Frequent and overwhelming intrusive thoughts are common in people with ADHD, OCD, and autism.
Many people with ADHD express frustration with the frequency and depth of negative and intrusive thoughts. These thoughts can be painful, and they may grow and grow until they affect daily life.
Some ADHD group members have said that they often have thoughts of self-harm, sexual acts, or violence running through their minds. ADHD can cause these types of intrusive thoughts because it weakens the brain's executive functions responsible for controlling your emotions and behaviors.
People with OCD tend to have obsessive thoughts, which they try to prevent by engaging in repetitive rituals, or compulsions. In contrast, a person with ADHD typically presents with excessive hyperactivity and impulsivity and difficulty focusing on one task at a time.
The hyperactivity in the DMN can lead to a constant stream of thoughts that are difficult to control. Furthermore, individuals with ADHD often have co-occurring mental health conditions, such as anxiety or depression, which can contribute to the experience of intrusive thoughts.
It's when your thoughts get caught in a loop, and you go over and over the same thoughts without feeling better or finding a resolution. Your thinking might get stuck on day to day worries or on future events.
ADHDers—people with ADHD—can also experience intrusive thoughts that are repetitive, distressing, or just flat-out strange. It's not uncommon to have intrusive thoughts, but frequently experiencing them may be a symptom of your ADHD (if you have ADHD) or possibly something else.
Obsessing and ruminating are often part of living with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). No matter how hard you try to ignore them, those negative thoughts just keep coming back, replaying themselves in an infinite loop.
People with ADHD have passionate thoughts and emotions that are more intense than those of the average person. Their highs are higher and their lows are lower. This means you may experience both happiness and criticism more powerfully than your peers and loved ones do.
Racing thoughts in ADHD can be a mental manifestation of restlessness, a result of your brain's unique self-regulation processes. While sometimes confused with racing thoughts in bipolar disorder, an ADHD active mind may last for an hour, a day, or a couple of days.
Intrusive thoughts can be a symptom of anxiety, depression, or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
People with ADHD will have at least two or three of the following challenges: difficulty staying on task, paying attention, daydreaming or tuning out, organizational issues, and hyper-focus, which causes us to lose track of time. ADHD-ers are often highly sensitive and empathic.
Rumination is a repetitive thought pattern that can be negative (focusing on the past) or anxious (focusing on the future). It is common in people with ADHD and can cause emotional distress. It's not the same as overthinking, which is when someone excessively thinks about simple things before taking action.
ADHD hyperfixation refers to an intense and often prolonged state of concentration on a particular activity or object. This may lead to happiness, satisfaction, and, at times, increased productivity.
Untreated ADHD in adults can lead to mental health disorders like anxiety and depression. This is because ADHD symptoms can lead to focus, concentration, and impulsivity problems. When these problems are not managed effectively, they can lead to feelings of frustration, irritability, and low self-esteem.
Differences in emotions in people with ADHD can lead to 'shutdowns', where someone is so overwhelmed with emotions that they space out, may find it hard to speak or move and may struggle to articulate what they are feeling until they can process their emotions.
These may include hyperfocus, resilience, creativity, conversational skills, spontaneity, and abundant energy. Many people view these benefits as “superpowers” because those with ADHD can hone them to their advantage. People with ADHD have a unique perspective that others may find interesting and valuable.
Spontaneous daydreaming can be a subtle symptom of ADHD for some people, especially girls and women. Excessive or disruptive daydreaming may also be linked to other mental health conditions, like maladaptive daydreaming.
OCD has been mistaken as ADHD by many doctors since both diagnoses share a number of the same symptoms—anxiety, distractibility, perfectionism, impulsive behaviors and impaired executive functioning.
ADHD challenges with working memory, long-term memory, processing speed, emotional regulation and distractions can make it difficult for you to organize your thoughts into words.
The hallmark signs of ADHD are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. For some people with ADHD, only one of these behaviors is the primary problem, but for others it's a combination.
They have a low threshold for outside sensory experience because the day-to-day experience of their five senses and their thoughts is always on high volume. The ADHD nervous system is overwhelmed by life experiences because its intensity is so high. The ADHD nervous system is rarely at rest.
The primary features of ADHD include inattention and hyperactive-impulsive behavior. ADHD symptoms start before age 12, and in some children, they're noticeable as early as 3 years of age. ADHD symptoms can be mild, moderate or severe, and they may continue into adulthood.