Dr. Kieran Kennedy

I really, really want to make it clear for people that having ADHD, autism, neurodivergence, this is not a blanket negative.

And so for a lot of people living with ADHD especially, it can have a lot of strengths and great things to it.

And if that's the case, people might not necessarily feel they need to get a formal kind of medical diagnostic stamp or get treatment.

Thank you so much for having me.

Well, I'm going to sound like a prick however I answer that question.

Look, I mean, it meant for some fun, you know, patient experiences during medical school and things in some ways.

But yeah, maybe a gym-obsessed bodybuilding doctor isn't what a lot of people expect possibly.

I was going to say, either people are going to say that or they're going to say, get me out of his clinic right now.

But, no, so, yeah, I've dabbled in a few different things alongside medicine, so it keeps it interesting.

A little bit.

I mean, I think thankfully being a psychiatrist means the patient Dr. Bountress are pretty firm with psychiatrists.

But yeah, a little bit like, you know, a lot of joking, which is good, but probably as we'll go into as well, I think.

Maybe looking not your stereotypical psychiatrist and doing fitness modelling and bodybuilding and things.

I think it's now meant that I, in a weird way, get to do things like this because I think that's kind of what kicked off a lot of this initial media work and speaking work.

And I think people were interested to talk to someone about touchy-feelys and mental health, but who also was kind of doing bodybuilding shows and things.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's been a bit of a wild career ride.

But yeah, no, I mean, thank you, Annie, for that.

Visiting family, yeah, so whānau brings me back here pretty regularly, so it's always so nice to be back in Auckland.

I grew up in Waiuku, so not too far from Auckland, but then moved into the big smoke for uni and went to Auckland University for way too many years, to be honest.