In recent years I get more and more people who are late-diagnosed (or self-diagnosed via social media) with ADHD, and occasionally I even get people looking specifically for an ADHD therapist. Before I go off on a tangent (future blog post) about whether and when diagnosis is helpful, you might be starting with an even more basic question:

Can therapy help with ADHD?

Can therapy completely change your wiring? No. But it can help you live more successfully with your particular nervous system and the other liabilities that tend to go along with having a differently-wired brain. Here are some ways therapy can help you manage your ADHD:

• Therapy can help you increase your self-acceptance and decrease your self-blame, making it easier for you to accept using work-around and supports you need to improve your executive functioning.
• Therapy can help you figure out what kind of specific supports you need to tame the chaos. We can explore possible work-arounds for common related problems such as: procrastination, inconsistent energy/motivation, slow processing speed, constant sense of time pressure or impatience, and being overwhelmed by daily tasks.
• Understanding sensory-processing differences: ADHD is often linked to sensory integration issues, and individuals with this wiring may be more prone to sensory overload in day to day life. Somatic therapy can be helpful in understanding contexts that trigger overwhelm and can help you to explore strategies for helping your system better regulate.
• Addressing anxiety & depression: ADHD is best described as a form of attentional dysegulation (rather than deficit), and it tends to interact with stress and anxiety in a bidirectional way. That is: having ADHD makes you anxious, since you can’t sometimes trust your brain as easily as other people might, and also the dysregulation at the core of anxiety also feeds your ADHD. It’s a vicious cycle. For many people, working on anxiety helps them function at their best. The inconsistent motivation and burnout that tends to go along with ADHD can also overlap with symptoms of depression, so teasing those two out and addressing both can help improve executive functioning.
• Addressing low self-esteem: We know from research that kids with ADHD get a disproportionate share of negative feedback (and I would guess are more likely to even have abuse histories) which takes a toll on self-esteem and sets them up for social anxiety and rejection sensitivity. Therapy can help you to work on restoring a healthier self-image and increasing your future resiliency.
• If you are struggling in an academic or work setting, your therapist can refer you for neuropsychological testing with a testing specialist, which can help you figure out if you qualify for accommodations.
• If you are considering medication, therapy can help you explore pros and cons and give you tools for collaborating well with your pharmacologist for the best possible outcome.
• Therapy can also help you identify and lean into strengths that are often connected to ADHD or ADHD-adjacent wiring: creativity, passion, divergent thinking, enhanced pattern recognition, higher risk-tolerance, quirky sense of humor, increased visual, auditory, and emotional sensitivity, and often intense focus for areas of strong interest.