What is it like having ADHD & Chronic Pain?

I Have hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome as well. EDS can cause a lot of pain and injuries but is also highly co-occuring with ADHD and ASD.

Jay Friedlander

This one really hit home with me. I've been dealing with one orthopedic issue after another for over 25 years now. Thank you for showing, once again, that I'm not alone.

'Michelle Taylor

Something really cool I realized after watching this video ... For over a decade I've had chronic TMJ pain. It was a times so bad I couldn't think and getting up to my alarm in the morning ... forget about it. But I had a realization while watching the video that my pain is super low now and it no longer runs my life. Nothing has changed physically. So WHY? 1. I believe that before I knew I had ADHD, I was funneling a lot of my struggles, excuses, shame, into the pain. I think my brain was crying out for help but I had no other explanation so it was sending pain signals. So by recognizing and treating my ADHD, my brain has gradually been calming down as I am getting help. 2. Then I had a second level of pain reduction as a starting dropping all the shame. Both of these are thanks to Jessica and How to ADHD! I realized I had ADHD through the videos, and the more recent ones have really jumpstarted unraveling my shame. THANK YOU JESSICA AND TEAM! You are literally healing me! :)

Kira Lesser

I appreciate this video because it is so validating to not feel so alone. I experience doubt from others (sometimes even clinicians) about the chronic sensory difficulty and pain I experience which doesn't seem to have a diagnostic label or physiological indicator to explain it. Getting out to do the things you care about to the best of your ability every day is advice I need to remember and hear more often.

Ryan Snead

Hahaha I'm never not in pain, but much like all my other interroception (noticing internal things like hunger, thirst, or needing to pee), it's all just background noise until it's suddenly EXTREMELY URGENT.

I generally do stuff even though pain is telling me I shouldn't, and end up ignoring serious things. Been suffering chronic pain since I was 10(ish), and have done things like swimming with a broken arm, walking for a week on a dislocated ankle, all because I know my pain sensor is faulty so just ignore it completely. It's a challenge learning WHEN to listen to it and when to override it.

I wish there was an android app option :( I've had chronic migraine since I was like, 10 (over 20 years). I highly recommend Dr. Rachel Zoffness for information and physical workbooks for chronic pain - https://www.zoffness.com/books

Multiple Sclerosis here. While my lesions are getting smaller (yay) I still deal with nerve damage. I'm on a couple of different pain meds for neuropathic pain in my feet. I dread winter because I have to wear shoes and socks which triggers the "pain." If you've ever watched steel wool burn, that's what my feet feel like. Constant heat with "ribbons" of intense heat flitting about. Sometimes it feels like fire ants running around under my skin. I've wanted to start CBT for it, but my ADHD keeps getting in the way. 🤣☹️😭 I'm never not in some kind of discomfort. Probably about a 2-3 on the so-called pain scale. But I've been dealing with it so long I can often ignore it until it gets bad. My family keeps finding my shoes and socks all over the house because I yank them off without realizing it. My work is pretty good about letting me wander about in the office in stocking feet.

WiGeekMom

I have been struggling with a constant migraine type headache for over a month now and this video hit me like a ton of bricks. I feel as if this video was made just for me 🥲 It was so weird to notice that nature walks, talking with friends and playing calm video games helped me, while walking to work, work calls and programming made things so much worse. Now it all makes sense. Thank you so much!

Ugh. In my younger days, I had similar. I remember lying in a bathtub of warm water for hours, with the lights off… I understand, and I hope that like mine did in my mid/late 20’s, that your migraine horrors disappear, or at the very least, diminish radically. Sometime soon.

Diane Welsh

This video was really relatable. I have chronic migraines (15+ days/ month). Even when the pain isn't severe, the non-pain symptoms keep me from being functional. Light makes the pain worse. Moving makes the pain worse. Focusing my eyes on things makes the pain worse. Thinking makes the pain worse. And the migraines typically come with brain fog, so I can't properly think about things. I spend a lot of time sitting there in pain being frustrated and bored.

Whoa. You are psychic, right? I’m sitting here, but not in bed, reading, because today the torn rotator cuff is so bad, and I need it not to be because using the walkers and even the wheelchair, I now have for the broken femur I got in February, make it screamingly painful. But I’m a reader and getting out of the bed to at least sit and read, is what I started to do as the thing I love as much as being outside working on my desert property. It’s helping because I don’t feel like everything is totally hopeless and it’s all my fault because I’m not doing everything I should/could. Soooo, this video really validating for me, and telling you that you nailed it. To the wall. In every way. Also - the physical therapist quit and the finger: you make complete sense to me. Ty, J.

Diane Welsh

Well timed Jessica! I have chronic migraines plus back and neck pain. That’s fascinating that pain receptors are tied in with emotion regulation. It doesn’t surprise me, though. I go for my evaluation follow up on Thursday, so we’ll see if I get a diagnosis or not.

Kristen Hainkel