A psychologist told me to do a body scan. I was lying on hard yellow grass in 38-degree heat with three kids screaming inside and ants on my arms, trying to feel my body. I felt nothing. Or I felt everything and couldn't name any of it.
She concluded the problem was me.
It wasn't.
What We Cover
- Why 'just breathe' and body scans keep failing ADHD mums — and why that failure isn't yours
- The difference between early and late emotional intervention, and why the tools you've been given are timed wrong for your brain
- What alexithymia and interoceptive gaps actually mean when you're trying to regulate — and why you can't feel the water warming until the lid's already blown
- Why some of us start every single day with near-boiling water, and what that does to a nervous system that's been running like that for years
- The scheduled check-in — not a mindfulness practice, just a moment to know where you are before the day makes that impossible
- What to say to your partner when they ask if you're okay and you genuinely don't know
- The James Gross emotional regulation model — 40 years of research — and what it says about the moment you're being told to intervene
- What's coming next episode: delayed mum rage, the lid that blows after the stove's already off, and why 11pm panic isn't coming from nowhere
Free Resources
Energy Accounting Guide — mentioned in the episode. Helps you see your actual baseline and where the energy is going before you hit empty.
👉 https://adhdmums.com.au/product/adhd-mums-energy-accounting-guide/
ADHD Physical Health & Emotional Wellbeing Kit (Free)
👉 https://adhdmums.com.au/product/adhd-physical-health-emotional-wellbeing-kit/
Related Episodes
References
Edel, M.-A., Rudel, A., Hubert, C., Scheele, D., Brüne, M., Juckel, G., & Assion, H.-J. (2010). Alexithymia, emotion processing and social anxiety in adults with ADHD. European Journal of Medical Research, 15(9), 403–409. https://doi.org/10.1186/2047-783X-15-9-403
Fischer, D., Messner, M., & Pollatos, O. (2017). Improvement of interoceptive processes after an 8-week body scan intervention. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11, 452. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00452
Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781
Quadt, L., Garfinkel, S. N., Mulcahy, J. S., Larsson, D. E. O., Silva, M., Jones, A.-M., Strauss, C., & Critchley, H. D. (2021). Interoceptive training to target anxiety in autistic adults (ADIE): A single-center, superiority randomized controlled trial. EClinicalMedicine, 39, 101042. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101042
Shaw, P., Stringaris, A., Nigg, J., & Leibenluft, E. (2014). Emotion dysregulation in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 171(3), 276–293. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.13070966
Webb, T. L., Miles, E., & Sheeran, P. (2012). Dealing with feeling: A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 138(4), 775–808. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027600
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