As we've discussed, unfortunately, many people with ADHD tend to have a lack of empathy. This can be addressed, though, through identifying and communicating about each other's feelings.
We demonstrated that adults with a subclinical DSM-5 ADHD diagnosis reported reduced emotional empathy and a more systemizing cognitive style compared to the control group and that this pattern appeared to be independent of sex and ADHD subtype.
Does ADHD cause low empathy? For many people with ADHD, the world can feel chaotic, overwhelming, and difficult to navigate, Khan says. Symptoms like impulsivity and difficulty focusing on tasks can make it harder to understand and process your own feelings, let alone try to appreciate what others experience.
In fact, Khan emphasizes that many people with ADHD are highly empathetic.
People with ADHD can be hypersensitive and overwhelmed by everything that's going in a room. Or, they can seem very cold, very insensitive, or blissfully unaware of the feelings of others. When they disengage — whether due to lack of focus or because they're overwhelmed — they can seem callous or narcissistic.
The ADHD brain experiences feelings on a spectrum that ranges from emotional numbness to intense engagement.
People with ADHD may be seen as insensitive, self-absorbed, or disengaged with the world around them. Emotional detachment, or the act of being disconnected or disengaged from the feelings of others, is a symptom of ADHD. However, it can also be caused by Adderall, a medication used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy.
Some conditions may play a role in a lack of empathy such as narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), antisocial personality disorder, and borderline personality disorder (BPD).
Children and adults with ADHD were found to have lower ability in recognizing emotions from mimics and sounds, have more aggressive behavior, lower frustration tolerance and impaired self-control. Consequ- ently, these issues cause interpersonal problems (Cadesky et al.
People who have ADHD frequently experience emotions so deeply that they become overwhelmed or “flooded.” They may feel joy, anger, pain, or confusion in a given situation—and the intensity may precede impulsive behaviors they regret later.
ADHD as a Risk Factor for Trauma
An ADHD diagnosis increases the risk of trauma exposure for several key reasons. Children with ADHD alone are at a heightened risk for factors that are strongly linked to trauma, including: Interpersonal and self-regulatory problems.
Self-centered behavior is common with ADHD.
One sign of this is interrupting during a conversation or butting in on conversations they were not a part of. Another sign of self-centered behavior is not being able to wait for their turn. This can be particularly disruptive in the classroom.
This includes the primary ADHD symptoms plus trouble shifting attention, being stuck on negative thoughts and behaviors, holding grudges, excessive worrying and being argumentative. People with over-focused ADD tend to need a strict routine. It is often seen in families with addiction problems.
ADHD and narcissistic personality may share some behavioral similarities, but they're different conditions. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) are different mental health diagnoses yet in some instances, behaviors may look similar.
Pragmatics and ADHD
Blurting out answers, interrupting, talking excessively and speaking too loudly all break common communication standards, for example. People with ADHD also often make tangential comments in conversation, or struggle to organize their thoughts on the fly.
Relationships of all kinds are difficult for the adult with ADHD. Impulsive comments and behaviors in combination with a notoriously short temper can cause extreme problems. The frequent lack of clear self-awareness also has poor implications for social problem-solving once a concern has been identified.
Toxic empathy is when a person over-identifies with someone emotions, feelings and takes them on as their own personal. Although, if the other individual's anxiety and stress keep you from your current tasks and responsibilities, it is called toxic empathy.
People who have low empathy may excessively criticize other people for experiencing or expressing emotions in certain scenarios. Someone with a lack of empathy may also blame the person for what they're experiencing. For example, they may say things like, “If you didn't do those things, you wouldn't be in trouble now.”
A dark empath is a term that describes someone who exploits their ability to understand how other people think and feel. They can recognize another person's perspective while also showing signs of psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism.
Empathy fatigue has also been thought of as a secondary traumatic stress disorder. It's the type of stress that comes from helping people day in and day out or witnessing or helping a person go through something awful. The stress and hardship of what you're experiencing, seeing and feeling starts to take a toll on you.
The brain connectivity networks that carry emotional information don't work well for people with ADHD. “Processing emotions starts in the brain,” says Thomas Brown, Ph. D. “Sometimes the working memory impairments of ADHD allow a momentary emotion to become too strong, flooding the brain with one intense emotion.”
Adults with ADHD may find it difficult to focus and prioritize, leading to missed deadlines and forgotten meetings or social plans. The inability to control impulses can range from impatience waiting in line or driving in traffic to mood swings and outbursts of anger.
Folks with ADHD may tend to be impulsive or angry, but they're not always violent. ADHD doesn't directly lead to violence or aggression among those who live with this condition, but some people diagnosed with ADHD may be more violent due to symptoms like emotional dysregulation and impulsivity.