Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Exercise, food and other supports
Being told you are too sensitive is usually someone else's comfort talking. Feeling things strongly is not the problem to solve; what to do once the feeling has arrived is.
Both halves have to be said together. Validation on its own leaves a person flooded with permission and no handles. Teaching control on its own joins the crowd who told them their insides were excessive. Breathing, movement and, where it fits, medication are all ways of turning the volume down on a feeling you are still allowed to have.
Qur’an and Sunnah
It is in the remembrance of God that hearts find peace (Quran 13:28). Settling is something you can turn towards, not proof that the feeling should never have come.
ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَتَطۡمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُم بِذِكۡرِ ٱللَّهِۗ أَلَا بِذِكۡرِ ٱللَّهِ تَطۡمَئِنُّ ٱلۡقُلُوبُ
those who have faith and whose hearts find peace in the remembrance of God- truly it is in the remembrance of God that hearts find peace
Qur’an 13:28read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A meta-review of exercise across mental and substance use disorders found benefits for neuropsychiatric and cognitive outcomes, which is fair support for movement as a way of regulating. The same review noted that evidence specific to ADHD was among the thinnest in the field. So exercise belongs in the kit without being sold as the answer.
Ashdown-Franks G, Firth J, Carney R, Carvalho AF, Hallgren M, Koyanagi A, Rosenbaum S, Schuch FB, Smith L, Solmi M, Vancampfort D, Stubbs B. (2020). Exercise as Medicine for Mental and Substance Use Disorders: A Meta-review of the Benefits for Neuropsychiatric and Cognitive Outcomes.. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Trying to shut a feeling off tends to keep it running, while accepting it leaves you free to settle your body.
When not to
If the intensity includes thoughts of harming yourself, that needs a professional rather than a self-help route.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
People with ADHD are reported to run low on both tryptophan and homocysteine. Low homocysteine is a good thing to have, since it is the high version that damages hearts.
When omega levels are low, everything about ADHD tends to get louder: attention, mood swings, holding things in mind. Low omega does not cause ADHD, but it can be sitting on top of it.
Programmes built on tones through headphones and balance drills have not been shown to help ADHD. If a child does seem steadier during them, the likeliest reason is that something is occupying the part of them that goes looking for stimulation.