What does ADHD feel like?

Let’s start with this. It’s different for everyone.

I’ve been pondering this question for some time now. My partner recently said to me “Don’t let this define you. You have ADHD, but it’s not who you are. It’s a part of it, but you’re so much more, and in spite of it.” I’m paraphrasing, but you get the gist. There are days where it feels like it’s consuming, and the physical sensations are all I can think about.

I read a lot about the medical side of ADHD. The symptoms, the different ways that drugs work, and the ways in which it affects our brain. What I have a hard time finding is the physical experience of ADHD, especially in adults, and especially in women. And yes, we know the reasons why.

Too me it’s so much more than “brain has imbalance of neurotransmitters, therefor person can’t sit still, focus, etc.” There is a missing physical, experiential connection that medical studies will never get to: brain has imbalance and it feels like this, and so this is what the symptoms look like. Why do the symptoms manifest the way they do? What is the physical sensation that drives some of them?

Over the years, I have worked hard on self-awareness, including what my body feels in certain situations and scenarios. With ADHD, it feels liks a blessing and a curse, because on bad days I feel subsumed. It can feel like this:

• My hair being a certain way agitates me. The shirt I’m wearing is agitating. Generally, things touching me feel irritating, tight or uncomfortable.

• I get itchy or feel like things are biting me, and alas, there is nothing there. It can feel like tiny lightning bolts under the skin.

• My skin is too oily, and is so distracting I can’t work.

• My nails are too long and the sensation of them, like when they hit the keyboard, is irritating or becomes an almost obsessive sensation.

  
  

Generally, to me, ADHD feels like a low-key fiery ache under my skin, especially in my hips and legs. So you get the bounce. If you know, you know. And it also feels like my skin is extra sensitive, crawling skin, such that the lightest breeze on your arm hairs is enough to make you crazy. The movements (i.e. itching, stretching, bouncing) are to create some form of relief or pleasure sensation.

I’ve read articles calling this hypersensitivity, or an attribute often associated with ADHD. It can be sight, sound, touch, smell. It can also be emotional, but that is another blog post for another day :)

Many of the articles talk about hypersensitivity as a result of some stimuli, but I have to question, from an experiential standpoint, if ADHD can just make people hypersensitive as a state of being.

I’m curious to know about your physical sensations and experiences with ADHD. What does your ADHD FEEL like, in your body? Try to avoid language that names emotions and instead concentrate on where you FEEL those emotions. For me (when I’m not in overwhelm), I’m in a general state of anxiety. I feel my anxiety as a constricted uncomfortable chest, and ache in my stomach that extends to almost tingly sensations up my Vagus nerve and into my jaw.

Some articles I read:

• ADHD & Hypersensitivity

• ADHD And Hypersensitivity – Physical And Emotional Issues