ADHD and Trauma: How They’re Related and Where to Find Support

Living with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can pose some serious challenges. Dealing with trauma and living in its aftermath can also be life-altering. But combining the two — ADHD and trauma — can make life even harder.

The Intersection of ADHD and Trauma

Trauma is inevitable. Relationships shatter, employment ends, and accidents happen. No one is immune to shifting and evolution in their lives. And while these big traumas can impede life for non-neurodivergent people, they can be devastating for those with ADHD. But why does trauma hit so hard for those who have it? ADHD affects the prefrontal cortex, which is the parts of the brain that help with focus, planning, and decision making.

ADHD also affects dopamine regulation, which is a chemical messenger in the brain that controls motivation, reward, and emotional responses, making it harder to stay engaged in tasks or maintain consistent focus. Trauma, on the other hand, activates the amygdala, the brain’s alarm system. This makes it hard to think clearly and stay calm. When these two collide, your brain gets stuck between panic and chaos.

Can’t Concentrate in a Crisis

When a crisis hits, like a car accident, you’ve been hit by a hacker, or a pet has gone missing, one of the most effective ways to mitigate the damage is to keep a level head. If you can think clearly, you can quickly react to the situation with reasonable and actionable steps.

You can remember the number for emergency services, think about canceling your credit cards, or be thorough in your search. But if you have ADHD, that level head is as elusive as the crisis is stressful.

Your ADHD brain cycles when you’re in a crisis, more than non-neurodivergent people. The logic that you need to respond to the crisis effectively and to mitigate potential damage from it can be elusive.

You might find your mind racing a hundred miles an hour, forgetting even the most basic information, or overlooking the obvious. You can’t concentrate long enough to figure out the first step you are supposed to take, even if it would be obvious to a neurotypical person.

Maybe your pet goes missing, and you don’t remember to do what might seem obvious to most, like call the neighbors or post online, because your thoughts keep leaping to the “what ifs.” What makes things even more complicated is that your ADHD brain makes even small emergencies feel enormous. Not being able to contextualize the severity of your trauma can make it feel twice as threatening as it actually is.

Can’t Explain It

For the same reasons that you can’t keep a level head in a crisis are also why it’s hard to explain the crisis to those who could help. Your brain is moving so fast through the events that are transpiring that you aren’t able to remember key details or pertinent pieces of information well enough to communicate them. And even if your brain can key in on important information, your mouth can’t keep up.

When your brain moves more quickly, it can be difficult for you to communicate the key pieces of information. Important steps might get missed because your brain can’t translate thoughts into words or action fast enough.

ADHD and Trauma: Living in the Aftermath

This can also affect how you communicate the situation, even in the aftermath. Your ADHD brain holds onto trauma longer than it can hold onto your grocery list, and those trauma-centric memories overshadow everything else.

Trauma can become a stubborn, intrusive thought, much like those that people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder struggle with. As your brain keeps replaying these memories, it becomes nearly impossible to step back and make sense of what happened. Because of your hyper fixation on the crisis, your brain won’t allow you to sort out the events of the crisis, let alone your feelings surrounding it.

While a lot of people deal with flashbacks from their traumatic event, those with ADHD also have distractions to deal with. Most people can work through their emotions because they can concentrate on evaluating, explaining, and taking actionable steps to overcome them. But if you have ADHD, you might not be able to concentrate long enough to actually deal with your emotions.

When distractions and flashbacks collide, they don’t shatter in two; they adhere to each other. This gives each more weight than they would have alone. ADHD makes it harder to process trauma, and trauma makes ADHD symptoms more pronounced, creating a confusing and frustrating loop that might feel impossible to break.

Impossible?

There was an old chorus that made its rounds in the church circuits in the 1990s with a profound line. “Nothing is too difficult for thee,” based on Jeremiah 32:17. While your ADHD brain might not be cooperative when you’re trying to deal with a crisis or its aftermath, nothing is too difficult for God. Absolutely nothing.

Your distractions, hyper-fixations, and trauma responses might feel devastating and can derail you, but God is above your neurodivergence, your situation, and your responses.

By turning everything over to your loving Heavenly Father, not only can you release yourself from the obligation of “figuring it out,” but you also show obedience in your act of faith. By praying a prayer of surrender, you acknowledge your own weakness and His sovereign strength and omnipotent wisdom.

Simply pause and pray or even journal in the midst of the chaos and consciously give your anxiety, hyper-fixations, and your fears over to Him. Then trust that He will be an “ever-present help in time of need.” And give the supernatural power you need to overcome these symptoms and the practical help you need to overcome.

While your pain may not go away overnight, though it’s within His power to do so, turning it over to God means you aren’t left to wrestle with it alone. God is unwaveringly steady when your thoughts are scattered and disjointed.

He sees the loops that you get stuck in, the way your brain replays everything that has happened, and He doesn’t grow impatient or feel overwhelmed. Where your ADHD brain feels cluttered, God can bring clarity. Where your human frailty is evident, so is God’s omnipotence

Additional Allies

While nothing can replace the presence and power of God, therapy can help. Find a therapist who is trained to understand how the ADHD brain works. Your therapist can help you communicate the trauma in your life and the emotions you experience as a result.

Because of their training, a therapist can become a bridge of communication between you and the outside world, giving you tools to help you understand yourself better and become a more effective communicator.

After a while, you might view your therapist as the steady rock on which you can anchor yourself when the trauma and ADHD make the one-two punch. A therapist might also help you form a practical plan, such as creating a crisis checklist, setting reminders, or creating a step-by-step plan for emergencies, so if your mind has a difficult time concentrating, you can have something to reference.

What’s next? Finding Support for ADHD and Trauma

ADHD might make trauma harder to process, but it also changes how you experience it. The emotions hit harder, and the memories linger longer than they do for neurotypical people. But that intensity you feel, and probably despise, can also be a doorway to something new and exciting. It can make you more acutely aware of your reactions, more attuned to patterns in your thoughts, and more capable of spotting your triggers before they have a chance to derail you.

So, when a memory or fear surfaces, instead of letting it send you down a spiraling rabbit hole, realize that it’s your ADHD brain fixating on what happened, not a genuine threat. Turn it over to God, practice the breathing techniques and coping skills you learned in therapy, and trust that God will meet you with loving, open arms.

To learn more about the intersection of ADHD and trauma and to meet with me or another Christian counselor in our directory, contact our office today.