Meditation is thought to help with ADHD because it thickens your prefrontal cortex, a part of your brain that’s involved in focus, planning, and impulse control. It also raises your brain’s level of dopamine, which is in short supply in ADHD brains.
ADHD has an incidence of 4% in the adult population, and is often characterized by the inattention and hyper-activity-impulsivity displayed by patients. Adults with ADHD can also experience executive functioning deficits and emotion dysregulation. While many treatment interventions focus on the hyper-activity aspect of the disorder, treatments that target emotional dysregulation is often more difficult.
What is ADHD
ADHD often begins in childhood and can persist into adulthood. It may contribute to low self-esteem, troubled relationships and difficulty at school or work.
Symptoms include limited attention and hyperactivity.
Treatments include medication and talk therapy.
Causes of ADHD:
What We Know Today
Brain anatomy and function.
Genes and heredity.
Significant head injuries may cause ADHD in some cases.
Prematurity increases the risk of developing ADHD.
Prenatal exposures, such as alcohol or nicotine from smoking, increase the risk of developing ADHD.
How mindfulness meditation can help
Researchers theorize that mindfulness meditation promotes metacognitive awareness, decreases rumination via disengagement from perseverative cognitive activities and enhances attentional capacities through gains in working memory. These cognitive gains, in turn, contribute to effective emotion-regulation strategies.
The term “mindfulness” has been used to refer to a psychological state of awareness, the practices that promote this awareness, a mode of processing information and a character trait. To be consistent with most of the research reviewed in this article, we define mindfulness as a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience without judgment. In this sense, mindfulness is a state and not a trait. While it might be promoted by certain practices or activities, such as meditation, it is not equivalent to or synonymous with them.
How to meditate with ADHD
meditate effectively and manage ADHD-associated behaviors.
Dedicate a specific time of day to meditation.
Find a comfortable position.
Wear relaxed clothing.
Turn off your phone.
Remember that quiet is relative.
Pay attention to your breathing.
Let your mind wander.
Use these three steps and repeat them every day to build your concentration levels and focus. Start by practicing for five minutes each day, then build to ten and work from there. Over time you will notice as your attention span starts to improve, and you begin to feel less anxious and more comfortable in your own skin.
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