Hi guys, so this is audio four in the trauma and ADHD series. Today I'm going to talk more broadly about ADHD and trauma and the link and also why it's sometimes can mask PTSD or mask trauma, but also how trauma can mask ADHD and also how the two can be confused with one another.

I think this is a very important subject, especially with so much misinformation out there at the moment and also at the time of me making this audio a lot of negative media coverage about quality of assessments of ADHD and also misdiagnoses. So there's a very useful venn diagram that exists out there and looking at misdiagnosis of ADHD versus PTSD in a nutshell, the crossover symptoms, if we consider the ADHD and PTSD and then a venn diagram crossover, the overlapping aspect of that venn diagram is:

• irritability
• restlessness
• impulse control difficulties
• poor working memory
• increased risk of victimization
• inattention
• poor concentration of memory
• loss.

Typical for trauma is:

• dissociation and dissociative difficulties
• forgetfulness and distractibility

Similarly, there's heightened sensitivities to

• sensory input
• sleep disturbance
• and common substance misuse or alcohol misuse to manage symptoms.

So that confuses things significantly, doesn't it?

But let's look outwards to that venn diagram. Let's look at the ADHD aspect of it. What we would find is that ADHD needs to have been present in childhood, hopefully for the clarity of an assessment, pre-trauma. There's that need to crave novelty and new experiences. ADHD typically responds well to stimulant medication. ADHD people tend to have real difficulty taking turns and waiting. They're visually orientated in their learning, able to hyperfocus, have a tendency to interrupt. That would distinguish ADHD from PTSD and what in PTSD we distinguish from ADHD is the presence of a traumatic event, typically one that they are reliving in symptoms, symptomatology that I have previously alluded to, extreme avoidance behaviours.

Stimulant medication would likely cause further agitation and anxiety. Yeah, PTSD symptomatology such as intrusive memories and flashbacks or nightmares. Heightened startled response or hyper-vigilance and very negative and rigid core beliefs about the self, others, and the world. However, as I've mentioned in my CBT series, very common for people with ADHD to have rigid and entrenched negative core beliefs as well.

Let's have a think about ADHD and trauma. The statistics are that roughly 8 in 10 adults with ADHD have experienced trauma, and more than 70 percent also have a sort of a co- morbid anxiety or depression. That was according to a recent survey as highlighted by attitude magazine.

The average child with ADHD experiences an estimated 20, 000 more negative messages by the age of 10 than a neurotypical child, an average neurotypical child. That's 20, 000 more negative messages. That's staggering. How can one not develop entrenched negative beliefs about self, others in the world? Depending on the severity of that and the other conditions of that, that can be traumatic.

Among children with ADHD, 46. 9 percent were found in a study by the Journal of Attention Disorders, where the victims were bullying, and 16.2%, interestingly, were bullies themselves. The study found that having ADHD doubled the chances of somebody becoming a bully over a neurotypical, which is pretty interesting.

There are other factors to consider as well with ADHD and trauma. There's an increased likelihood of feeling stupid or ashamed at school, increased likelihood of engaging in embarrassing behaviours, increased likelihood of feeling rejection from others. RSD might make breakups more traumatic and more distressing.

Whilst there is mainly a genetic link to ADHD, there is statistically a greater likelihood of intergenerational trauma in the family history for those with ADHD. This in turn can increase the likelihood of a parent or caregiver being responsible for causing further trauma to the child. So it's prevalent, it's highly prevalent, and it's a highly important subject for us to address in this series.

Now, it's common for people to have trauma. That forms around the original neurodivergent traumas that can transpire. Just by being, feeling different in a neurotypical world can feel traumatic for some. And that can lead to other traumas happening. You're more likely to go into substance misuse or hanging out with, people that aren't necessarily good for us.

Who are, who lead us into more criminal behaviours. There are so many facets to consider but it's also quite common for me conversely to be working with somebody's trauma and start processing traumas and the layers of trauma around somebody's mental health, only to find a neurodivergent brain at the core of that, that they weren't even aware of.

These things are extrinsically linked, yet they are separate. The important thing for assessment and diagnosis is to understand what is what, and for the client to be very informed about that. And I hope this series helps with that.

Take care until the next time.