podcasting events and inviting the racing drivers and the commentators to come to the show to blow up the brand and the name and then get us get us on TV. 

JULIE: Basically, the fact that that is your interest, that is your drive, that makes perfect sense to you and for you. And having people recognize that and come forward and want to be part of the team or the community, you've created something very, very special. Yeah. Amazing. 

RYAN: I believe so. I think it's grow... and it's growing nicely and organic across because I've gone off on a bit of a tangency because I started it to be motocross but it branched out into car racing. 

JULIE: What do you think the biggest misconception people have about dopamine and ADHD? 

RYAN: People that definitely aren't in the neurodivergent world think it is some sort of high that is just for making you feel better and finding it in you which some people. I guess they're right like you can find it in food can't you, find it in chocolate you can get a short burst of it. But I think the misconception is that a lot of people think that all of it is good and it's not all of it is good. Some of it's really bad like alcohol abuse or drug abuse. You're doing that for dopamine, but it's the wrong dopamine to be doing. It's not what you should be hunting at all. But not all dopamine comes from healthy spaces. No, not at all. And I think it's something I struggle with myself is, especially when you're in a home environment in the winter in England when it's been raining for two months solid and there's not a lot you can do outside and you're like, what should I do? I've done all my work on this. I've done all, you know, play the game or whatever. And then they're like, oh, go to the fridge and have a snack. Go to the fridge. That sort of thing you got. And it's like it's training yourself not to do that. That's the tricky That's a tricky one. I think that's a misconception people have. Well, someone who's listening who feels that the ADHD makes them too much or too intense, what would you most want them to understand about how they're wired? I just want them to understand that they're not too much for themselves because like I think for us people that think a lot, think deeply, I think we get lost in ourselves and you got to think you're not too much and you're not wrong all the time. And it's okay to be different to everybody to different to a lot of people. You know, I would like to think that this is the part where we're going to start getting some sort of education system that is going to help people not grow up in a world where they have to even think about how they think about themselves and then they know that they're going to be accepted like everybody else is accepted. But to say to a young person with ADHD, what's the best thing to do? But find something that you're interested in, really interested in, and stick to learning about that and make that your goal for your career. That's probably one of my best ideas, I would say. And then if it changes, don't worry about it. Do that one as well if you got four or five things, but learn that learn the best out of them that you can. And if it doesn't excite you and it doesn't interest you, don't worry about it because it just means that your brain isn't built for that bit. Doesn't matter what it is as long as you're interested and you do you will learn as much as you want to learn about it if you like it. So stick to that and then turn that into your craft. 

JULIE: Your perspectives are really, really, very, very interesting and very excited for your Dopamine Hunters. Watch this space. Yeah, I can't wait to see where you go with that. So, thank you for being on the show today. 

RYAN: Thank you so much, Julie. I really appreciate it.

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Julie Legg

Host
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Jel Legg

Co-host
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Ryan Turner

Guest