This Week’s Episode
Jo Meleca-Voigt returns to the podcast on this episode. Jo is a teacher and she last came on the podcast right after being diagnosed with ADHD and starting medication.
In this conversation, you will hear Jo describe the last year of her life since we last spoke. She has had some opportunities in her professional career to advocate for students with ADHD. She shares how this has helped her in her own journey.
Jo shares some of the strategies that she has implemented in the last year. Although a component of a strategy may not work, that doesn’t necessarily mean the entire strategy does not have beneficial pieces. We also discuss loss in this conversation, as Jo recently lost someone to suicide. This situation brought back memories of her childhood and she explains how she is dealing with this loss.
Connect with Jo Meleca-Voigt
You’ll Learn
-
[06:23] – Jo shares how the last year has been life-changing and career-changing.
-
[08:00] – Jo talks about the support she received at work after her diagnosis.
-
[09:19] – Jo led a group of students with ADHD to support each other.
-
[12:28] – Jo saw herself in an individual student, and she explains how this student’s life changed after diagnosis.
-
[15:28] – Jo explains how being an advocate has changed her.
-
[18:01] – Jo describes how the way that she viewed herself as a kid helped her work with students with ADHD.
-
[19:44] – Someone Jo knew recently committed suicide. She explains how this situation brought back some memories of something that happened in her childhood.
-
[28:21] – Jo describes how she is dealing with this loss.
-
[36:00] – Jo clarifies some of her statements from earlier in the discussion.
-
[40:04] – Jo lists some strategies that she has implemented in the last year.
-
[43:48] – Jo shares how things have changed in her relationship with her wife since her diagnosis.
-
[45:47] – We talk about the “mail monster.” Jo explains her method of sorting mail.
-
[47:51] – Every strategy has a piece that doesn’t work, and we fall into an “all or nothing” mindset and dismiss those strategies that have beneficial pieces.
-
[51:31] – Jo explains how she prepares students for the world they are going to live in.
-
[55:46] – We discuss the difficulties of grocery shopping.
-
[1:02:24] – Jo talks about the things that have surprised her since her ADHD diagnosis.
