Attraction is often treated as a conscious decision. But, it’s not a decision of the mind.

If that were true, most people wouldn’t find themselves repeatedly pulled toward relationship dynamics (what Freud called a repetition compulsion) they’ve already named as painful, confusing, or unsatisfying.

Last spring the NYT published a piece titled, Have We Been Thinking About A.D.H.D. All Wrong?

I wanted the info, but I wasn’t interested in reading the article. I’m ADHD after all, and they didn’t make it ADHD friendly if you ask me.

But what did I lose the experience of reading it and having all the sensations and recollections that getting through a long form piece of writing gives me.

I’m okay with that on this one. There’s just too much these days and this article states what I know intuitively and has been informing my approach for a long time already, since I made the decision to trust myself and learned how to do that.

So I put it into chat and below is a cleaned up version of what it gave me. I’ll be putting together a series of posts: Rethinking ADHD in Therapeutic Practice. Be sure to join my mailing list here.

We often talk about “carrying” stress, “holding” onto a grudge, or being “weighed down” by worry, metaphors that describe the physical and mental energy we use to keep unwanted emotions active in our lives.