ADHD Explained

A little education for those who don’t know what ADHD is or what the causes of our difficulties are. Yes folks, it is real. We aren’t just jumping on a bandwagon. We’ve had our eyes opened after a lifetime of masking who we really are, trying to fit in, trying so bloody hard to fit in and for some of us, never getting anywhere. Successful ADHDers (and we can be hugely successful) are the lucky ones

ADHD is a nerodevelopmental condition where the brain is literally wired differently, affecting executive function, emotion regulation and attention. There are three subtypes of ADHD: Hyperactive, Innative and Combined. Specific brain structures affected are:

• The Prefrontal Cortex which regulates behaviour, emotions and attention. People with ADHD tend towards hyperactivity, inattention and poor decision making as a result.

• The Basal Ganglia responsible for motor learning (picking up skills through repetition), also helps regulate behavior, emotions, and the ability to plan, focus, and multi-task; all of which are affected by ADHD.

• The Default Mode Network (DMN) is active when we are at rest enabling daydreaming. In an ADHD brain, the DMN has difficulty switching off. Where normally it would relay messages to the Prefrontal Cortex to switch tasks, in ADHD the process is slow and therefore we can get stuck daydreaming or in undesired mental wandering.

• The Limbic System is a set of brain structures including the hippocampus, hypothalamus, thalamus and amygdala:

  • The hippocampus is responsible for memory formation and spatial navigation; your ability to know where you are, where you want to go and plan to get there. People with ADHD suffer from poor working memory and a poor sense of direction.

  • The hypothalamus controls the autonomic nervous system and hormone release. People with ADHD can be stuck in sympathetic dominance (fight-flight mode). They have difficulty managing stress as the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Axis (HPA), responsible for the stress response is dysregulated. They are affected by dysregulated cortisol affecting their ability to wake up.

  • The amygdala is the brain’s emotional alarm system. In ADHD it can be smaller resulting in altered connectivity with the prefrontal cortex, the result of which is an overactive amygdala which explains the difficulty in emotional regulation, rejection sensitivity dysphoria and impulsivity.

  • The thalamus relays sensory signals to the cortex. It can be reduced in volume in people with ADHD causing inattention and difficulty switching tasks, hence our ability to occasionally hyper-focus but comorbid with emotional dysregulation, if you try to drag someone away from a task on which they are hyper focused, they can have an emotional outburst.

Research shows that these brain structures and regions can be supported by various Yoga and Mindfulness practices which will be the subject of future posts.

In the meantime, why not read A Day in the Life of a Woman with ADHD to understand how it affects me.