Emotion hits them more quickly and it more easily overwhelms them. The result? Big, exaggerated overreactions. What's more, children with ADHD have a tough time self-soothing; they need more time to calm down and get over grudges.
How Emotions Look in Kids With ADHD. There's no one way a child with ADHD expresses their emotions. One kid's feelings may spiral out of control when they're upset. Others may have trouble finding the motivation to do something that doesn't interest them.
When children with ADHD enter a social setting, they may have a hard time sharing, taking turns, listening, and picking up on social cues. They often become bored, distracted, or check-out of the conversation. Students with ADHD may have a hard time managing their emotions when interacting with their peers.
However, many children (and adults) with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) also struggle to regulate their emotions. This struggle manifests as big bursts of anger or frustration, or extreme giddiness that seems incongruent with the immediate situation.
Examples of trouble managing emotions
Some have trouble putting the brakes on their feelings when they're angry or stressed. Others struggle to get revved up to do something when they're feeling bored. People with ADHD might also: Be quick to get frustrated by minor annoyances.
We know that if you have ADHD you're more likely to experience a mental health problem. There's evidence that anxiety, depression, conduct disorder (persistent patterns of antisocial, aggressive or defiant behaviour), substance abuse, and sleep problems are all more common with people who have ADHD.
Preschoolers with ADHD, however, cry or scream regularly over minor situations. “Small deals” are almost always “BIG deals” with these kids, and they show it with their emotional outbursts. Waiting is nearly impossible; they feel extreme pressure to get things now.
Emotional dysregulation and managing your emotions start in the brain itself. ADHD can often result in memory impairments that allow emotional reactions that are stronger than anticipated. As a result, your brain is flooded with one intense emotion like anger, sadness, or frustration.
If you have ADHD, the processes involved in emotional regulation may not occur automatically, and you may experience emotional dysregulation. This means not being able to adapt your emotional state to meet your goals. Impulsivity and executive functioning challenges can heighten emotions.
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.
Anyone who's ever heard of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder knows that people with ADHD struggle to direct and control their attention. What's not well-known is that ADHD can also cause difficulties in controlling one's emotions, a condition psychologists refer to as emotional dysregulation.
Research suggests that hypersensitivity is common in people living with ADHD, similar to those who live with autism spectrum disorder. If you have hypersensitivity, you may be reactive to: loud and sudden noises. bright lights.
Did you know this is a symptom of their ADHD? Many parents with children who have ADHD report that their child is super talkative and typically says things without thinking about them first. Your child does not intentionally talk a mile a minute, but it just happens!
ADHD disrupts one's ability to generate accurate awareness and regulate one's thinking and actions. ADHD and related executive function challenges actually inhibit our ability to build awareness and ultimately boost emotional intelligence.
Novotni suggests that it is the tendency of people with ADHD to feel overwhelmed that leads to their hypersensitive reactions. This, in turn, contributes to their difficulty in coping emotionally. Take the routine of going to work in the morning, for example.
Kids with ADHD often feel emotions more deeply than other kids do, and love is no exception. When teens with ADHD fall in love, the good — and bad — feelings that come with it can be even more intense and more disruptive. New relationships or crushes are exciting and (mostly) enjoyable.
This is because kids with ADHD are more prone to be emotionally impulsive, which means they are more easily frustrated, impatient, excited, angry and annoyed than other kids who are the same age, sex and developmental level as them.
Due to differences in the ADHD brain, you can shift focus even more quickly, causing you to seem to lose interest in your partner or your relationship suddenly.
Hypersensitivity is a common sign in individuals with ADHD. This is one of the traits that makes it most difficult to diagnose between having ADHD or being an HSP.