How Emotional Permanence Affects ADHD Adults

Reading time: 6 minutes

— Reviewed by Dr. Sandip Roy.

Resilience researchers say you should embrace diverse experiences to learn how to cope better in difficult times. And coping gets easier when you have emotional permanence.

Emotional permanence is your ability to retain and recall how an emotion, positive or negative, feels even when you are not experiencing it at present.

However, people with ADHD have an altered relationship with emotional permanence.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neuroatypical disorder that plagues millions of people with impulsivity, hyperactivity, and difficulty concentrating.

ADHD And The Struggle With Emotional Permanence

People with attention deficit disorder lack emotional permanence — they cannot fully retain or recall an emotion they have had in the past. This affects their ability to hold on to positive feelings or let go of negative ones. It may be rooted in their ADHD-given emotional and mood instability.

Their low emotional permanence can:

  • reduce their self-esteem,
  • lower their overall well-being,
  • make it challenging to keep their jobs, or
  • make it difficult to form/keep meaningful relationships.
Emotional Permanence In ADHD Adults

How ADHD Affects Emotional Regulation

People with ADHD struggle to stay focused on one emotion for long. It’s often difficult for them to maintain emotional engagement during lengthy tasks.

For instance, they cannot stay focused on the conversation or continue feeling the same emotion (say, empathy) while a friend is talking for a long time.

Let’s explore this deeper.

Emotional permanence is a vital skill for regulating emotions. It lets us draw from past emotional experiences and apply them to the present, giving stability and resilience to our emotions.

But people with ADHD are not good at regulating their emotions:

  • They have trouble directing and holding their attention, which makes it hard to control their task-focused emotions.
  • They struggle with executive functioning skills — planning, organization, and decision-making — which further impairs their ability to manage emotions.

Lack of emotional permanence is a major issue for individuals with ADHD. So, they don’t always recognize that emotions are temporary and that they need to retain their emotional experiences.

As a result, they might switch away quickly from positive emotions or remain stuck in negative emotions.

These impulsive emotional responses and lack of attention can strain their relationships.

Did you know about the dark side of ADHD?

How Can ADHD People Develop Emotional Permanence

People with ADHD have these proven strategies to increase their emotional permanence:

1. Mindfulness Practice

Mindfulness can help you develop better emotional control skills.

Regular mindfulness practice teaches us to be more aware of our emotions, while not becoming overly attached to any of them

  • This lets us allow negative emotions to pass without triggering annoyance or violence.
  • This also helps us savor the positive emotions more fully, as long as they naturally last.

2. Exercise and Physical Activity

Exercise can help manage emotions in those with ADHD.

Studies found that exercise can improve cognitive functions, attention, motor preparation, and emotional inhibition in people with ADHD. Exercise was also seen to boost mood, regulate emotions, and reduce inner tension in ADHD.

The neurochemicals released during exercise (dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor) could be responsible for this effect.

3. Social Support

Surrounding yourself with supportive friends and family members can be beneficial for managing emotions and improving overall well-being in individuals with ADHD.

4. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT (Cognitive behavioral therapy) focuses on changing negative thought patterns and behaviors, and applying new coping techniques to real-world situations.

CBT can build sustainable behavioral changes in adults with ADHD:

  • CBT therapists guide patients to uncover the root causes of their ADHD struggles.
  • They help ADHD’ers recognize and challenge negative thought patterns and self-beliefs that interfere with their daily functioning.
  • CBT helps develop coping strategies and practical skills to manage their common struggles like procrastination, disorganization, and time management.
  • It can improve their self-esteem, productivity, and overall happiness when used in combination with ADHD medication.

5. Prescription Medications

Medical doctors may prescribe certain drugs to help people with ADHD manage their impulsivity, improve their focus, and control their emotions.

10 Thought Patterns of An ADHD Brain

  1. Fortune telling. Predicting that things will turn out badly.
  2. Mental filtering. Seeing only the negative aspects of an experience.
  3. All-or-nothing thinking. Viewing everything as entirely good or entirely bad.
  4. Personalization. Blame self for negative events and downplay the responsibility of others.
  5. Comparative thinking. Measuring self against others (often unrealistically) and feeling inferior.
  6. Overgeneralization. Seeing a single negative event as part of a pattern, using “always” statements.
  7. Magnification and minimization. Exaggerating minor issues while trivializing big accomplishments.
  8. Mind reading. Thinking that one knows what others think about them or something they have done.
  9. “Should” statements. Focus on how things should be, causing self-criticism and anger toward others.
  10. Emotional reasoning. Assuming negative feelings reflect reality (whereas the truth is, our emotions are not always telling us the truth).

FAQs

  1. Does ADHD cause emotional detachment?

    No, ADHD itself does not cause emotional detachment. However, individuals with ADHD may struggle with emotional regulation, which can result in difficulties with expressing and experiencing emotions.

    Moreover, certain ADHD symptoms, like impulsiveness and distractibility, can make it difficult for them to form and sustain close relationships, giving the impression of emotional detachment.

  2. Does ADHD make it harder to express emotions?

    Yes, people with ADHD may find it hard to express their emotions fully and effectively. This could be related to their challenges with emotional regulation and impulse control, as well as executive functioning skills like planning, organization, and decision-making.

    Together, these turn them into ineffective communicators of emotions, making it difficult for them to build and maintain close personal relationships. Ultimately, it can make them appear as emotionally detached people.

Final Words

Emotional permanence is a real challenge faced by ADHD’ers.

Despite this, with the correct support and resources, they can successfully manage the hurdles of emotional regulation and reach their full potential.


√ Also Read: How to Stop Self-Sabotage if You Have ADHD?

√ Please spread the word if you found this helpful.

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