The Benefits of a Spiritual Life for Those with ADHD
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Many people with ADHD just take their medication and move on with their lives. However, this approach is met with mediocre results. The prevailing wisdom amongst ADHD experts is to enlist a multimodal approach to ADHD management. This means managing your ADHD on multiple fronts. One could look at this as taking care of your mind, body, and spirit. It seems to this ADHD blogger that the most neglected aspect of a mind/body/spirit approach is the spirit. Too often ADHD experts recommend medication, exercise, coaching, therapy, and other mind and body approaches. However, the spirit is just as powerful to helping with ADHD. Below are some reasons why ADHD management can be benefitted by a spiritual practice.
Connection
Dr. Edward Hallowell recommends what he calls “the other Vitamin C.” He recommends those with ADHD find connection in their lives. In his book, Delivered from Distraction, which he wrote with Dr. John Ratey, he describes the importance of a connected life in managing ADHD. “Creating a connected life is the key to happiness and health,” they write. Delivered from Distractions offers many areas of connection an ADHDer can and arguably should pursue. One they mention is spiritual connection. Doctors Hallowell and Ratey are respected in the ADHD field, and if they recommend spirituality, it is worth considering.
Increase in Attention Resource Capacity
A 2017 study (Adams, Kleider-Offutt, Bell, and Washburn) found that prayer increases attention resource capacity for “highly religious” study participants. They found that “at least for people most likely to engage in religious behavior, praying about a problem appeared to liberate cognitive resources that are presumably otherwise consumed by worry and rumination, leaving individuals better able to process other information, and additionally to bias attention to favor detection of problem-relevant information. “ In short, prayer relieves stress and allows you to approach life with a higher capacity for attention.
Mental Health Benefits
A 2014 study by Ellison et al found “consistent interactions between the frequency of prayer and secure attachment to God, such that persons who pray often to a God who is perceived as a secure attachment figure derive clear mental health benefits." The caveat in these findings is that a person must have a positive relationship with God. As reported by the study:
Individuals who pray regularly to a God that is perceived as a secure attachment figure, a “safe haven” in the terms some- times used by attachment theorists, may benefit from guidance and solace, as well as security and comfort in times of stress. Persons who pray in an attempt to forge a relationship with a divine other, but who believe that their prayers are unmet and that God is distant and unresponsive, are likely to feel a deep sense of estrangement from God’s love. Thus, our results are broadly consistent with an emerging literature which indicates that the nature of one’s perceived relation- ship with God can play an important role in shaping mental health outcomes.
If you believe God loves you and answers your prayers, a spiritual life improves your mental health outcomes. It is important to note that this study focused on anxiety symptoms as the main measure of psychiatric health.
Conclusions
Does prayer and a spiritual life cure ADHD? No, but it does create an environment where a person can thrive and live a more full life. However, the focus of studies on spirituality have not directly addressed ADHD, but the initial findings and reports seem to suggest that benefits can be found in prayer and a spiritual life for those with ADHD. The one that stands out most to me is the freeing up of “attention resource capacity” found in the 2017 study by Adams et al. If we free up our worries and anxiety and can focus on the positive possibilities, we can avoid a great number of pitfalls created by having ADHD.