Hyperfocus: How to climb out of mental rabbit holes

Sometimes, our brains spiral and it seems like there’s nothing we can do about it. 

This can happen to anyone. Maybe you have an awkward social interaction and can’t stop thinking about it — then your mind jumps to worse and worse scenarios, far from what actually happened. 

And for those of us with ADHD, it can be extra difficult to exit that spiral. A situation like this happened to Rae Jacobson recently. 

Thankfully, she had an interview on the books with Dr. Jodi Gold, a psychiatrist who also has ADHD. Jodi specializes in psychotherapy of anxiety and mood disorders — perfect. 

On this episode of Hyperfocus, Rae and Jodi have an impromptu therapy session featuring a discussion of automatic thoughts, mood dysregulation, and rejection sensitivity. And, yes, “ADHD rabbit holes.”

Related resources

• The influence of ADHD on social skills
• Anxiety, imposter syndrome, and ADHD (Mallory’s story)
• What is perseveration?

Timestamps

(2:23) Rae’s situation

(6:56) What do we really mean by “rabbit hole?”

(13:00) On automatic thoughts

(17:53) Masking and people-pleasing

We love hearing from our listeners. Email us at hyperfocus@understood.org.

For a transcript and more resources, visit the Hyperfocus page on Understood.

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