Fascinating new ADHD research 🧠 #adhd

1. APAlex Partridge0:00

   There's a very recent research actually, I think it's from last year, showing that people with ADHD, about 80% of people with ADHD have differences in their sensory profiles, really significant differences. We've only just woken up to this. It used to be very much that it was a feature of autism. People with autism have sensory differences. People with ADHD, major sensory differences, either hypo or hypersensitive to, it might be touch, it might be taste, it might be smell, it might be noise. All sorts of different sensory experiences. And also increasingly understanding that actually the ability to, to perceive emotion in others is one of our senses. It is a really imp- And it's to do with mirror neurons, our ability to mirror other people's em- uh, emotional states, and perceive and then process that and turn it into something meaningful. So that experience of being very emotionally sensitive, it can ... I used to talk about feeling emotionally porous, like I was a sponge, just soaking it up. And then talk about the pretzel, that you're the sponge that soaks it up, and then the pretzel adapts, and then you lose any sense of self 'cause you're always shape-shifting like a chameleon. That's very difficult to live with as an adult 'cause you lose who you are. The corollary of that, I think, when you work through emotional sensitivity and you begin to recognize that it can be ... It's not a gift, but it can, there can be positives, and that speaks to some of the ADHD strengths around transcendence and spirituality, that sometimes when you really open yourself to the world, what you open yourself to is magical, in all of its awfulness and joy all at once. It's that everything everywhere all at once piece, where you're like, "Wow, okay. That's a lot."

Episode duration: 1:25