Anxiety and the ADHD Brain

The topic of anxiety comes up very often in ADHD coaching sessions. Anxiety occurs when a situation causes your amygdala (the part of your brain involved in emotions) to hijack control of your response to stress. The amygdala disables the frontal lobes of your brain and activates the fight-or-flight response. You are unable to think clearly or act rationally, since the frontal lobes control higher-level thinking, such as reasoning, impulse control, and problem solving. (Source)

In the ADHD brain, anxiety can lead to complete paralysis and the inability to initiate a task or follow through with one. In coaching, we sometimes refer to this as anticipatory anxiety, since it is the fear negative events that have not occurred yet. The ADHD brain likes to jump around between the past and the future, even though the body remains in the present.

How can you align your mind with your body so that you can be comfortable in the present moment? Aha! Mindfulness training, meditation and breath work. Anxiety can come from negative self-talk: I’m not good enough. Or I don’t deserve this. How can you turn around negative self talk? Enter the field of positive psychology. How can retrain your thought patterns and relieve stress? Enter Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). How can you manage anxiety not just in yourself, but in others? In a classroom or at home?

The topics of positive psychology, CBT, and EFT will be covered in various sessions of Turbo Thinktank™, an incredible event Mind Coach NOLA is hosting on November 16. Come learn and practice solutions. Come meet your tribe. We’re all in this together. For more information about the event and to register, click here.