Understanding ADHD
Having ADHD feels like you’re always juggling more balls than everyone else, and yet you still always feel behind. It’s almost like your brain doesn’t work the same way as everyone else’s. That’s because you are Neurodivergent, which means your brain is wired in a slightly different way from the Neurotypical brain.
One isn’t better than the other, and both have their upsides and downsides. But most therapies and therapists don’t address or even understand, the unique challenges and needs of having ADHD. At the ATTN Center, we specialize in helping people understand and embrace their Neurodivergence, empowering you to realize your full potential by maximizing the benefits of your ADHD.
Our team of therapists helps you identify and overcome the more challenging parts of having ADHD, such as procrastination, organization, and time management. We also help empower you to embrace the unique and positive aspects of having ADHD, helping you turn it into your superpower.
ADHD-Focused Therapy in NYC
At the ATTN Center, we think of ADHD as a Superpower that can be applied to all aspects of life. By exploring and embracing your strengths during ADHD-Focused Therapy, we help guide you toward accepting your ADHD fully in order to harness its full power and your full potential.
The ATTN Center offers specialized ADHD-Focused Therapy for adults and children diagnosed with ADHD. Our therapists believe in a holistic approach that sees you as a whole person, rather than just focusing on your symptoms. We also understand Neurodivergence, having a differently wired brain, and the specific challenges that stem from not being Neurotypical like the average person.
Each of our skilled therapists creates a unique, specially-tailored collection of therapeutic modalities to best meet your individual needs. This is what sets us apart from other clinics, as we value our personalized approach to ADHD.
You Are Not Alone
How many people have ADHD? Almost 10% of the US population is reported to have mild to severe symptoms of ADHD. That’s over 30 million people. You are not alone. ADHD is not a fad or a myth. You’re not making it up, the way many family members of those with ADHD often say.
Many famous and successful people have ADHD, from Justin Timberlake and Jennifer Lopez to Albert Einstein. ADHD has nothing to do with a person’s intelligence or ability, which is a common myth. Many performers and musicians throughout history and today have ADHD.
This can enhance their ability to create their art through several means, such as the ability to hyperfocus on their performance toward perfection, and feel the emotions of their art more intensely in order to produce beautiful works of art and performance.
Their ADHD allows and supports them to be able to think about and see the world in a way that the rest of us Neurotypical brains cannot. They have access to imagination and creativity that most Neurotypical people do not.
You Are Not Broken
It’s a real neurological condition that affects the frontal lobe of the brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex, causing impairment to Executive Functioning. Executive Functions are the brain’s set of mental skills that include self-control, working memory, follow-through, and emotional regulation. We use these skills every day to learn, work, and manage daily life.
At the ATTN Center, we like to use the analogy that ADHD is like being colorblind. Nothing is broken or damaged… just different. Color Blindness is due to a rare wiring issue in the part of the brain that controls color. This is an Automatic issue, where the person has no control over changing the wiring of their brain as a means of correcting their ability to see colors accurately. Telling someone who is colorblind to ‘just see colors like everyone else’ does not make it possible for them to do so.
Accepting Your ADHD Diagnosis
Having ADHD is similar, and if you have it, most likely at some point in your life the people around you have asked you to change or stop your ADHD symptoms, as though you had a choice in the matter. Just like the colorblind person can’t change or stop their color blindness with enough willpower.
Once you, and everyone in your life, understand and accept the reality of your Neurodivergence, and come to embrace it, then you will be living your fullest life. Not as someone Neurotypical who has cured themselves of ADHD, but as someone Neurodivergent who embraces their ADHD and learns how to harness the power of it to do good in their life and in the world. That is where the ATTN Center comes in. We are fully-licensed therapists who specialize in treating ADHD in adults and children.
Why is ADHD-Focused Therapy better than traditional therapy?
ADHD-Focused therapy incorporates the traditional therapeutic modalities such as Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) but has additional aspects geared specifically for unique challenges to having ADHD, such as Time Blindness and Working Memory. At the ATTN Center, we understand the unique challenges to living with ADHD, and our therapists are specially trained to support you through them. Traditional therapies like CBT alone do not address the specific challenges those with ADHD face. You may not have even realized you were dealing with some of these circumstances, which is why it’s important to work with a therapist who specializes in ADHD-Focused Therapy.
Some examples of ADHD-related challenges include:
Memory
There are 3 types of memory… 1) Short-term memory, 2) Long term memory, and 3) Working memory.
Short-term memory
The ability to recall a fact that occurred within a brief amount of time, such as a day or two. What did you have for breakfast this morning? If you can remember that fact, and there’s only one right answer, then you have good short-term memory.
Long-term memory
The brain’s ability to accurately recall information about a fact that happened several months or even years ago. What outfit did you wear to your birthday party last year? If you can remember that fact, then you have good long-term memory. Working memory is different from long and short-term memory.
Working memory
The brain’s ability to hold information in real-time as you switch from task to task. For example, you’re writing a text to a friend to invite them to dinner and before you hit send remember that you have to write a work email to your boss. So you switch over to your email and fire off a letter to your boss. If you have good Working Memory, then after sending the email you would be able to recall that you were about to send a text to your friend and go back to finish that task.
If you have a poor working memory, you would finish the email, then open TikTok, then 2 hours of scrolling later realize that your friend never responded to your invite because you never sent them the text. Working Memory is about the brain’s ability to hold several tasks in mind at once, before forgetting them, long enough to follow through with the important tasks that need to be completed.
Time Blindness
Also known as Time Myopia, Time Blindness is an Executive Functioning issue that makes it difficult to measure how long something takes. This can cause people with ADHD to be chronically late. For example, you need to take a quick 5-minute shower but because of Time Blindness, you wind up taking a 20-minute shower without realizing it, which throws off your timeframe for getting out the door in order to be on time. You might also get distracted by other tasks while getting ready, and underestimate how much time you actually need to complete them. This lateness can send others the message that you don’t care about them, or your work, because they assume you would show up on time if you cared. Many people with ADHD have lost jobs and even relationships due to their lack of punctuality and lack of ability to accurately sense the passage of time.
Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria
Nearly everyone who has ADHD experiences some level of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD). RSD is how people with ADHD feel rejection and criticism more deeply than Neurotypical people, and for a longer time. They are often labeled by others around them as “hypersensitive”, and constantly criticized for acting “overly emotional”.
This is due to the fact that ADHD causes you to feel your emotions more deeply than others. So those feelings of guilt or shame after being rejected or criticized, RSD can cause people with ADHD to hyperfocus on those disempowering feelings until they spiral out of control into complete inaction or even Depression.
Oftentimes, the rejection or criticism is imagined, as people with ADHD can tend to over-perceive threats. Over time, RSD makes it difficult for people with ADHD to take risks and try to complete more tasks, because they fear the feelings of rejection or criticism they may receive if they fail or if they don’t do it perfectly.
Thankfully, there is a treatment for RSD, which is included in our ADHD-Focused Talk Therapy program. Patients report feelings of higher self-worth and confidence, as well as a thicker skin to not automatically take every rejection or criticism personally.
Object Impermanence
Unless something is right in front of your face, when you have ADHD, it makes it almost impossible to remember. This phenomenon is known as Object Impermanence, which is the inability to remember that objects or plans exist when they are out of sight.
Do your friends wonder if you care about them because you don’t respond to their texts for days? That could be due to your Object Impermanence. Where you don’t see the texts and therefore don’t remember to text them back. Do you forget appointments or show up on a wrong day? Perhaps you’re not lazy or aloof; maybe Object Impermanence is to blame.
Without writing things down and staying organized, people with ADHD are constantly forgetting about tasks and obligations. Not because they don’t care, but because their Object Impermanence makes it practically impossible to recall that information unless it’s right in front of them.
Anger Management
Impulse control is a major component of ADHD. When we label someone with a “temper”, we’re typically saying that they have difficulty resisting the impulse to lash out in anger. Many people with ADHD describe it as “seeing red”, or “seeing black”. Where they almost lose consciousness because their anger has overstimulated them. This can almost short-circuit their nervous system.
Everyone gets angry. And is entitled to feel their anger. But expressing that anger in an impulsive way often leads to hurting those around us. ADHD-Focused Therapy addresses Anger Management through the lens of Neurodivergence.
Executive Function Deficit
Executive Function is the ability to plan, remember instructions, and carry out tasks to completion. ADHD creates a deficit in the ability to complete these functions. Focusing on an activity or multiple sources of information for a relatively long, uninterrupted time can be difficult for those with ADHD. This difficulty or inability is what creates the perception of laziness in those with ADHD.
Many people with ADHD become overwhelmed and can become frozen. They lack the motivation to start a project, let alone follow through with it. This is due to a difference in brain chemistry, most notably lower levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine. Research suggests that altered patterns in the dopamine pathway are a major factor in causing difficulty with motivation and follow through. This disfunction of the Executive Function can cause feelings of “laziness”. Or being stuck in a rut. Leaving you unable to motivate yourself to make a decision or start a project of any kind.
You have ADHD, now what?
Do you struggle with any of these phenomena? ADHD-focused therapy at the ATTN Center will help you manage all of these side-effects of having ADHD and more. The good news is… ADHD is treatable, and these symptoms have solutions. But not just any therapist knows how to treat those with ADHD, because most don’t understand what it’s like to live as Neurodivergent. It’s literally a different way of experiencing life than those who are Neurotypical.
The Importance of Getting Connected with Someone Who Understands ADHD
We have heard countless stories from patients whose previous therapist didn’t understand their ADHD, and it wound up being a somewhat traumatic experience. It is incredibly frustrating for people with ADHD to be told by their therapist… “If you want to be on time, then just show up extra early.” This advice completely ignores the phenomenon of Time Blindness, which many people with ADHD experience.
At the ATTN Center, we utilize ADHD-Focused Therapy to help you with strategies to manage life with an ADHD brain. Instead of forcing you to conform to how everyone else does things. Our approach is to embrace your ADHD and to help you embrace it as well. There are many positive and unique qualities to having ADHD. When used for the good they can almost become a kind of Superpower to harness.
Start ADHD-Focused Therapy in NYC
ADHD-Focused Therapy at the ATTN Center is unique because it offers traditional therapy practices to address the psychological and emotional impacts of having ADHD in the real world. Practical support for organization and structure (scheduling, calendaring, to-do lists, not losing keys, etc). All through the lens of Neurodivergence.
Understanding the unique challenges to having ADHD that other therapies do not. Our expert ADHD-Focused therapists look forward to speaking with you. We offer a free 20-minute phone consultation to discuss your case and how we can help. Contact us today.
- Learn more about our team and the services offered here!
- Reach out to us through our convenient online therapy contact page here!
- Begin the journey to understanding your diagnosis and living your best life!
Other ADHD Services Offered by The ATTN Center in NYC
We not only offer ADHD therapy, but also other services related to the treatment of ADHD and its side effects. This includes neurofeedback, group therapy, and ADHD testing options. At ATTN Center of NYC, we do everything in our power to treat ADHD without the use of medication, but we understand in some severe cases additional measures may be needed. As a result, we also maintain close relationships with many of NYC’s best psychiatrists.