If you’re considering therapy because you’re experiencing things like anxiety, difficulty concentrating, issues with motivation and organization, and big emotions that seem to come out of nowhere, you might be wondering if you’re dealing with the effects of trauma or if it’s actually ADHD. It could actually be both.
As awareness and understanding of both trauma and neurodiversity like ADHD grows, we are learning more about how they happen and the similarities and differences between them. There are many similarities between the symptoms of ADHD and trauma, particularly complex or developmental trauma that occurs in childhood. Researchers have also found that ADHD and trauma are likely to occur together.
Why are people with ADHD more likely to experience trauma?
We don’t yet fully understand why this is the case, but there are a few possible scenarios. One is that it is traumatizing to try to navigate a world designed for neurotypical people with a neurodiverse brain. The frequent failures, criticisms and challenges can become internalized and set up both a harsh inner critic and a strong drive to avoid situations that are likely to result in those same experiences. Another is that ADHD brains are more sensitive to begin with, which makes it more likely that events will be experienced as overwhelming and traumatic. Finally, a lack of understanding can result in lack of empathy from others, meaning that children with ADHD are more likely to be blamed (or not even seen, as is often the case of inattentive ADHD) rather than supported through their challenges. All of these scenarios involve overwhelm and aloneness, which are key ingredients that contribute to an experience being traumatic.
ADHD, trauma and other mental health challenges
Just like with PTSD, people who are living with ADHD traits and symptoms are often given multiple mental health diagnoses. In fact, ADHD has one of the highest rates of co-morbidity (when someone meets the criteria for more than one mental health diagnosis at the same time) of any mental health diagnosis. According to CADDRA (https://www.caddra.ca/), 85% of adults with ADHD also have another diagnosis, with the most common being substance use disorder, anxiety and depression, along with tic disorder, autism and bipolar disorder. The good news is that when people begin to access support for ADHD symptoms, their challenges with their co-occurring disorders are more likely to improve. And this makes sense – if you are anxious or depressed because of the way ADHD impacts your life, reducing those impacts can significantly improve your confidence, sense of hope, and possibility.
Improving symptoms of ADHD and trauma
Whether you’re dealing with ADHD, trauma, or both, we don’t need to clearly differentiate between the two to help reduce the impact of symptoms. When working with a therapist who is trauma-informed, neurodiversity affirming and aware of how systems of oppression impact people, their focus will be on helping you see and relate to yourself in a positive way, while acknowledging the impacts of the experiences you’ve been through. Focusing on safety, support, accommodations and flexibly regulating through different nervous system states can be helpful whether your symptoms are due to trauma, ADHD or both.
This approach isn’t about “curing” or “fixing” your ADHD. Current research says that ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a powerful genetic component. This means that ADHD traits are part of how our nervous systems are wired, are present from childhood, and are inherited. Just like you inherit your eye colour, height or body shape from your biological parents, you also inherit neurological traits like ADHD. You wouldn’t blame someone for needing a step stool to reach a high shelf if they are short, or for needing to duck under a low doorway if they are tall. It is the same for ADHD accommodations. We don’t get to control the genetics we inherit or the experiences we lived through as kids, but we do get to choose how we work with what we’ve got now. Therapy can help us widen the range of choices, opening up some space for new ways of moving through life.