Solving the Mindfulness Meditation Problem Among ADHD Patients

People with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) typically experience inattention and impulsivity, which may strip them of self-control while making them prone to anxiety, academic failure, and low self-confidence.

Good news is, mindfulness meditation has been found to be effective in reducing ADHD symptoms.

Bad news is, meditation chiefly requires sitting in one position, something challenging for ADHD patients by reason of their hyperactivity and inattention. It's just hard for ADHD patients to stay focused on a thing for long without getting distracted.

So what can be done?

How can ADHD patients benefit from mindfulness meditation?

This boggling question led Dr. Ayano Fukuichi and other researchers to conduct a study. The aim was to find out what sitting posture can promote focus in ADHD patients while doing mindfulness meditation.

They were asked to perform the body-scan meditation, a type of mindfulness meditation that involves focusing the attention and awareness on sensations occuring within your body.

They tried various sitting postures, including slumped, upright, leaning-back sitting, and supine postures. Then they were asked to answer a questionnaire, and their responses were measured on two scales.

The researchers found that ADHD patients with hyperactivity/impulsivity were able to perform meditation more easily in the supine and upright postures, whereas the slumped posture was difficult for them.

Read the full research here.

Key Takeaway

If you have ADHD and would love the benefits that mindfulness meditation offers, do it in an upright or supine position. It may be easier for you, if the slumped posture feels unsustainable.

Mindfulness meditation has so many mental health benefits. No matter the mental illness you may be suffering from, you can gain so much by practicing mindfulness just 10 minutes a day.

For more comprehensive care, it's better to add this lifestyle approach to your therapy and medication.

If you have yet to begin treatment, contact us today at Hope Mental Health.

Author

Satu H. Woodland, PMHCNS-BC, APRN Satu Woodland is owner and clinician of Hope Mental Health, an integrative mental health practice located at Bown Crossing in Boise, Idaho. She sees children, adolescents, and adults.  Ms. Woodland with her background in nursing, prefers a holistic and integrative approach to mental health care that addresses the mind and body together. While Ms. Woodland provides medication management services in all her patients, she believes in long-lasting solutions that include a number of psychotherapies, namely cognitive behavioral therapy, exposure and response prevention therapy, attention to lifestyle, evidenced based alternative psychiatric care and spirituality. If you’d like to gain control over your mental health issues, call Hope Mental Health at 208-918-0958, or use the online scheduling tool to set up an initial consultation.