In one minute

Intense, fast-arriving emotions are one of the most common experiences in adult ADHD. Reviews suggest somewhere between a third and around 70% of adults with ADHD have significant difficulty regulating emotion, and many people say it affects their quality of life more than inattention does.

It is not in the official diagnostic criteria, which is why it often goes unmentioned at diagnosis and can leave people thinking the problem is their personality. It is not.

The pattern is usually: emotions come on quickly, feel very large, and — importantly — often pass more quickly than other people expect. The work is mostly in the gap between the feeling and the action.