This is great news. When I was researching meditation and symptoms of ADHD from a neuropsychological perspective people weren’t as open to hearing the results or nearly as excited as I was. How wonderful that the popular press is catching on… yes, meditation does help with symptoms of ADHD!

NBC4’s Dr. Bruce Hensel reported that for people with Attention Deficit Disorder feelings of being frazzled or stressed out are multiplied. Now there’s an ancient method being studied that seems to be helping people with ADHD, and also those who are just stressed to focus and relax.  

Distractions are even worse for people who are actually diagnosed with Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder - a neurobehavioral condition, who already have difficulty in focusing, organizing, and regulating their moods. 

Kim Kensington, a highly educated professional, couldn’t figure out for years why she couldn’t finish tasks. 

“I just wouldn’t seem to do things when they were supposed to get done. I would keep putting them off,” said Kensington, who has ADHD. 

Common treatments for ADHD are stimulant medication, but for those who don’t want to take drugs. 

Research is now showing some promising results on an age-old practice: meditation. 

“It’s often found in buddist tradition but it has been really brought into the clinical setting, as a tool for self awareness and training attention,” said Dr. Lidia Zylowska with the UCLA Mindful Awareness Center. 

The UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center, tested a group of adults and teenagers with ADHD. 

Once a week, for eight weeks, the study subjects trained in different forms of meditation. 

The exercises are very much to pay attention to how you’re paying attention, catching yourself when you’re distracted, and bringing yourself back to the present moment. 

In cognitive tests taken at the end of the study, the participants got better at staying focused, even when different things were competing for their attention. 

Many of them also felt less anxious and depressed by the end of the study. 

“It felt like it was a reset on a computer, just like I turned down my whole program and turned it back on, and it was clean. It was a fresh place to start from, and then I can make decisions and do what I had to do,” said Kensington. 

Hensel said that this is just a preliminary study. More research is needed to confirm these findings. In recent years research has suggested that meditation based mental training can improve mood, even change brain structure - and this goes for everyone, not just people with ADHD. 

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 7th, 2006 at 9:29 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, Adult ADHD, ADHD and Meditation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.