Hypnosis for ADHD
Is it possible to heal, or at least significantly alleviate ADHD symptoms with the help of hypnosis?
From my personal experience, the answer is a definite yes.
Learn more about my philosophy towards ADHD below and book a session today to try it out for yourself.
What is ADHD?
A few months ago I first entertained the thought that I had ADHD.
I hadn’t considered it earlier because the name is so very misleading. One of the biggest disservices to ADHD is the associations the name gives us – a hyperactive kid who can’t sit still and is given Ritalin so he can listen in class.
In truth, ADHD is more complicated. And often manifests very differently in adults than children.
A key trait of ADHD is an inability to regulate your attention. You might find yourself unable to get yourself to do things you know you need to do, because they just don’t interest you enough. Other times, you find yourself so deeply immersed in your projects that you forget to eat or use the bathroom.
As a result, a better name for ADHD might be Attention Regulation Disorder, or a something similar.
Causes of ADHD
When it comes to describing what causes some people to have ADHD, there are two main approaches, and they fall broadly into the nurture vs. nature camp.
Some say that the ADHD brain is naturally formed to incline you to these types of behaviors.
Others say that traumatic experiences in our childhood actually lead to ADHD – more on that shortly.
There are two things most people agree on:
- Even if your brain is naturally inclined to be ADHD, the way you are treated and helped during childhood can have a huge impact on how you actually develop and manage it. If you’re called stupid or incapable, this can become a deep-seated trauma that will inhibit you further later in life.
- Building off this, we can state the other point – most adults with ADHD have experienced trauma. Whether this trauma was the cause of the ADHD or a result of it can be debated, but it is almost guaranteed that someone growing up with ADHD will rub against the world in the wrong way and end up traumatized.
My own personal healing and attitudes towards ADHD have been heavily influenced by the book Scattered Minds by Dr. Gabor Mate. In the book, Mate describes his own journey of discovering his ADHD and offers a theory about how childhood trauma is the source of ADHD.
This approach highly encourages therapy and healing in addition to just administering medication, should you choose to go that route. This is similar to depression treatments which are proven to be more effective with a combination and medication and therapy, not just medication alone.
Healing ADHD
My own journey of working on healing and addressing my ADHD in therapy led me to the following insights, which are very subjective to my own experience. See if these ideas resonate with you:
We all have an inner child inside us who actually influences the majority of our decisions. Healing the inner child is a core part of much of the work I do with my clients.
Think of the person with ADHD as an overgrown child – their child part is more dominant than in other people, and this child has not been properly integrated into the “real” world.
I believe that the ADHD inner child is one who has been left behind. They feel abandoned and lost; no one has explained basic things to them that other people take for granted.
Our parents are often too busy or emotionally incapable for providing us with the amount of nurturing we need, and they often take for granted the things that are obvious to them, which are not at all clear to a six year old.
Additionally, we are often taught a very conditional form of love where our accomplishments are linked to attention or praise. This results in a huge amount of pressure to achieve things that others might deem valuable.
As a result, your ADHD child ends up with several belifs and patterns:
“If I do more, people will love me” – this results in a frantic pressure to perform and get things done. The stakes are huge – bieng considered worthy.
“If I fail I will be unworthy” – this inverse idea is that failure is a reflection on our core value. We are worthlesss if we dont’ accomplish.
These two ideas often combine into a toxic loop – we start new projects with the hope that this thing will be the thing that earns us love. As we come closer to completion, there is a growing fear that we won’t do a good enough job – if I share my project with the world, I may be seen as a failure and ridiculed.
Better then to abandon the project, despite the amount of judgement we may have towards ourselves for doing that, than to complete it and experience real failure. “Abandoning a project is failure”, we tell ourselves, “I’m simply shifting my interests. I’ll come back to it later.”
All of this, while our baseline of operating in the world is that of a constant state of anxiety and bewilderment – like a six year old child dropped in a busy Manhattan street. Everything is big, foreign, and overwhelming. No one ever taught us the world was safe, or how to navigate it safely.
That can begin now.
Testimonials
Book Your FREE 15-Minute Intro Call
Take the First Steps Towards Positive and Powerful Change
At Navya Hypnosis, we understand that the thought of starting online hypnotherapy can be daunting. That’s why we offer a free 15-minute intro call where you’ll have the chance to ask any questions you may have about our approach and see if we're the right fit for you.
It’s time to start your journey towards healing and personal growth, and we’re here to help!