Sometimes, being argumentative or even saying mean things can stem from an inability to slow down and recognize how other people are reacting or feeling. This again falls into impulsivity and hyperactivity. But if you were to call out someone with ADHD as rude, they may respond by being defensive.
Many people with ADHD have behaviors that get them in trouble. Some people might tell lies. Others may have angry outbursts. These actions or words can be hurtful to others.
The core issue remains the same, though: some ADHD behaviors can look similar to narcissism or a lack of empathy or awareness. For instance, the impulsivity seen in ADHD can appear as an indifference to others.
Problems with emotional dysregulation, in particular with anger reactivity, are very common in people with ADHD. You are not alone in struggling in this area. Anger may indicate an associated mood problem but often is just part of the ADHD. Either way, changes in traditional ADHD treatment can be very helpful.
Common ADHD-Related Problems
Impulsive spending or overspending. Starting fights or arguing. Trouble maintaining friendships and romantic relationships. Speeding and dangerous driving.
Controlling behavior and distrust. Abusive — this is also inclusive of emotionally abusive behaviors, such as gaslighting, love bombing, breadcrumbing etc. Disrespectful. Financial abuse or dishonesty.
Many people with ADHD are, if anything, argument-averse. And certainly, you needn't have ADHD to be an argumentative son of a gun. Yet, some individuals with ADHD do habitually bait others into heated disagreements. It's typically a subconscious behavior.
In one study, researchers found that people with self-reported ADHD symptoms earned lower scores for affective empathy compared to other participants. However, they were still within the range of what's considered typical for empathy levels overall.
Similarly, people with ADHD can also experience 'meltdowns' more commonly than others, which is where emotions build up so extremely that someone acts out, often crying, angering, laughing, yelling and moving all at once, driven by many different emotions at once – this essentially resembles a child tantrum and can ...
Frustration. Frustration is an emotion that stems from challenges that stand in the way of goals. The ability to deal with frustration is known as frustration tolerance. Low tolerance to frustration can mean that people with ADHD feel frustrated quickly, and this can quickly result in anger outbursts.
Many people with ADHD experience RSD — an intense emotional reaction to being criticized or rejected. While RSD is not always clinically recognized, it's real and powerful. There's still a lot we don't know about rejection sensitivity dysphoria, so more research is needed.
We're extremely sensitive to disapproval, rejection, and criticism. We might interpret a colleague's reaction to something we proposed as criticism, disapproval, or even insult, when none was intended. We tend to react self-defensively, or worse, angrily. Rejection sensitivity is extremely common in people with ADHD.
ADHD Contributes to Your Tendency to Get Frustrated or Angry
And when your frontal lobe is working it can help keep your emotions under control. But because of the imbalance of dopamine and norepinephrine in the ADHD brain, your frontal lobe doesn't do this efficiently.
Our ADHD kids are already used to feeling like they're bad or wrong, and apologies just exacerbate that concept. What I see more often in autistic and ADHD kids is over-apologizing, or apologizing too much. This happens when kids have low self-esteem and believe that they are constantly doing things wrong.
Many people with ADHD have difficulty with heightened emotions and lesser-known symptoms like emotional dysregulation.
Increased anxiety: Yelling may trigger a “fight or flight” response, aggravating ADHD symptoms. Diminished self-esteem: Chronic exposure to harsh words could cause a decline in self-worth and self-confidence.
A brain dump gets all the ideas out of the head by listing them on a single sheet of paper or writing each one on a Post-It note.
Yes. Research indicates that ADHD and NPD can co-occur and often do. Longitudinal research also indicates that childhood ADHD may increase the chance of someone developing a personality disorder, including NPD.
Social Skills in Adults with ADHD. Individuals with ADHD often experience social difficulties, social rejection, and interpersonal relationship problems as a result of their inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. Such negative interpersonal outcomes cause emotional pain and suffering.
People with ADHD can still be good friends that others can rely on, even though they might not have the best social skills. We are straightforward and can talk face-to-face about our problems instead of beating around the bush.
It's all about the natural extremes of ADHD brains. They are both extra good at forgiving (or maybe it's actually forgetting) but can also have an exceptionally difficult time of it as well.
“[People with ADHD] often struggle socially because they may miss subtle social cues; lose focus mid-conversation and realize they've not heard most of what the other person has said to them; or they may impulsively make statements which come across as inappropriate or rude without meaning to,” writes Natalia van ...
ADHD brains crave stimulation, and they just might chase relationship drama to get it. Next time you catch yourself (or your partner) falling into these common traps — outlined here by Dr. Daniel Amen — take a step back and re-evaluate.