ADHD and mindfulness meditation
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affects 11 percent of children ages 4 to 11.
The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the CDC published research that showed an estimated two million more children in the United States were diagnosed with ADHD between 2003 and 2012 and one million more children were taking medication for it. Most ADHD diagnosis happen before age 6
Although ADHD drugs work, insightful mindfulness meditation can complement the drug’s effectiveness, and in some cases, many people are able to eventually stop taking their drugs if they continue to make meditation an important part of their lives.
How does meditation help ADHD?
A study done at the National Therapies Research Unit at the Royal Hospital for Women in Sydney Australia, showed significant improvements in ADHD symptoms in children who were taught to meditate. The children reported improved attention spans and less hyperactivity.
Other encouraging side effects listed were:
- Improved relationships with their parents
- Better sense of self-esteem
- 50 percent of the children that were on medication either reduced or stopped their medication completely, and still continued to improve their symptoms through continued meditation.
Insight mindfulness meditation, also called Vipassana, teaches us how to live in the moment with more focus and less distraction. In addition, through meditation clients learn:
- To step back and observe thoughts and feelings instead of ruminating and judging them.
- To manage stress because there is less emotional reactivity. Instead of reacting, people learn to pause and respond.
- To accept and be compassionate about their ADHD symptoms, and therefore become more loving toward themselves.
Calm and focused
Through meditation and an understanding of how meditation calms their brains, our clients learn to slow down their thinking, to become more organized, and to focus more clearly. During meditation they learn to train their minds to simply notice thoughts, making no judgments, and then letting them drift away as they return to our breath. This process does not happen overnight, but with practice, is achieved over time.
The effects of meditation are the base from which people learn to change their patterns of behavior. Through practice, ADHD clients learn to bring the core of mindfulness – present-moment awareness – into every facet of their lives.
Lidia Zylowska, M.D., who specializes in mindfulness-based approaches to mental health and adult ADHD, agrees with our approach. She says: “Mindfulness is a state of mind that can strengthen by specific meditation practice; however, not all meditation training is mindfulness. The meditation training used to develop mindfulness skills is often called open awareness meditation or, in the Buddhist context, Vipassana meditation.”
How we can help
We supply the ongoing support needed to calm the mind and offer ways to implement structure and routine into people’s lives. Our clients gain the self-confidence needed to focus on a project to the end and to turn down the critical inner voice that becomes self-defeating. Through mindfulness they learn how:
- To develop better awareness of attention.
- To be less distracted.
- To take a breath, step back, and observe their thoughts and feelings.
- To respond to situations rather than react, thereby managing the stress that controls their lives.
- To accept their ADHD symptoms and change their behavior patterns.