What to Expect When You're Not Expecting ADHD by Penny Williams

Turns out, struggling to filter out noisy environments so you can follow a conversation may not be a problem with your ear drums but how your brain processes and filters sounds. How many adults with ADHD have gone to an audiologist convinced they are losing their hearing from all those Black Sabbath concerts they went to, and are told they have perfect hearing? I can hear a conversation three tables away… and tune out the one at my table. Here are four esoteric examples of the ways ‘Overly Sensitive to Physical Stimuli’ can show up in daily life:ġ.

And to my surprise, a lot of what they are saying resonates with me. And more and more of the experts we interview want to talk about it. Thomas Brown’s great book Smart But Stuck, and Terry Matlen’s latest, Queens of Distraction delve into the subject. I eat so fast taste isn’t a big one for me.īut now the issue of Overwhelm, Over-sensitivity, and Emotionality seem to be hot topics. Which, in no particular order, are Sight, Sound, Touch, Smell, and uh… Feeling? No, that’s Touch… Oh, right, Taste. (Is ‘Drama King’ a thing? If so, I’ve had a long and prosperous reign on that throne.) But when we were making our video on Emotional Sensitivity, c oaches, doctors, and researchers also talked about physical sensitivities. Hypersensitivity, Highly Sensitive or Overly Sensitive I mean, it was over a decade after I was diagnosed that I really started to confront the fact that my own particular combo of ADHD issues included being ‘overly’ sensitive. Since Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (aka ADHD or ADD) is still not well understood by neuroscience, what you and I ‘know’ about ADHD in adults probably contains some erroneous assumptions, outdated clichés, and a few gaps.

What to Expect When You're Not Expecting ADHD by Penny Williams