Managing ADHD

I understand your or your child’s struggles…

Hyperfocus

Have you talked about yourself “getting in the zone” or “hitting a groove”?

These are common ways of describing that state of hyperfocus – that intense concentration on a particular task during which you feel you can accomplish anything!

Adults with ADD may lose all sense of how much time has passed.

Children often hear, “If you can focus on that book/videogame/TV show/movie, then you can focus on your math homework!”

Emotional Hyperarousal

I’m always tense. I can never relax.

I can’t just sit there and watch a TV program with the rest of the family.

I can’t turn my brain and body off to go to sleep at night.

If you have ADHD, you have passionate thoughts and emotions that are more intense than those of the average person. Your highs are higher, and your lows are lower. This means you may experience both happiness and criticism more powerfully than your peers and loved ones do.

Many people with ADHD are first misdiagnosed with a mood disorder. Adults usually see multiple clinicians and go through several antidepressant trials before being diagnosed with ADHD.

Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD)

This is a particular vulnerability to the perception (not necessarily the reality) of being rejected, teased, or criticized by important people in your life. RSD causes extreme emotional pain that can also be triggered by a sense of failure or falling short – failing to meet your high standards or others’ expectations.

I can’t find the words to tell you what it feels like, but I can hardly stand it.

RSD is often experienced as physical pain, as though you’re being stabbed or struck right in the center of your chest. You probably hide this intense emotional reaction from other people because of the shame you feel over your lack of control or because you don’t want people to know about this intense vulnerability.

Emotional Impulsivity

As with emotional hyperarousal, impulsivity can make a mess and chaos.

You experience the turmoil of lightning-speed emotions and sudden release and recovery that has the person on the receiving end’s head spinning. As with actions, emotions can be impulsive as well, creating a challenge of unreliable and confusing states of being.