What is ACT?
ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) is an evidence based therapy that’s been around for a while now and has proven to be very helpful for Anxiety, Depression, PTSD, OCD, Addiction/Substance Abuse, Eating Disorders, Chronic Illness & Medical Issues, Workplace Stress & Burnout. ACT is also very helpful in helping people in Managing their Relationships and Life Transitions. But what about ADHD? Does ACT help people who are ADHD?
How Does ACT Help ADHD?
ADHD brains often struggle with managing the complicated areas of daily modern life. From procrastination to making decisions to facing big emotions — life with ADHD can really be a PIA struggle sometimes. This is where ACT can really be a great tool that can reduce that PIA.
ACT helps us:
- Manage Distractions: ACT helps us manage this daily ADHD struggle through developing a better way to stay present and aware in our lives. It can help us develop a “Here‑and‑Now Awareness” or “Present Moment Awareness” through using mindful grounding exercises and anchoring which train our brain to gently notice when attention is drifting. Instead of fighting the distraction, ACT can help us learn to return to the present moment, acknowledge what’s happening and consciously and purposefully pivot back to the task we’re trying to accomplish.
- Manage and Even Overcome Procrastination: By using the strategy of “Committed Action” ACT helps break down big scary tasks into smaller, “values-connected steps”. Instead of having to wait to “feel 100% motivated” (which can sometimes be never with ADHD), it helps you to take action even while feeling unstimulated, bored, anxious, or unfocused.
- Reduce Shame and Guilt: Living with ADHD almost always comes with a history of negative experiences like forgotten birthdays or anniversaries, work/school tasks, missed deadlines and lost items. Research shows that children with ADHD may receive 20,000 or even more of those negative or corrective messages by age 10, according to estimates by ADHD experts like William W. Dodson (Dodson article link). These negative experiences often mean we face judgement or criticism from parents, bosses or loved ones and we then internalize that negativity and by the time we’re adults we start to judge ourselves in that same way! ACT fosters “Acceptance” through self-compassion, helping us accept our foibles, mistakes and missteps without falling into a spiral of harsh and critical self-blame.
- Analysis Paralysis: When faced with too many complicated choices, the ADHD brain can freeze up and feel even paralyzed. ACT helps us discover and align with our core values which can give us purpose, meaning and direction. Knowing and living hy our values can give us a roadmap to making, meaningful decisions based on what truly matters most.
Managing Big ADHD Emotions with ACT
People who are ADHD often struggle daily with managing big intense emotions. ACT really helps individuals “unhook” from the big feelings of overwhelm, fear, worry, impulsiveness, frustration, shame and guilt that come with living with an ADHD brain. To do that, the processes, strategies and tools in ACT help us to increase our psychological flexibility. The goal is to build the ability to act in accordance with our values while freely experiencing (without judgement) whatever thoughts or emotions occur in the moment — even if they’re big scary ones The ACT therapeutic journey helps us manage overwhelm, fear, worry, impulsiveness, frustration, shame and guilt. The ACT toolbox is chock full of ways manage emotions by using experiential exercises, fun metaphors, and mindfulness practices rather than the traditional “cognitive restructuring” and “thought challenging” tools of CBT which doesn’t always fit for neurodivergent people.
Handling Emotional Dysregulation: ADHD often causes us to feel intense, unpredictable, emotional spikes like rejection sensitive dysphoria, powerful anxiety or even sudden jags of anger. Using the powerful tool of “Cognitive Defusion” ACT helps us see these intense feelings as temporary emotional storms rather than truths, facts, or commands. This can help us manage and prevent impulsive reactions that can hurt others or paralyzing emotions that keep us from living the positive fulfilling life that we truly want to live.
ACT can truly be a great tool in helping someone learn to deal with ADHD emotional dysregulation because it focuses on noticing our emotions, making room for them, accepting them and then doing what fits better into our value system rather than fighting them or trying to change them which can sometimes be an impossible task for an ADHD brain.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) works for ADHD because it shifts the goal from trying to “fix” or eliminate ADHD behaviours and thoughts to changing the user’s relationship with those behaviours and thoughts. For example, fighting the daily battle against distractibility, anxiety, or restlessness often leads to a cycle of guilt, shame and failure. By using ACT instead we can view and accept these experiences as only part of our current reality; but it’s not our total reality; and that by accepting these thoughts and behaviours; we can instead move forward and make committed actions based on our values.
In other words, ACT lets us take concrete, deliberate life improving actions that align with our innermost core values. And most importantly, ACT helps us take those actions even when uncomfortable distressful thoughts, feelings, or other ADHD-related barriers get in the way!
If you’re interested in exploring ACT therapy to manage your ADHD please feel free to send me a message.