Executive Functioning: Emotional Regulation

What is it?

Emotions are one of the many things that set us apart from one another. We all feel different emotions in different situations throughout our lives. People with ADHD typically feel their emotions stronger than neurotypical individuals. Emotional regulation is the ability to manage strong feelings, respond instead of react, stay focused during strong emotions, and to recover have feeling strong emotions. This can be challenging for people with ADHD for many different reasons.

Emotions and feelings may be more intense and be felt stronger. Emotions may cause us to “overreact” to “smaller” feelings. Calming down and getting back on track can be difficult, the ability to move on. Emotions can cause impulsivity often leading to words and actions that are regretful.

This can look different from person to person. And the causes of emotional dysregulation can vary as well. For one person it may come from a place of rejection, causing one to feel overwhelmed. For another person a lot of “small” events may happen that lead to strong emotions. Not all emotional dysregulation manifests in sad or angry emotions. A child in school may get really excited about an activity and they don’t calm down, causing class to be disrupted.

Other triggers for emotional dysregulation may be: loud noises, clothes fitting weird, the weather outside, too many people around, not eating or eating too much of something, the temperature in the room, and many more things.

Tools to try

Name the emotion: Have the person experiencing emotional dysregulation name what emotion they are feeling. If they can name it, that can help to redirect and calm down.

Stop and think: Take deep breaths and even walk away if needed. Count to 10 and talk yourself down. Or talk to a trusted individual about what you are a feeling. For a student this may be their teacher at school

Body regulation: Walk around to get some energy out. Or sit with a weighted blanket for some deep pressure.

Calm down corner: In a classroom or at home have a designated place to calm down and regulate.

Model and practice: Model with students and children how to regulate when feeling dysregulated