Live Webinar on October 19: When ADHD Triggers Emotional Outbursts: Scripts for Your Flashpoints

ADHD brings with it strong emotions — but few tools for managing those emotions in ways that feel good. Your ADHD brain, with its now vs. not-now orientation, may not register feelings simmering under the surface, so when the pressure builds and those emotions demand attention, the dam bursts. Your brain becomes suddenly flooded and you begin thrashing around trying to keep your head above water.

In these difficult moments of an amygdala hijack, the thinking brain goes offline and emotions rule the day. It can be really tough to regain control over yourself or a situation. Whether prompted by fear, anger, hurt, or disappointment, we sometimes say or do things impulsively that we later regret. To change these patterns, we must first learn how to identify and respond to triggers without self-criticism. This is the path forward for nurturing radical self-acceptance and creating satisfying interpersonal connections.

In this webinar, Dr. Sharon Saline will introduce tools from cognitive behavioral therapy, internal family systems, brain science, and mindfulness to help you discover how to work with your triggers, make intentional choices about words and actions, collaborate on recovering from blow-ups, and make meaningful amends. You will learn how to distinguish between issues that are true emergencies and those that may seem critical but don’t require an immediate response. She will help you build skills that increase body-based awareness, employ neutral language to express your feelings and thoughts, and practice compassion toward yourself and others during the most taxing times. You’ll walk away with a strategic plan for dealing with your feelings and the reactions of others with less stress and more compassion.

The learning objectives of this webinar include:

1. Analyze how stress takes over ADHD brains and impacts executive functioning skills related to self-regulation, impulse control, emotional regulation, and metacognition
2. Differentiate between types of triggers and create effective responses geared to particular situations
3. Develop greater body-based awareness and key language tools to intervene with flooding, rejection sensitivity and frustration
4. Construct useful phrases and actions for managing dysregulation in self and others
5. Practice and employ key elements of radical self-acceptance