Recognition: the ability to accurately recognize other people’s feelings.Lability: frequent, reactive mood changes during the day.Irritability: issues with anger dysregulation – “tantrum” episodes as well as chronic or generally negative feelings in between episodes.In clinical terms 1, these problem areas include: And the majority do.Ībout 70 percent of adults with ADHD report problems with emotional dysregulation 1, going up to 80 percent in children with ADHD 2. In other words, any difficulties in regulating our thoughts, emotions, and actions – as is common with ADHD – may explain the irritability, tantrums, and anger regulation issues these individuals experience.
However, these associated disorders do not explain the near universal anger and emotional issues that ADHD individuals experience.Ī critical aspect to consider, then, is ADHD’s nature as a disorder of self-regulation across behavior, attention, and emotion. Decades ago, when ADHD was known as “minimal brain dysfunction,” criteria for diagnosis actually included aspects of negative emotionality.Īnger problems and emotional dysregulation in individuals with ADHD are sometimes explained by co-occurring mood disorders, such as anxiety or depression. Though separated from ADHD in official nomenclature today, emotional dysregulation and anger were connected to ADHD in the mid-20th century before current diagnostic norms were created, and have continued to form part of personal and clinical experiences. Anger Issues and ADHD: Theories & Research In all, paying mind to anger issues and emotionality in patients with ADHD is crucial for successful treatment and symptom management in the long term. Recognizing this inherent relationship between emotional dysregulation and ADHD is also important when discerning between related and similar conditions, like disruptive mood dysregulation disorder ( DMDD), bipolar disorder, intermittent explosive disorder ( IED), depression, anxiety disorders, and oppositional defiant disorder ( ODD). Scientific and clinical attention are now increasingly turning to correct the past neglect of this integral aspect of ADHD. Ultimately, emotional dysregulation is one major reason that ADHD is subjectively difficult to manage, and why it also poses such a high risk for other problems like depression, anxiety, or negative self-medication. Recent findings, however, suggest that problems with emotional regulation, including anger and negative emotions, are genetically linked to ADHD, too. These problems walk in lock step with the general difficulties in self-regulation that characterize ADHD. Even when controlling for related comorbid conditions, individuals with ADHD experience disproportionate problems with anger, irritability, and managing other emotions. Anger issues stemming from emotional dysregulation – while noticeably missing from diagnostic criteria for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD) – are a fundamental part of the ADHD experience for a significant number of children and adults.
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