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Special episode of the ADHD Experts Podcast from Attitude Today. We are pleased to bring you a feature article from the Fall 2025 issue of Attitude magazine to listen to the full issue and receive our Winter 2025 issue hot off the presses. Subscribe now@attitudemag.com backslash subscribe and now for today's story, why ADHD Brains Go Overboard By Nicole C. Carr Restlessness, Agitation, Paralysis, Misery When a boring situation like a mind numbing lecture or an interminable grade school jazz band performance is inescapable, it it can feel like an intolerable burden for ADHD brains. Or as YouTube celebrity pen holderness co author of ADHD is Awesome, succinctly put it, boredom is torture. It's borcher it comes as no surprise that kids and adults with ADHD who crave stimulation get bored more easily and more frequently than do their neurotypical counterparts. And the lengths to which some people will go in order to feel something, anything is shocking. Literally. Researchers at the University of Virginia and Harvard University conducted a series of experiments that asked participants to sit alone in a laboratory and then fill out surveys about the experience. In one such study, researchers wanted to see if the study subjects would rather do an unpleasant activity than nothing at all. They left adult participants alone in a room with a button that would give them a mild electrical shock if pressed, more than half opted to press the button rather than do nothing for 15 minutes. What is striking, the study authors wrote, is that simply being alone with their own thoughts for 15 minutes was apparently so aversive that that it drove many participants to self administer an electric shock that they had earlier said they would pay to avoid your brain on boredom. The association between boredom and risk taking, from substance use to thrill seeking activities, is not exclusive to those with adhd. But because people with ADHD tend to experience ennui more frequently, risky exploits born of boredom are a common phenomenon. Among them, people with ADHD are used to feeling emotions at a 9 or a 10, says Tamara Rosier, Ph.D. founder of the ADHD center of West Michigan. When there's a lack of emotional intensity, they interpret this as negative and call it boredom. They either move into hypoarousal, where they numb out or hyperarousal, where they try to push themselves out of orbit. Boredom has also been found to be especially stressful in individuals with ADHD traits. Matt Parker, Ph.D. a neuroscientist at the University of Surrey in England, and James Clay, Ph.D. a postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University and University of Victoria in Canada, were part of a team that investigated differences in responses to boredom between impulsive and non impulsive adults. The study found that people who self reported as impulsive were more prone to boredom, confirming previous studies that people with ADHD had higher rates of task related and chronic boredom than people without adhd. When the team investigated further, it found that the impulsive study subjects experienced higher levels of stress while bored, evidenced by elevated levels of cortisol in their saliva. It's similar to what we see in fight or flight situations, parker says. It suggests that the lived experience of boredom feels more intense and aversive for people who are highly impulsive, transforming into an overwhelming need to escape. This urge is the result of a massive feedback loop, explains Parker, in which impulsivity leads to boredom and stress, and stress and boredom lead right back to impulsivity. Continuing the cycle to break free from boredom, attitude readers reported trying everything from jumping off a cliff to car racing. For some, these exploits led to regret. For others, they led to a whole new life. Battling research is limited on how people most susceptible to boredom might better tolerate it. One recent small study found that treating children with ADHD with methylphenidate for 3 months reduced proneness to boredom and improved ADHD symptoms. When the medication was discontinued, boredom resurfaced. Nothing can eliminate boredom, but but these strategies may help people with adhd build up tolerance. 1. Reframe the feeling the first step, Rosier advises, is to acknowledge the boredom without judgment. If you're feeling bored, that doesn't mean you're lazy or incapable, she says. Let's not moralize it. Let's accept it as it is. 2. Resist the stress response Interventions designed to help people tolerate boredom without triggering a stress response could be useful, says Parker, who suggests active forms of mindfulness such as yoga or mindful walking. John Eastwood, Ph.D. author of out of My the Psychology of Boredom, says that people with a low boredom tolerance tend to choose avoidance based coping strategies, such as a long break in the bathroom during a tedious lecture. Instead, use strategies that promote engagement, such as gamifying the experience, noting whenever the teacher uses a three syllable word for instance. 3. Identify the cause of boredom When a feeling like boredom is uncomfortable, we are sometimes unable to hear its deeper message because we just try to make the feeling go away, eastwood says. But feelings point to needs like compasses. Sadness tells us we've lost something of value. Anger tells us we need to assert ourselves. Boredom points to our need to have agency, to be the captain of our own ship, he says, adding that the struggle to be self directed is common among people with ADHD since from a young age, they're often corrected and directed by teachers, parents and peers. Boredom might also mean thoughtfully reassessing your choices and considering a change in your job, vocation or school. Alternatively, it might mean reminding yourself why you're doing what you're doing to get through a tedious chemistry lecture, he says. You could remind yourself that while you don't care about chemistry, you do care about graduating from college so you can become a nurse. Boredom often has a message for us, says Eastwood. I would encourage people to take boredom seriously. Try not to be afraid or intolerant of it. There may be an opportunity to see how you can live in a way that gives fuller expression to who you are. Nicole C. Carr is consumer health editor.