Despite overthinking being a prominent feature for most people with ADHD, it's also worth knowing that some people living with ADHD do the exact opposite. Some develop no thinking or reflecting methods to deal with their ADHD brains.
This means ADHD and overthinking kind of go hand in hand. The ADHD brain grasps hold of your thoughts and runs away with them, while emotions keep the engine running. Thinking of a project due tomorrow turns into worrying about a project due tomorrow, which turns into reviewing everything wrong you've ever done… ever.
Because your brain works faster than people without ADHD, you can do more thinking loops than your non-ADHD peers. This means you experience more of these negative feelings. It is helpful to reflect back on a situation and see what worked and what you would do differently next time.
People have often developed many strategies to help them manage these difficulties like; keeping a diary, planning, setting reminders and writing lists. Finding out more strategies that help can help people manage day to day. Some people with ADHD may have problems with anxiety/ worry and feeling low at times.
Living with ADHD is about monitoring your traits and actively working toward finding what works best for you. With the right support and treatment, you can create a life that allows you to reach your greatest potential.
“Nobody has perfect memory… but for [people with ADHD], it's extreme. They feel like they're lost all the time,” Almagor said. He believes this is why people don't take ADHD seriously. “I think that's why some people don't respect the severity of what [a person with ADHD] can experience,” he said.
At Work or School
Research has found that people with ADHD have more creativity and idea generation than people without the disorder. 3 This can lead to outside-the-box thinking that is so important for innovation. Hyper-focus: Many people with ADHD become hyper-focused on things that interest them.
Stress-impaired executive function diminishes working memory and impulse control, as well as mental flexibility and coping skills. Stress also makes it hard for people with ADHD to focus and sustain their attention.
Untreated ADHD in adults can lead to mental health disorders like anxiety and depression. This is because ADHD symptoms can lead to focus, concentration, and impulsivity problems. When these problems are not managed effectively, they can lead to feelings of frustration, irritability, and low self-esteem.
Though most patients will require some trial and error, medications remain a highly effective treatment for ADHD. About 80% of people who have the condition will improve on medication.
Executive functions have other roles which affect how someone thinks. In people with ADHD, these executive dysfunctions impact thinking in numerous ways. People with ADHD don't really think faster than people without it, but it can sometimes seem like they do. People with ADHD do think differently though, in a sense.
People with autism, engineers, and those with ADHD tend to say they think in pictures; teachers, in words, and when a word-thinker hears that there are those who think not in words, but pictures, they often are flabbergasted, taken aback, and have a hard time bending their mind around this alien thought form.
For anyone with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), task overwhelm can be a real problem. Just thinking about all the things that need to be done can be overwhelming, and it can be difficult to know where to start. This can lead to feelings of anxiety and stress, and it can be tough to get anything done.
Focusing on breathing forces you to clear your mind and helps to give you a moment's clarity. Secondly, deep breathing helps to release endorphins as well as helps to clear your body of toxins. Endorphins help you feel better overall and getting rid of toxins in your body can improve your overall wellbeing.
One of the main causes of racing thoughts in individuals with ADHD is an overactive brain. People with ADHD tend to have a higher level of activity in the areas of the brain responsible for attention and decision-making, leading to a constant stream of thoughts that are difficult to control.
Yet, we know one of the hallmark challenges for ADHD adults is self-regulation, which involves multiple executive functions, including, yes, internalized self-talk.
Adults diagnosed with ADHD often blame themselves for their problems or view themselves in a negative light. This can lead to self-esteem issues, anxiety, or depression.
Common ADHD-Related Problems
Impulsive spending or overspending. Starting fights or arguing. Trouble maintaining friendships and romantic relationships. Speeding and dangerous driving.
Adults with ADHD may find it difficult to focus and prioritize, leading to missed deadlines and forgotten meetings or social plans. The inability to control impulses can range from impatience waiting in line or driving in traffic to mood swings and outbursts of anger.
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 ...
Emotions Rule
In fact, current diagnostic criteria for ADHD include no mention of “problems with emotions.” Yet recent research reveals that those with ADHD have significantly more difficulty with low frustration tolerance, impatience, hot temper, and excitability than a control group.
ADHD burnout is often something a little deeper. It refers to the cycle of overcommitting and overextending that leads to fatigue in people with ADHD. It involves taking on too many tasks and commitments, and then the subsequent exhaustion that happens when we're unable to fulfill all of our obligations.
Adults with ADHD rarely fall asleep easily, sleep soundly through the night, and then wake up feeling refreshed. More often, ADHD's mental and physical restlessness disturbs a person's sleep patterns — and the ensuing exhaustion hurts overall health and treatment. This is widely accepted as true.
Is ADHD considered a mental illness or disorder? ADHD is considered a psychiatric disorder because its symptoms involve mental functioning and cause significant impairment.