Therapy and Consultation
Helping people to heal and grow in their lives.
Did you grow up with undiagnosed and/or untreated ADHD? Possibly you were prescribed medication for ADHD but not provided any tools, strategies, or structure to help you. If you didn’t get the support you needed for your ADHD, you may have endured a lot of frustration, chaos, and confusion. These experiences may have been so negative and overwhelming that you felt traumatized by them. Here are some common examples of negative experiences people with ADHD describe:
For some, the negative impact of struggling with ADHD is strong enough to trigger other mental health issues. For example:
To compound matters, many people with ADHD struggle with one or more of the following: hypersensivity to criticism, rejection sensitivity, addiction issues. anger-control problems, obsessive-compulsive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and learning disabilities.
Another factor that often increases the likelihood of negative ADHD experiences is the role of intense emotions. When the topic of ADHD arises, it’s commonly linked to academic troubles. What’s often overlooked and underappreciated is how strong people with ADHD typically feel their emotions. In fact, the diagnostic criteria for ADHD doesn’t even mention the emotional component. But research shows that those with ADHD struggle with intense emotions that flood the brain and lead to overly emotional responses.
Emotions arise in the limbic area of the brain. In the non-ADHD brain, when emotions surface, the limbic system connects with the prefrontal cortex, which is the rational part of the brain that regulates thoughts, actions, and emotions. The prefrontal cortex acts like “brakes” that slow things down and cool things off. This allows for a moment to pause, reflect, and assess the situation so that good decisions can be made. Without this pause, the ADHD brain struggles with panic, stress, emotional intensity, and over-reactions.
Negative ADHD experiences not only trigger strong emotions but commonly lead to negative beliefs about self. Common negative beliefs for those with ADHD include:
Fortunately, EMDR is very helpful with the types of negative experiences, beliefs, and other mental health issues that people with ADHD experience. In my work with ADHD, I help people with planning, developing systems and structure, and we utilize EMDR to heal the past trauma that they’ve carried from childhood into adulthood. EMDR is a powerful therapy for addressing painful emotions, negative beliefs, and difficult life events. There are many other effective strategies for working with ADHD, depending on the situation. The starting point is developing a deep understanding of your ADHD patterns and challenges. The next step is to develop systems, structure, and strategies to address challenges. Other important tools include learning to plan, chunk things down, prioritize, follow routines, minimize distractions, and regulate emotions.
It’s clear that ADHD can lead to trauma reactions, but is ADHD caused by trauma? Traumatic childhood experiences (e.g., witnessing or being victim of neglect, abuse, violence, accidents, etc.) can lead to symptoms that resemble ADHD. Furthermore, dissociative behavior, such as spacing out, which is common with trauma, can look a lot like ADHD. Trauma is undoubtedly at the root of many mental health issues but, according to research, ADHD is a brain-based, biological disorder and not due to traumatic life experiences. For example, researchers point to lower levels of the neurotransmitter’s dopamine and norepinephrine as a significant factor with ADHD. Also, brain imaging studies indicate that brain activity in those with ADHD is less active in areas of the brain that control attention, movement, and social judgment. So, while EMDR can help with the trauma that negative ADHD experiences tend to create, EMDR cannot change the way the ADHD brain is wired.
ADHD symptoms usually start to show up in early childhood, typically before age 6. Although ADHD is commonly associated with children, it continues throughout life. In fact, roughly 5% of adults in the US are diagnosed with ADHD. If you are curious if you have Adult ADHD, you can explore more with this ADHD test:
If Adult ADHD is a factor in your life and you also struggle with past trauma, EMDR may be able to help you. Feel free to contact me for more information.
