According to reports, a lot of people with ADHD often experience zoning or spacing out multiple times during the day. And sometimes, these instances affect how we function in our daily lives, especially when our focus is essential to the task at hand.
Zoning out is one of the more common warning signs of ADHD in both children and adults. Zoning out in conversations with family, or meetings at work are a reflection of attention issues, which is a leading sign in the diagnosis of ADHD.
These are all symptoms of Inattentive-Type ADHD; they are not personal defects. A student with inattentive ADHD may quietly stare out the window while her work goes unfinished; this 'spacey' or 'daydreamy' behavior is overlooked or mischaracterized as laziness or apathy.
If you hide your adult ADHD symptoms from other people, that's called masking. Basically, you're trying to seem more “normal” or “regular.” ADHD causes some people to act hyperactive or impulsive. It makes other folks have trouble paying attention. And still other adults have a combination of those symptoms.
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.
The Mini ADHD Coach Medical Advisor says: “Zoning out is a common core symptom of Inattentive-type ADHD when your brain involuntarily shifts focus from the task at hand. The reason this occurs is due to the differences in connectivity between brain networks that conduct where you should (or want to) focus.
You might start feeling numb or emotionally unavailable. You might also begin to feel a sense of unreality, as if the world around you or even you aren't real. Often, you'll find yourself “checking out” involuntarily or “spacing out” in the middle of doing something.
Zoning out is considered a type of dissociation, which is a feeling of being disconnected from the world around you. Some people experience severe dissociation, but "zoning out" is considered a much milder form. Daydreaming is the most common kind of zoning or spacing out.
Spacing Out With ADHD
It's an involuntary process that happens even when you are actively trying to pay attention. If you've ever started reading a book, only to find yourself lost in thought or staring at the page without really seeing or comprehending the words, that was spacing out.
Differences in emotions in people with ADHD can lead to 'shutdowns', where someone is so overwhelmed with emotions that they space out, may find it hard to speak or move and may struggle to articulate what they are feeling until they can process their emotions.
People with ADHD are often more externally oriented, seeking stimulation in their environments. This pursuit of stimulation can result in being disconnected, dismissive, and unaware of important internal cues that are essential in healthy functioning.
Additionally, the stress that ADHD may cause can feel exhausting, especially if a person's symptoms are not well controlled. Missing deadlines, forgetting school work, and not meeting household demands may feel overwhelming or exhausting.
In contrast, ADHD is a condition that affects a person's attention, activity, and impulse control. It primarily affects behavior, not mood. Symptoms are ongoing rather than occurring in episodes.
People who have ADHD frequently experience emotions so deeply that they become overwhelmed or “flooded.” They may feel joy, anger, pain, or confusion in a given situation—and the intensity may precede impulsive behaviors they regret later.
With ADHD, a child or teen may have rapid or impulsive speech, physical restlessness, trouble focusing, irritability, and, sometimes, defiant or oppositional behavior.
A very common (also annoying and distressing) element of ADHD is 'time blindness'. Adults with ADHD often have a weaker perception of time and it has been proposed that this symptom is a possible diagnostic characteristic. 'Time blindness' can mean you are always late, or always way too early to avoid being late.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common mental disorders affecting children. Symptoms of ADHD include inattention (not being able to keep focus), hyperactivity (excess movement that is not fitting to the setting) and impulsivity (hasty acts that occur in the moment without thought).
You're overwhelmed, frozen in place, and can't even think about what to do first. That's exactly what ADHD paralysis feels like. ADHD paralysis happens when a person with ADHD is overwhelmed by their environment or the amount of information given.
The ADHD-customized Power Hour combines the powers of body double, timers, element of surprise, and rewards to make tackling the hardest tasks fun or at least doable for us squirrel-brained folks.
Lack of consistency. Toxic communication — such as contempt, criticism, and sarcasm. Controlling behavior and distrust. Abusive — this is also inclusive of emotionally abusive behaviors, such as gaslighting, love bombing, breadcrumbing etc.
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.
Women with ADHD face the same feelings of being overwhelmed and exhausted as men with ADHD commonly feel. Psychological distress, feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem, and chronic stress are common. Often, women with ADHD feel that their lives are out of control or in chaos, and daily tasks may seem impossibly huge.
High IQ may “mask” the diagnosis of ADHD by compensating for deficits in executive functions in treatment-naïve adults with ADHD.