Deficient Emotional Self-Regulation: The Overlooked ADHD Symptom That Impacts Everything (Barkley)
DESR, or deficient emotional self-regulation, is a core facet of ADHD that carries significant consequences. However, it is not …
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January 29, 2026
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🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:05 🧠 Historical Perspective on ADHD and Emotion
– Emotion regulation has always been part of the ADHD discussion, going back to the 1700s.
– Early descriptions of ADHD included emotional control problems, but this aspect was later overlooked in the diagnostic criteria.
12:03 🧠 Neuroanatomy of ADHD and Emotion
– The neuroanatomy of ADHD includes the neural circuitry responsible for emotion regulation.
– Key brain regions involved in emotion regulation, like the amygdala, are connected to ADHD-related brain areas.
18:40 🧠 Neuropsychology of Emotional Regulation in ADHD
– Neuropsychological theories of ADHD's brain networks include an emotion regulation circuit.
– This emotional regulation circuit is an integral part of understanding ADHD's executive function deficits.
20:43 🧠 Psychological Research and ADHD-Emotion Connection
– Psychological research consistently shows that emotion regulation is a central component of ADHD.
– Studies using rating scales, direct observations, psychophysiology, genetics, and longitudinal data support the role of emotion in ADHD.
25:01 🧠 Understanding Comorbidity: ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
– Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is a common comorbidity with ADHD, characterized by emotional dysregulation and social conflict dimensions.
– Emotional dysregulation in ODD is biologically linked to ADHD, increasing the risk of anxiety and depression.
– Social conflict in ODD is learned behavior, influenced by the presence of emotional dysregulation from ADHD.
– Medications for ADHD can effectively manage emotional dysregulation in ODD when ADHD is present.
27:47 🧠 Understanding the significance of emotion regulation in ADHD
– Emotion regulation is a crucial aspect of ADHD that has significant consequences.
– Emotion dysregulation in ADHD predicts various impairments in social, emotional, and behavioral domains.
28:55 💥 The extensive impact of emotion dysregulation in ADHD
– Emotion dysregulation in ADHD is associated with a wide range of problems, including social rejection, road rage, intimate partner difficulties, violence, alcohol abuse risk, PTSD, occupational functioning issues, and impulsive buying.
– Emotions, when not properly regulated, can have a profound effect on the lives of people with ADHD.
30:05 🧩 Differentiating ADHD-related emotion dysregulation from mood disorders
– Emotions in ADHD are short-duration, setting-specific, provoked, and reasonable reactions to stimuli.
– Mood disorders involve long-lasting, cross-situational, excessive, extreme, capricious, labile, and irrational emotions.
32:09 💊 Medication's role in regulating emotion in ADHD
– ADHD medications, such as stimulants and non-stimulants, can help regulate emotions in individuals with ADHD.
– Different medications act differently on emotion regulation, with stimulants sometimes dampening emotions and non-stimulants upregulating executive control of emotion.
34:14 🔄 Interventions for emotion dysregulation in ADHD
– Treating ADHD alone may not fully resolve emotional difficulties, especially if they have persisted for a long time.
– Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based interventions, and parent training programs can help improve emotion regulation in adults and children with ADHD.
36:20 👨👩👧👦 Addressing parental ADHD in the context of child ADHD
– Parental ADHD can exacerbate emotional dysregulation in a family where both parents and the child have ADHD.
– Screening and treating parental ADHD alongside the child's ADHD can help improve family dynamics and emotional regulation.
37:41 🌟 Strategies to manage emotion regulation
– Gross's model of emotion highlights five points of intervention to manage emotion: situation selection, situation modification, attention redirection, cognitive re-evaluation, and emotion suppression.
– Intervening at the earliest stages, like situation selection, can be most effective in managing emotional difficulties.
55:09 🧒 Behavioral parent training programs for managing ADHD
– Various behavioral parent training programs are available, such as the Triple P program, Incredible Years program, and more.
– These programs overlap in content and have a similar degree of effectiveness in improving behavior in children with ADHD.
56:48 🧩 Choosing the right parenting program
– Parents should find a parenting program that matches their disposition and temperament.
– Multiple parenting programs are available, so individuals can choose the one that suits them best.
57:03 🔃 Bidirectional relationship between ADHD and trauma
– ADHD, with its emotion dysregulation, can make children more susceptible to traumatic events.
– Children with ADHD exposed to trauma are more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
– PTSD can exacerbate emotion regulation problems in individuals with ADHD.
58:08 🕒 Late diagnosis of ADHD in adults and seniors
– It's never too late to benefit from interventions and treatment for ADHD, even in late life.
– Seeking diagnosis and management for ADHD in adulthood or late life can be extremely beneficial.
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This Dr has never heard of sensory integration therapy carried out by occupational therapists trained to Masters level 😢.
Giving children medication should be the last resort.
Re-direct your attention? No, pls – this is a method for small children, not for adults. As adult, you have to regulate your emotions, not run away from situations which are causing them (with exception of some traumatising events).
Your can explain complex theories in such an accessible way – it is a great pleasure to listen to you!
THANK YOU. 🙏
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When everything in your life seems enormously big and overwhelming all the time and you're very tired of fighting the battle the content of this video seems like climbing Mount Everest
I’m 77 and drive a school bus . I asked my doctor about adhd medication and because of my age she thought strong stimulants would not be safe. I am taking Wellbutrin, not a high dose. I have suffered from emotional dis regulation my whole life. You mentioned non stimulant medications which I will look into. You’re an amazing Doctor to have such knowledge on this subject.
Absolutely right, I overreact without thinking. It’s destroyed family relationships.
https://youtu.be/EaldfGFwh6Y?si=IpUybXUUbm2_a4SQ
My ADHD turned into odd and I started to abuse and sell my meds to my looser buddies
39:04
So beautifully done
I'm suspected to suffer from ADHD and would've liked to educate myself watching this presentation, but it's just too monotonous for me to keep focus.
I'll have to find another source, more suitable to my way of digesting input.
Nevertheless thank you. 🙏🏼✨
I’m told to just move on yeah rite
Dr Walsh .. what about nutrition protocols Dr. Walsh did extensive study on how food impacts people with neurological conditions like ADHD. Thank you very much and it is so important to remember that we as parents need to stay calm.
I don't think anybody can control their emotions – We simply have a degree of choice at the behavior we select in response to emotions. Some groups (ex. children, women, and people with ADHD and cluster B disorders) have a lesser degree of choice, on average. I believe ADHD is a disorder of time perception, at both the infinitesimal and macro levels – And choice is all about present actions having future effects – Whether it's interrupting a conversation, or applying force to a steering wheel.
9:42
I'm 52 and just been assessed 😮
I really really dislike much of the way Barkley talks about ADHD
Thanks for this information. Better late than never! 😅
Finally diagnosis at 53 years old. I have two children diagnosed before me. My whole life as a struggle with impatience and frustration. I almsit lost my job last year because of an explosive emotional reaction, and then i walked out. 😢 i feel validated. 🙏❤️🩹
I wish I could get my now ex wife to see this. She knows she has it but does nothing to help it.
Very powerful, thank you so much 🙏