This article will highlight the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as a comprehensive and empowering approach for managing ADHD symptoms, enhancing focus, and promoting overall well-being.
ADHD and CBT
Attention deficit hyperactivity, ADHD, is a mental health disorder that can make it difficult to focus or concentrate, stay motivated or productive, and get things done. Without learning how to manage the symptoms of ADHD, you might experience unwanted thought patterns that make it harder and harder to stay productive or focused.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a promising management strategy for several forms of mental health treatment, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance abuse, and ADHD. CBT techniques for ADHD help you address any negative or unhelpful thought patterns and beliefs that interfere with your concentration or motivation and change them into positive alternatives.
Why CBT for ADHD?
CBT for ADHD has been proven effective at several ages and in several circumstances.
- A study in 2016 found that ADHD CBT treatment was highly effective in helping teenagers improve their symptoms, especially if they didn’t respond to medication.
- In 2018 one study confirmed that CBT for ADHD in college students could help improve executive function, reduce symptoms, and alleviate secondary feelings of depression or anxiety. The completion of a CBT program in this study led to 5 months of benefits after treatment ended.
- A literature review examined 14 studies regarding CBT therapy for ADHD and found it extremely helpful for reducing impulsivity, attention, and hyperactivity. Moreover, the CBT techniques for ADHD were improved in their effectiveness when combined with medication.
Benefits of Using CBT Therapy for ADHD
There are several benefits to using CBT therapy for ADHD.
– Improved focus and task management
CBT therapy for ADHD can help you improve your focus and task management with planning and scheduling activities. For example, you might know that planners can be useful for keeping track of appointments or bills, but then you accidentally leave your planner at home or at work, forget to write something in it, or just get frustrated at how long it takes to write something by hand.
In these situations, a therapist might provide suggestions for a phone app that can reduce the amount of time you spend writing everything down, keep all your appointments and notes in one place, and set timers on a weekly or monthly basis so that you know what upcoming tasks you need to do.
– Enhanced emotional regulation
CBT therapy for ADHD can help you improve your emotional regulation by changing negative self-beliefs and replacing them with positive self-talk. You might, for example, think that you can’t ever get anything done, but then your therapist will help you recall how just last week, there was one day when you were able to do a lot of things, and you felt very productive.
Recognizing these automatic thoughts and how they make you feel is an important foundation for changing them and learning to recognize positive self-talk, perceptions, and assumptions.
– Better interpersonal relationships
If you have negative thoughts, they can interfere with your interpersonal relationship. You might overgeneralize or think that you can read minds. If you think you can read minds, you might jump to conclusions about how others feel toward you and then sabotage your relationships.
CBT techniques for ADHD can teach you to recognize when you’re doing things like over-generalizing or mind reading and then reframe those thoughts into something more realistic. This can encourage better interpersonal relationships because you allow people to express themselves in their way without trying to predict it or assuming the worst.
Describe ADHD CBT treatment: what to expect?
When you start ADHD CBT treatment, you can expect to go through several weeks of planning followed by progression and a lot of goal setting and homework on your part.
– Initial assessment and goal setting
When you start ADHD CBT treatment, your first session will serve much like the first day of school, you get to meet and greet your therapist. Your therapist will assess your symptoms and other contributing factors that might be important to your ongoing treatment.
You’ll spend the first few sessions setting goals. CBT for ADHD involves a lot of work from you as the client, and that starts with setting goals for yourself that you want to meet throughout your treatment.
– Structured sessions and homework assignments
Once you have your goals in mind, your CBT therapy for ADHD will focus on meeting those goals in highly personalized fashions. You’ll go through structured sessions, each of which concludes with homework assignments.
These homework assignments are an essential component of all forms of cognitive behavioral therapy, and they are particularly effective for ADHD clients because they allow practicing what is learned during the structured sessions in real time.
– Regular feedback and progress tracking
Homework plays an important role in providing regular feedback and tracking your progress. Of course, your therapist will do this throughout your structured sessions, but a big part of it is reflecting on progress made, and things learned through the sessions and the homework assignments.
Your homework might, for example, include keeping a journal of your automatic thoughts under specific circumstances. During the subsequent session, you might start by reviewing those automatic thoughts with your therapist and looking for patterns and things you want to change.
Explore complementary approaches and strategies
In addition to CBT techniques for ADHD, in many cases, medication plays an important role as well. Studies indicate that medication for any mental health condition can be more effective when used in conjunction with therapy.
Moreover, any attempt to control symptoms with ADHD CBT treatment is more effective when you have a supportive environment. This environment extends to your family, friends, school, and workplace.
Tip: if you are in school or you have a child in school, talk to the teacher about how support might be rendered in the classroom to encourage the use of CBT techniques for ADHD in the classroom.
When families get involved in understanding the role of CBT therapy for ADHD and the different techniques that are learned in sessions, it can make it easier for everyone to support one another. If you are attending therapy, don’t be afraid to share what you’ve learned with your loved ones so that they have a better understanding of what it is you’ve learned to do or not do and how they can best support you.
Summing Up
There is significant potential for managing symptoms with CBT therapy for ADHD. However, approaches need to be tailored to your needs, and even after you complete, for example, a 12-week CBT program, you’ll need to find continued support so that those techniques don’t fade away and can be more supported by the people and places around you.
