100: Finding Courage in Times of Adversity with Dr. Herman Williams and Dr. John Kruse

Table of Contents

Today we discuss navigating through adversity with courage and kindness.

My first guest, Dr. Herman Williams, is an Executive Vice President and the Chief Clinical Officer at RCCH HealthCare Partner with extensive healthcare expertise that includes the management and operations of large-scale, national clinics and hospitals. He joins me today to discuss his success formula for embracing our current reality and enduring life’s crushing blows so that we can find purpose and cultivate peace and joy every day.

My second guest, Dr. John Kruse, is a neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and author of the book, “Recognizing Adult ADHD: What Donald Trump Can Teach Us About Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.” He joins me today to share how adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder affects millions of Americans, why this serious condition often goes unrecognized and untreated, and how someone can tell if they, or someone they know, has the condition.

We Discuss:

Being victors over the challenges we are facing by learning to pivot and come together
The Kindness Scale and examples of how we can implement kindness in our lives every day
Enduring life’s crushing blows in order to find purpose and cultivate peace and joy in life
Why it took the medical community a lot longer to recognize ADHD is also a problem for adults
What Donald Trump can teach us about living with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
The symptoms of adult ADHD and how someone can tell if they have the condition

“We all have these magnificent dreams that we strive to accomplish, but we have to understand that when a crisis attacks those dreams and brings them to a screeching halt, we just have to work twice as hard toward a new dream to be successful.” – Dr. Herman Williams

About Herman:

Herman J. Williams is an Executive Vice President and the Chief Clinical Officer at RCCH HealthCare Partner with extensive healthcare expertise that includes the management and operations of large-scale, national clinics and hospitals.

His successful leadership has resulted in achieving the highest and safest levels of quality inpatient and outpatient care.

Herman Williams’s story of survival and triumph in the face of repeated medical crises will leave the reader inspired to tackle his or her own life challenges. Clear! demonstrates that with faith and determination, anything is possible.”

Dr. Herman Williams is the author of “CLEAR!” Living the Life You Didn’t Dream Of. In the memoir, he shares the story of what happened when he experienced a life-changing event that left him depressed and disabled at the age of 31.

Additionally, his book includes The Kindness Scale, a system Dr. Williams created that urges readers to do activities from small (“Smile”) to major (“Perform CPR”) that will make a positive impact on other people’s lives – and an impact on the giver.

About John:

John Kruse, M.D., Ph.D., is a neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and author of the book, “Recognizing Adult ADHD: What Donald Trump Can Teach Us About Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.” With 25 years of psychiatry experience, Dr. Kruse specializes in treating adults with ADHD.

Dr. Kruse grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, where he received an excellent public school education. As a youth, he discovered his lifelong passion for biology and the natural sciences while participating in the Future Scientist program at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Banding hawks and owls, traveling to see thousands of migrating Sandhill Cranes, and learning about the flora and fauna of northeast Ohio inspired his respect for, joy in, and curiosity about the natural world.

After graduating Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from the University of Rochester, he remained in Rochester to complete his medical degree and to earn a Ph.D. in neuroscience with a dissertation on circadian rhythms. While at Rochester he also helped design early research using bright lights to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder, and he assisted in establishing The Journal of the University of Rochester Medical Center. He moved to San Francisco in 1990, completing a psychiatry residency at UCSF and receiving an Outstanding Resident in Psychiatry award from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Dr. Kruse realized that his strength as a psychiatrist lay in his ability to think about and help individuals with mental health conditions at multiple levels ranging from brain chemistry to whole-body health, to intra-psychic, interpersonal and socio-political aspects. He consequently nurtured a practice where he continues to employ a variety of therapeutic approaches. In addition to direct patient care, he has taught basic psychopharmacology to psychotherapy interns for 25 years, and has spoken at local, state, and national psychiatry conferences about gay marriage, gay families, and the biology of emotions.

In 1994, one of his first patients, a man in his mid-forties with classic ADHD symptoms who had been told that adults couldn’t have the condition, launched Dr. Kruse on the road to learning more about adult ADHD. More than 300 patients over the next 25 years contributed to furthering this journey, teaching him how to recognize ADHD; treat it effectively with talking therapies, medications, exercise, diet, and meditation; and help patients deal with partners, families, co-workers, and teachers who did not grasp how ADHD affects individuals. For the last decade, Dr. Kruse has supplemented his direct clinical knowledge by being a member, and eventually, co-leader, of a local group of psychiatrists focused on treating adult ADHD.

When he’s not treating patients, John is an avid runner who has completed 100 marathons. He also trained several hundred novice runners to complete a marathon while coaching for the AIDS Marathon Training Program. For over a decade he was an editor and columnist for The FootPrint, San Francisco FrontRunners’ monthly newsletter. John and his husband are parents of thriving twin teenage girls. He continues to enjoy birdwatching, nature photography, gardening, and baking.

“Observe without trying to judge. There’s a lot going on and there are a lot of interpretations and claims as to what’s really happening. Just starting with looking at what you’re seeing and trying to assess that without fitting it into a story, and you’re probably going to be further ahead in the long run.” – Dr. John Kruse

Resources Mentioned:

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