We Ranked Every White Guy (w/ Ted Nivison) | Sad Boyz 

The discussion of Ted's ADHD diagnosis leading to like a 20 minute segment discussing the minor detail of him having mozz sticks was the most ADHD thing I've ever seen. I related so hard.

Hearing about the boys being taken under a teacher's wing literally made me cry because as a kid with ADHD I wanted to be the teachers pet so bad and I tried so hard to be their friend but literally every single one would try their hardest to pretend I didn't exist because they thought I needed to stop seeking attention

jarvis speaks so slowly sometimes that it leads to some funny sound bites. “i eat… people…”

The whole "have you taken your medicine?" thing is a pretty close equivalent to "is it that time of the month?"

the adhd meds to mozzarella sticks convo is so quintisentally a-conversation-with-adhders its truly beautiful

The medication stuff Ted was talking about hit SO hard for me, with his mom asking “did you take your medication” when there was a disagreement is something I faced with my family for FAR too long. It’s not usually meant to be hurtful or anything, but it feels incredibly dismissive when my parents responded to me having negative feelings and reaching out for help with “did you take your meds today”. It’s usually coming from a place of care, but at the end of it all, whether or not I’ve taken my meds isn’t the concern. My reactions are my reactions, I’m feeling bad and am looking for comfort in the moment. No amount of alarms that remind me to take my Zoloft each day is going to change that.

As a future pharmacist I love hearing people talk about their drugs because I can hear an actual patient’s unbiased experience. I’m grateful the boys are this comfortable with their audience❤️

Funny story about a generic brand. I take Sertraline (the generic brand for Zoloft) for anxiety and a few years ago it suddenly started having a sweet vanilla flavor to it. At first I thought I was imagining it, but after one anxious month, I started wondering if they had, for some strange reason, given me sugar pills as a placebo medicine for my anxiety. Finally I googled about it and found a reddit thread discussing what had happened. Apparently, they added a vanilla coating to the pill without saying anything. It was really gratifying reading all of the comments of the post because everyone was having the same anxiety trip over the last few months. I still can't believe they changed the flavor of an anxiety medication without saying a word. It feels like a prank.

As a teacher, it’s really refreshing to hear people speak positively of teachers. We’ve been getting a lot of shit lately. Thanks boyz ❤️❤️

Hearing Ted talk about his elementary school, knowing I went to the same one is so interesting. I’m from the same town as Ted, and the academics are very intense there. But the elementary school we both went to was the reason I was able to diagnosed with ADHD SO young as a girl. I was diagnosed at age 7, and barely had any hyperactivity. A teacher at the elementary school caught it and got consent from my parents to record my behavior in order to get a diagnosis. She still asks about me when she sees my mom in the grocery store.The early intervention and inclusion of the special ed students within our classes is why I was able to succeed and accept that I am disabled. Being in occupational therapy with the kid who had cerebral palsy allowed me to understand others and myself from a young age, and i’m forever grateful for that experience. The school may have been rather crunchy, hippie and weird, but it quite obviously produces successful, creative people. Very curious if the teacher who had ted lead transitions is the same one who got me diagnosed. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Toby being short for Tobuscus literally made me tip over on my bed laughing so hard, oh my god

I never considered that you guys don't do slöjd in school, it was the best! Slöjd is "handicraft" i guess, and everyone alternates between sewing class and woodworking class. / Swede

I literally gasp with joy every time Sad Boyz posts

as a burnt out former GT student (k-10th grade) who was only recently diagnosed w ADHD it hurts so bad that my parents refused to provide me any help throughout school bc i could've done so much better than i did and all they did was blame me :/ but hearing other ppl talk about their experiences is so comforting and you guys could never imagine how much ur openness and candor abt mental health means to me

It almost sounds like the school Ted went to when growing up, was based on Scandinavian elementary schools. Calling teachers by their first name and having "sloyd" (doing woodwork etc) as a subject is super common here (at least where I'm from)

You guys healed a little bit of my inner child. I didn’t realize other people’s parents asked “did you take your medicine?” Bc I always felt so bad when I’d just be having a conversation and my parents would suggest I needed to chemically change what was going on inside me to interact with my family 😢

This podcast helps me understand myself and my newly discovered ADHD so much better

the microwave talk was so real... i just learned when and why to use the different power levels and it changed the leftovers game

omfg i relate so much to what ted said at 27:58 as a kid i would use games as just a way to make up stories in my head and roam around without any care for completing levels or missions

idk if y’all have any plans to make a part 2 to this tier list but if yall did here are some suggestions: jim (nickname for james), matt, noah, ben/benjamin, don, john, scott, mark

I was diagnosed with autism at age 20, and adhd THIS year at age 27. And adderall had been so fucking life changing. I don’t feel at all different in creative terms or experience that “zombie” feeling that a lot of people describe having. It’s been incredible at helping quiet alllll the noises I can’t otherwise shut up or follow cohesively. I’m finally able to focus on a task and not be distressed about it. I also got prescribed it for my low blood pressure that was effecting me a lot, and it has helped enormously with that. I have the non hyperactive kind of adhd, so it doesn’t necessarily give me a crazy rush physically, it makes me kinda feel like that scene in the Hangover where Zach Galifianakis’s character is doing crazy math at the poker table and the numbers are going around his mind and he’s in some sort of savant mode 😂 It obviously doesn’t make me smarter, but it helps me unlock the knowledge I already have and utilize it better. Love this shit.

This has grown to become one of my favorite podcasts because of all of these mental health conversations and so much candid honesty. Thank you for making these eps each week, despite all the ups and downs that come!

Ted getting agency over his anxiety of change is everything. I would’ve loved it. Choosing my schedule in college gave me that agency.

Yay! I've felt awful all day (COVID, sadly), so a new SB ep is great :) thanks guys!

I was in the gifted and honors classes from the time I was 6 or 7 until I was 17 I think, and that was one of the main reasons why they didn’t pick up that I had ADHD until I was 14 and failing all of my classes freshman year of high school. Most of the adults I’d talk to would say that there was no possibility that I could have ADHD because 1) I was a girl and “girls don’t have ADHD, they’re just not lady like” and 2) I was a gifted kid so it was automatically impossible to be neurodivergent in their eyes. My parents just thought I was really creative, had extremely specific interests in media, music and production, and was just an extremely passionate and talkative little girl. When I finally got the diagnosis and began to learn techniques, get proper medication/treatment, and get set up for a plan through the school, I was such a different person in and out of school. Math has always been a rough subject for me, especially when it comes to tests, even though I enjoyed most classes I took on it. I had an advanced geometry/algebra 1 teacher my sophomore year and he spent the whole year working WITH me to figure out how I learned best as an individual student. The day he got our test scores back from our End Of Course exams he stood in front of the room and asked each of us if we felt comfortable with him telling the class our grade out loud. I was the last person and I looked terrified as my classmates waited to know my grade (gifted classes stay together all through school so we were all close and they knew how much I’d been struggling). When I told him he could say it out loud, he brought me a tissue from his little tissue box and said in the proudest voice I’ve ever heard from a teacher “73, I told you that you could do it!” And I just started sobbing as my friends all cheered and hugged me because I had worked my butt off to do better than the failed exams from the year before. His dedication to making my academic career catered more towards my individual needs and support is such a huge reason why I’m about to graduate with my Bachelor’s degree in May and start on my Masters program sometime in the fall. Teachers who support students who just need someone to be in their corner don’t realize how much of an impact they have on a student’s life, but they truly are so important.

also re: being gifted it's sort of weird cause i went to a school that sounded very much like ted's but we called anyone with any sort of neurodivergence or learning disability "gifted" in addition to kids who had a higher reading or math level or w/e. as a then undiagnosed kid w combined adhd they actually rejected me from joining that class 😅 but the whole school was super crunchy and made everyone take a weekly creative activity every year.

I was a "gifted" kid in elementary school - My school system used the term AIG for "Academically Intellectually Gifted" 🤮 It was the same as Jarvis's experience where the AIG kids would leave our main classroom to go to a different class that was supposed to be more challenging for "the smart kids." Basically everyone went from AIG in elementary school, to honors classes in middle school, and to honors and/or AP classes in high school before (it was assumed) going to college. It definitely made my kid brain believe that I was smarter than my peers because I was praised more than others, but worse for my long term psyche - It made me believe being "gifted" and performing well in school was the most important thing about me. I wasn't just that I was smarter - I HAD to ALWAYS be smarter. It really instilled a mindset in me that if I ever started having trouble in class or god forbid if I got a B in a class, it was a personal failing. So much unnecessary pressure and mental anguish because of expectations school had made me set for myself. I am happy that I was able to do more challenging school work because the reality is that I was bored in my grade level all throughout elementary school, which is a great way to have a kid lose interest in learning. I am grateful that I was able to stay engaged with school and have a genuine want to learn because it did set me up well, but damn did being labeled as "gifted" instilled a lot of anxiety that still manifests in different ways today

Hearing Jordan say he doesn't get blood tests for Lamictal was insane to me. My Primary forces me to get blood panels done like every 3-4 months to ensure the Lamictal isn't building up too much and that my kidneys are fine.

Jordan sits like we're the last ones awake at the sleepover and we're sharing our deepest, darkest secrets

the random uploads keeping us on our toes! excellent prank guys

JARVIS I’M HAVING THE SAME EXPERIENCE WITH STOPPING MY ANTIDEPRESSANTS!! I had a serious suspicion for a long time that the worst symptoms of my depression were actually related to ADHD and after getting my Vyvanse adjusted to a good point I’ve stopped taking my antidepressants (I did tell my doctor about this and he’s helping me keep an eye on it). It’s been going pretty damn well!! It definitely feels like I need to cope less day-to-day but I am still a bit nervous about facing a harder time again (I.e. recovering from a surgery) but I don’t know it’s been an interesting experience. I wonder if there’s research on this pattern!

I have to say Lithium has changed my life. The imposter syndrome of being diagnosed with Bipolar young when it's mostly not diagnosed before a certain age really made me focus on everything but that.

I really appreciate the ADHD talk in this one

the wet paper towel over pizza while microwaving it is literally life changing i've never heard of that, thank you jarvis i am forever in your debt

As a teenager with ADHD and dyscalculia who only got diagnosed a couple years ago, it's so nice hearing other people talking about their ADHD. I feel like most people with ADHD have so many shared experiences, it's crazy how similar we all are. Not to mention how neurodivergent people are almost like drawn to each other or something, most of my friends have been diagnosed with ADHD or autism. Also I just got to the part of you talking about "gifted" kids. I went to a gifted magnet from 4th grade up until my sophomore year of high school, I'm now in my junior year and I am out of the gifted system! I go to a regular high school with an art program. Switching schools was honestly the best decision I've ever made. I love my new school and I've been getting better at coping with my ADHD. Love the podcast, love listening to you guys talk. One of the only podcasts I can actually stand listening to ❤

Missed opportunity to put Ted in D teir for the thumbnail to spell sad 😭

It’s always so interesting hearing other people’s ADHD experiences and stories. I was actually diagnosed at SIX YEARS OLD and have been medicated basically every day of my life since. And this is even with girls being under diagnosed, my kindergarten teacher went to my parents like “you should get her tested”. I must’ve been the freaking poster child. I’m not me without my meds, if that makes sense. Being off my meds if there’s a problem getting ahold of it is an actual nightmare. I feel like jelly and I eat myself sick. So I’m always on them. I’m jealous of people that can pick and choose, cuz my life literally revolves around medication and phone calls, on a thirty day cycle. You’d think after over two decades I’d have some kind of universal notifier in my records saying “loosen the controlled substances rules, she’s good”. I was actually thriving all the way into college on the max vyvanse dose, but then the combination of a concussion and severe depression setting in made everything spiral. It basically increased my ADHD symptoms by like 200% and now every single day is a struggle despite being on max dose vyvanse PLUS low Wellbutrin (actually just dropped Wellbutrin cuz it gave me daily migraines). Even though vyvanse makes me feel the most like myself, I’ve accepted I’ll have to switch to adderall next visit, cuz vyvanse just isn’t cutting it whatsoever. Honestly I’ve considered volunteering for medical studies on adhd, the meds, etc, cuz I am basically the perfect test subject having mutant adhd and been on the meds nonstop since childhood. And yes, insurance companies are the fucking BANE of my existence

Jarvis a cannibal CONFIRMED "I just to eat, I think, a lot of people."

The "sloyd" is what we call slöjd in swedish, it's woodworking/ textile sewing etc. We could try out both but eventually chose to do one or the other

DAMN Jarvis what relatable content! I feel for him fr though the anger and self-loathing that comes with not having the energy to see your friends or keep up appearances or 'be who you're supposed to be' or w/e is almost worse than the lack of energy to begin with. Feels like it starts a vicious cycle that's hard to get out of

as soon as you clicked on david I said “that man’s autistic”. and then y’all went that man likes trains and I knew we were on the same page.

Perfect timing for this episode to drop! Love when y’all get to keep me company while I work obscene amounts of overtime

I abosolutely love David, he looks like a teacher who makes fun presentations because his class subject is kind of boring, a well intetioned guy who makes mistakes but tries his best

i’ve been diagnosed with adhd since i was 11 but not having many friends who also have it i love hearing you guys talk about it, makes me feel like i’m not as alone. great ep as always 🫶🏻

love hearing people talk about the confusing drug names, being epileptic means ive gone through the brand name -> generic several times and the names get confusing for a while

16:07 this tip works wonders for my daughters class, they get to take turns and it’s so awesome for both having that agency as well as learning to work with peers

Im very glad for this podcast! im currently switching around my adhd meds aswell; I was on concerta from age 8 and recently I've gone on my own journey to find what works best

brand new sad boys with the post-pubescent danny gonzalez :)

THANK YOU for talking about your adhd meds, it has been one of the things I have struggled THE MOST with over the past 8-10 years since I got diagnosed in my early 20s

I have ADHD, and I was very recently diagnosed/medicated as an adult in college. I did shockingly well in school- on paper- to the point where I was put into honor roll every semester and scored like 92nd SAT percentile or something, but I never took a single AP class because even a singular freshman honors english class completely overwhelmed me (honors was slightly below AP in my school, for context). I was just bottling obscene amounts of constant terror, discomfort, mood swings, impulsive/obsessive shit, physical symptoms (like from digestive shit to migraines to a skin-picking disorder) and more. It just felt like being awake was rapidly draining me and sustaining a human body, alongside thinking or doing anything at all, was either so torturously unsatisfying and exhausting that it wasn't worth it, or, if it actually caught my interest, it turned into torture because I'd latch onto that thing so hard that I'd straight up not go to the bathroom or drink water for a day. Now that I know why I felt like that, though, I could sit down and consume hours of content from/about other people who have ADHD, especially when its more of a casual, individual-based conversation more than like impersonal documentary-style type stuff. I just want to talk on and on about having ADHD with everyone, but I feel like that bothers or bores people. Listening to other people who feel the EXACT SAME WAY about so much stuff I've barely had anyone relate to before, but also hearing their really interesting variances from my experience, is just so fulfilling and genuinely fills that weird ADHD brain-bucket of satisfaction that usually seems to have a massive leak in the bottom, if that makes sense. Also I never believed I could become a teacher until I met a teacher with ADHD who experienced a lot of similar stuff, and then I was like ohhh so normal human jobs and pursuits aren't just automatically out of the question for me? Sick! Basically, in short, this topic and this specific podcast was very yas and slay so thanks for that lmao

so glad these are hitting the 2 hour mark makes the work shift a little easier love you guys

this crossover!!!!!!! exactly what i needed today fr

another 2 hour ep!! yes please 🙏

Oh thank God,, I was waiting for another episode. I'm tired of living my life without Sad Boyz

Wasn't expecting to be so early, but watching a Sad Boyz video posted an hour ago is an unexpected pleasure lmao

this is so wholesome - literally teared up 🥹 ❤

as a swede, everybody has slöjd (or sloyd) from when you’re about 9-15 years old in school. you can typically choose between woodworking or sowing, and you just get taught and try to make your own projects. we also call our teachers by their first name here! very interesting to hear ted talk about that.

As someone who was diagnosed with ADHD at 10 years old, when Ted talked about his mom saying "did you take your meds" holy shit that hit home. It would always be right after she said something obviously wrong or is losing an argument to where i'm getting annoyed, she would hit me with that phrase.

hearing ted talk about elementary school was so cool, bc it was exactly the way my elementary school worked here in Denmark. we also have sloyd, (spelled sløjt) and is just woodworking. so fun

The discussion about adhd immediately turning into a discussion about mozzarella sticks is so real

lets go jordan, lamictal ftw! love this episode, it's so warming to see my own experiences reflected in the creators i enjoy :]

Many Kudos Goated, so is the podcast he's dose, its underrated af

yayyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!! Also these captions are really nice idk what it is but i love them!

Jordan, 100% same on a high ish dose of lamotrigine and one other mental health med. I'm incapacitated a lot of the time if I miss just one or two days. I feel dizzy when I turn my head and get what people call "brain zaps" that feel like an uncomfortable dizzying jolt of electricity in my head. Not painful but distracting when I drive when I'm having withdrawal symptoms. Still absolutely changed my life significantly for the better ❤️

56:11 Once in middle school i drank a rockstar or something with my daily adderall and by lunch time i literally thought i was going to die

got diagnosed with adhd literally last week (as 19f, living in ireland) and will be getting meds asap - similar to if not the same as concerta - so it was really lovely to hear you guys talking about it, and it makes me feel less alone in this process ❤

Lovee the discussion of trying to find mental health meds, because it was discouraging for a long time. Starting/tweaking my lamictal dose has been LIFECHANGING. I wish it was more normal to be so open about these experiences. ♥️

Ooh, this Sad Boyz resonated extra-zestily with me! From Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as a formative gaming experience-though, bizarrely, mine was on the Game Gear right after the system was discontinued-to a desperation to bond with teachers because I so very much wanted a mentor in an academic capacity, I felt this episode intensely. What really pushed it over, though, was Jordan's discussion of his experiences with lamotrigine; I took that for several years during a particularly tumultuous period of my mid-twenties (34 now) and, while the eventual physician-suggested taper off was discombobulating, I recall it providing an access to executive function and relative mental equilibrium that I miss today. Once I sort out my general whatnots (in an unemployment rut, so healthcare's a bit out of reach), I'm going to investigate it as an option again, for I know I deserve to operate as my best self; I just wanted to thank all of you for being ABSOLUTELY HECKIN' RAD HUMANS and vicariously reassuring me that I'm valid in pursuing this avenue!

I only see one comment about this so lemme leave one too; sloyd seems to be an anglicised version of the word "slöjd" (as someone else mentioned). In Sweden our kids have this as a compulsory subject in school until you start high school the year you turn 16. At what age you start depends on the school, some start at age seven, some not until age nine! There are two kinds of slöjd - syslöjd (sewing, yarn work like knitting, embroidery, etc.) and träslöjd (woodworking and metalwork). So every Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and Norwegian who's gone through the whole school system have a basic understanding of crafting with these materials. Some middle schools let the students choose which one they want to do for each school year, so per example I did three years of only sewing class. Sloyd as an English word also means a pedagogical theory though, but clearly based on the Nordic countries approach to the subjects and their involvement in growing a kids confidence. Slöjd means handiwork or crafts and there's skolslöjd (school sloyd) and hemslöjd (home sloyd) which is basically making stuff at home, but generally with a solid footing in traditional crafts from our area of the world!

the quiet "tread lightly" when talking about nick was deeply amusing

Hay Jordan glad to see your doing good

as someone with bpd, my lamotrigine literally saved my life and it feels so nice hearing other people having the same experience

Danish girl here :))) so crazy hearing an American person refer to sløjd, I had wiped that from my memory

Man idk whats up with the mic but its really picking up all of the CRUNCH in teds voice, its soothing

I really appreciate the talk about psychiatric medications and the difficulties therein. I've been on antidepressants for 9 years or so now and I love seeing it more normalized and talked about. Thank you boys

always love it when jordan talks about bipolar experience it is nice to hear about in a casual but serious conversation that sad boyz fosters. lamotrigine ladies, lads, and lovelies unite :)

there’s so many moments in my childhood that i forgot that really explain a lot. like i remember needing my teacher to give me an incentive to just do a single homework assignment (he would let me be student of the month). once i sat in one place and read an entire captain underpants book in one sitting. i used to go to a math help group bc i have always had trouble with math. after i hit middle school, i just didn’t get much support. i spent a lot of my school life moving to different places which definitely impacted my learning and my ability to make friends. i don’t even know if i was evaluated for anything, maybe i was i just forgot it happened.

ANOTHER EPISODE OVER AN HOUR YOU GUYS ARE SPOILING US!!!

Jarvis’s outer-shirt is my favorite thing ever

Honestly when y'all were talking about gaming and working on the same PC, I totally felt that. To the point where when I was considering upgrading my PC, I budgeted money to also buy a new decent-ish laptop specifically to work on so I didn't cross contaminate my cool new computer with work shit.

Talking about Lamictal made me feel so seen! It’s the best for me and I agree with everything Jordan said.

the SLOYD part, in Denmark, its spelled "sløjd" (pronounced like sloyd basically) but yea, its a woodworking/hand on how to make stuff thing, kinda like art or when you have cooking classes in school

very topical episode as i sit here waiting for my LA walgreens to get concerta back in stock (i always have to call around, the shortage is real for concerta too!)

Hearing ADHD boys talk about the joys of ordering food is so funny bc none of them know it's a symptom.

the Swedish slöjd thing is interesting. In Sweden we also call our teachers by their first names. so i guess it was just a pretty Swedish school :P

lamotrigine is my mood stabilizer and i take it at a high dosage like jordan too and i feel SO understood lmao. i'm very serious about taking all my medication regularly, but if i happen to miss one because of pharmacy issues with refills, that single missed dose can knock me into a depression where i can't do anything for days. other than that, like jordan said, it totally changed my life. i never hear ANYONE talk about taking mood stabilizers so it meant a lot especially since it's something i still feel ashamed of sometimes. thank you jordan!! 💜

Back in middle school as an ADHD kid they let me help IT a lot. One time i convinced the science teacher to do a class where we would make a "computer" out of the old soon to be thrown away computers. Me being me I found 3 different laptops and was able to actually make one working computer out of three messed up computers. They even let me keep it. It was literally my first computer. I played Minecraft on Windows vista on that till highschool

"Let there be light" will always be funny.

I was in gifted in middle/high school and it was very helpful. I needed more challenge and that was the best way for me to get it

As a podcast enjoyer I really enjoyed this podcast.

Y’all are going through all these old games consoles and dragging me back through my nostalgia. Super Mario 3 was my first game, I loved those old N64 games and I just would not beat them but instead replay certain things (Majora’s Mask was soooo easy to do this in).

Ted describing the way Jordan sits and watching him get increasingly uncomfortable right at the end of the podcast is incredible

As a future teacher, it was really nice to hear your positive experiences of teachers accommodating to your needs. I'm hoping that as someone who is also autistic and possibly has ADHD, I can make a similar difference in the lives of my students

This episode made me go on a half-hour long deep dive into the Frutiger family of aesthetics and Microsoft design languages while in the bath. I’m not sure if I should be upset or thankful.

Pharmacy technician and current med student here! Concerta is actually a really common medication (a least my area of the country), especially since the adderall storage. Drs really like this medication due to how much they can customize the dosage and it can be used in children all the way to elder!

Ted calling Eddy a podcast virgin completely forgetting about the [REDACTED] And Eddy podcast

it's nice to hear y'all talking about adhd, especially hearing jarvis talk about being diagnosed post-school age. i got my diagnosis around 17 (like 2 ish years ago), and one of the first things my psychiatrist said to me when i told him i was gonna go get evaluated by a psychologist was "but you did really well in school as a kid!" which is wild and insane considering the fact that (although i was considered a "gifted" child when i was in elementary school) my backpack was filled with crumpled up homework assignments / handouts that i never filled out or put in my notebook and i was doing so terribly in school that i basically stopped going in like 7th grade

As a graphic designer I’m loving the Frutiger Aero reference. It’s a rabbit hole I definitely fell down lol

swear to god i was listening to an old episode and was like “wow they should have ted nivison on”

Shout out for generic Vyvanse received. Been there with the anti-depressant memory lag, I get "Brain Zaps" SOO bad when I forget my SSRI's. Im glad to hear you hadn't experienced that, but its an interesting study to look into if you are ever curious. Also funny to hear about Lamictal cause I took that for seizures as a kid and now all my friends are on it for their mental health XD.