What is an ADHD shame spiral? ADHD shame spirals are negative feelings and thoughts around a perceived or real mistake spiraling out of control. These spirals feel like life is on an uncontrollable downward spiral and can increase anxiety and depression symptoms.
If you find yourself caught in a shame spiral, it's important to give yourself a reality check. Remind yourself that everyone makes mistakes and that your ADHD or other diagnosis does not define you. Focus on your successes and the progress you've made, rather than dwelling on your failures.
A thought spiral, also known as catastrophic thinking, is a series of negative thoughts that can feel overwhelming. Once you are in a negative headspace because of the first thought, it's easier to think of more negative thoughts. This anxiety spiral may leave you overthinking and running through worst-case scenarios.
A downward spiral with depression is a situation defined by a series of negative thoughts, feelings, or actions that feed into themselves repeatedly causing the situation to become progressively worse.
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.
A MELTDOWN CAN SEEM TO COME OUT OF NOWHERE.
It's one of the challenging or explosive behaviors we see in those who have ADHD. Sometimes it appears as poor self-esteem, yelling, rage, or tears.
ADHD burnout is a state of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion that can be caused by long-term, unmanaged ADHD symptoms and stressors. It is often characterized by feelings of overwhelming fatigue, reduced productivity, and a sense of hopelessness or despair.
Verb Smoke spiraled up from the chimney. The airplane spiraled to the ground and crashed. The unemployment rate has been spiraling upward. The stock market is spiraling downward.
For example, your thought spiral might follow a similar process as the following: “I have a tickle in my throat, I bet I'm sick. If I'm sick, I shouldn't go to class because I'll infect everyone in the class. But if I don't go to class, I'll fail this test, and if I fail this test, I'll never get into college.”
Try to calm and redirect their energy.
To help them practice calming their energy, take a few deep, long breaths with them and talk about where in the body they might be feeling some tension, Dr. Polyné says. If taking deep breaths is too difficult, then distraction can be used as an alternate method, Dr. Polyné adds.
Yet when anxiety becomes all-consuming and you feel powerless to it, you might describe the feeling as being in a spiral. (Side note: A spiral is not a clinical term and not the same thing as a panic attack, however some might use these terms interchangeably.
However, it can also lead to potential misinterpretation of symptoms. Take, for example, ADHD. While most people associate ADHD with hyperactivity and impulsivity, it can also manifest in more subtle ways, such as through intrusive thoughts and overthinking.
Some signs that you might be understimulated include: Lack of motivation. Physical hyperactivity. A sense of unease, making you feel "flat" or irritable.
The Wall of Awful is the emotional barrier that grows out of repeated failure, preventing us from taking risks and initiating tasks. Everyone has a Wall of Awful, but because those with ADHD fail more often than others, usually in the same or similar ways, their walls tend to be larger.
Snail shells, flower petals, pine cones, snakes, storms, DNA, curly hair, even galaxies are spirals—and that's not even nearly all!
to become less, at a faster and faster rate. If a situation spirals, it quickly gets worse in a way that becomes more and more difficult to control: Violence in the country is threatening to spiral out of control. He spiralled into a drug addiction that cost him his life. SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases.
Focus on their feelings
Encourage the person to share how they felt emotionally about what is upsetting them. Asking the person will not upset them more but may allow the emotions they've been holding in to be released. Voicing painful feelings can help to reduce emotional distress.
Negative spirals are those patterns that make us slip from feeling positive and capable of getting results into a negative fog that make us feel all our actions are pointless and doomed to failure. In all negative spirals, negative results always starts with a negative thought and not with a negative action!
Overthinking can be symptom of major depressive disorder or generalized anxiety disorder, and external factors may also trigger the overthinking pattern. (For example, if you interact with people who frequently question your abilities, you may start overthinking things and lose trust in yourself.)
ADHD and fatigue share a connection as they both primarily affect your brain and executive functioning. They both can have their roots in how your brain is wired and ultimately operates. As a result, people with ADHD tend to be more prone towards developing cases of regular and chronic fatigue.
Some people with ADHD can get overwhelmed with too much sensory information. This can be why they cannot handle the same amount of sensory inputs as well as others. As a result, numerous things might cause them to feel exhausted and they may become affected by these events more quickly than other people.