ADHD and emotions - episode 3

Today a little less research and a bit more reflection as I am recovering from a 72 hour migraine, the result of not listening to my body. Whenever I get close to burnout my body throws me strong hints. The last few months it has been IBS, which in itself is a sort of migraine, and now my body clearly felt that I needed another hint and it has thrown me a vestibular migraine, an amazing combination of brain fog, vertigo, stiff neck, aching body, and general malaise.

It is particularly galling that this happens when I am about to start a pilot programme all about emotions and ADHD. You would think that knowing so much about the emotional side of ADHD that I would manage my own better, but no. I have the knowledge but am just as likely to fail at actually doing the practice. And so I will be participating fully in each session as I need it as much as any other participant.

In the first session (on the 1st of August) I will be discussing ADHD and emotions in general and give some of the reasons for it. This includes the impact of always feeling that we ‘should’ do better and that we ‘should’ not feel things as strongly. It is odd that we always talk about rejection sensitivity without ever mentioning that it is ALL the emotions that are super intense. Yes, I struggle with rejection but I also struggle with an ocean’s deep sense of sadness at times. And yet it is worth it to me as long as I still get those highs, those intense transcendent moments of incredible bliss when listening to certain music or seeing the light of dusk or dawn scatter on rain drops.

It isn’t that I don’t want these emotions. I want to be able to pause the cascade of them when they are not helpful. I want to be able to stop those negative spirals of self castigation. Usually I can do this fairly easily. Right now however I live in functional fight or flight and have to stop myself from literally getting into my van and driving far far away to escape my life. Actually it is not my life that I want to escape from. It is the ever increasing demands of my life. It is the overwhelm of having too many things to do. Of too much chaos in my head to give me the calmness that I need to sort things out.

ADHD paralysis is not due to our brain wiring. It is a trauma response due to overwhelm. To deal with it, we need to deal with the overwhelm, not try to ‘push through’ as that will make the overwhelm worse.

If this has made you curious and you would like to know more, join us for the ADHD Emotion Intensive. As it is a pilot programme, it is heavily discounted and available for a minimum of £100 for the bundle of all four sessions.

We cover:

General introduction to ADHD and emotions

Trauma responses and the autonomic nervous system

The specifics of ADHD brainwiring that influence our emotional responses

Working with our inner child

To book, follow this link https://www.scatterbraincoaching.co.uk/offers/cy7bwD4B