Hello brains! Did you know ADHD affects our emotions? Like, all our emotions? :::intro music::: I've always been told I was "too sensitive;" I cry easily, I get excited easily, and my mom deserves some sort of combat award for surviving the emotional storm that was me growing up. Turns out what creates this emotional roller coaster is something called emotional dysregulation, and it's a big part of how ADHD affects our lives, but I didn't know that because - The DSM, which is what doctors use to diagnose ADHD, doesn't even mention it! Inattention, impulsivity, hyperactivity... Nope! Which is kind of weird if it's such a big part of ADHD Right? Well, there's a story behind that and it's super interesting. Wait for it... Cool history stuff! :::glass breaking:::: :::helicoptor engine and wind sounds::: That looks fine, it looks fine. :::cool HISTORY stuff intro::: Basically, ADHD is nothing new. It's gone through a bunch of name changes over the years but the symptoms have been documented as far back as the late 1700s and the trouble with emotions we tend to experience has always been a part of its description - until the 1970s. What happened in the 1970s? Researchers get serious. Understandably, they wanted to focus on the aspects of ADHD they could measure in a lab and emotions are kind of hard to measure in a lab. Based on their findings, the first official DSM descriptions of ADHD were born and even though later evidence of emotional dysregulation kept showing up in ADHD research it was kind of too late to add it back in. But the understanding of ADHD is improving all the time and whether it ever makes it into the DSM or not it's now understood that there is a connection between ADHD and emotional dysregulation. More research needs to be done, but for now this is what we know. Those of us with ADHD experience normal emotions. As in, it's totally understandable that you got upset when that person insulted you -
most people would - but the way we feel and respond to those emotions can be more intense and last longer than it does for neurotypical brains. Why? Even though we experience normal emotions, our brains have trouble regulating those emotions. The ability to regulate our emotions is what allows us to calm down and make good choices when something gets us worked up. Sounds simple but emotional self-regulation is actually a pretty complicated four-part process and it relies on stuff the ADHD brain tends to have trouble with. First, inhibition, as in not impulsively reacting to an emotion. Not super easy for those of us who are naturally impulsive. In fact, according to Dr. Russell Barclay, the more generally impulsive we are, the more emotionally impulsive we are too. And with that kind of impulsivity, we may not even make it to the next part. Two! Self soothing - the ability to calm down that initial emotion. Most of us do have ways to self-soothe, but they're not always healthy. Three. Refocusing our attention - literally the exact problem that we yeah, yep. Moving on. Four. Responding in a way that makes sense based on our goals. This shouldn't be too hard, right? We just have to remember what our goals are, then be able to remember what the other person said, what we wanted to say, how it worked out for us the last time we responded that way, consider all the different variables in this particular situation, and then predict the possible different outcomes based on those responses and then choose the best action that fits with our goals! Actually, that's a lot for somebody with ADHD We have limited working memory. This kind of trouble with emotional self-regulation is obviously a problem for things like anger and frustration and that's a lot of what gets us into trouble at school, work, and in our relationships. But ADHDers experience emotional dysregulation with other emotions too. Sadness, happiness, even fear. It can affect us in ways we may not even realize. As in we are working on an important assignment and someone we like texts us! The excitement makes us respond to the text, forget about the assignment, and five hours later that assignment isn't done! Even though it's A) really important and B) due tomorrow. Is emotional dysregulation all bad? I don't think so. Personally, I love feeling and expressing strong emotions. I get excited easily and for the most part that makes me pretty fun to be around. And I love hanging out with other ADHD brains for the same reason - we're passionate, interesting, expressive people. Besides emotions are a good thing, they communicate to us. They motivate us. Me acting impulsively on my emotions is the reason this channel exists. But for those times when emotional dysregulation makes us not so fun to be around or gets in the way of our goals... What's a brain to do? Well like any ADHD symptom emotional dysregulation varies from person to person and even from situation to situation, so first it helps to figure out when and how it is getting in the way of your goals. A great way to do that is to use an emotion tracker. You can create your own or use this one which we link to in the description below. Basically, when you have an emotional reaction pay attention to it. Afterward write down what happened, what you felt, how you reacted, and the consequences good and bad of that reaction. No judging! This is for informational purposes only. Try to have a sense of curiosity about it. "Wow, when I put off studying completely I feel really guilty and embarrassed, but when I work on it even a little I feel better, huh." "I totally get angry and defensive every time my boss points out that I'm late." "It does not work out well for my diet when I offer to buy everybody donuts." Pretty quickly you should start to get a sense of when your emotional reactions are getting you into trouble or throwing you off your goals. The good news is there are plenty of strategies that can help. I'll go into some of those in future episodes, and I've linked to some great articles as well. But even better news, just the act of noticing your emotions can help you slow down your emotional reactions. So you have time to decide how you want to respond instead of just reacting. It's called mindfulness and according to research it works. That's it for this week. Give it a shot! Let us know how it goes. Of course if emotional dysregulation is really getting in the way of your life it can help to work with a therapist. Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, in particular is great for those of us with ADHD. Special thanks to Patrick for being an amazing research consultant and suggesting the emotion tracker. Thanks to Alex Pastusco for creating an actual combat award that you can print out and give to a heart in your life! There's two links in the description below one like mine and the other one that you can fill out yourself. You know what you did. And of course thank you to my brain advocates and all my patreon brains. Because of you, Edward and I are able to work nearly full time on these videos, and they're really making a difference. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Like, subscribe, click all the things and I will see you next week. Bye brains! Question time - LLMYouTube asks - are there any tips you can offer for ADHD people who are trying to organize their thoughts for things like writing essays, etc.? Yes! I have to write these episodes every week and it is really hard for me to organize my thoughts as well. So before I even start to write I do a brain dump. Just put everything you think might be helpful on the page without worrying about the order or anything, Literally, as it comes to you write it down. Like just dump. Blah. Once your ideas are on paper it's a lot easier to organize them than if you're still trying to hold them in your head. I usually do a brain dump first, outline second, then write. That's my process. Hope it helps. You can also try things like mind mapping which we'll go into in future episodes...
