When Lauren O’Carroll’s family is running late, all hell breaks loose.

“I have chronic time blindness and tend to rely far too much on urgency to give me the dopamine kick I need to get things done,” she tells HuffPost UK. “So, I suddenly become hyper-productive right before we’re supposed to leave the house.

“My kids, of course, are just kids. They have no concept of time and even less interest in what I consider ‘urgent’. Because they don’t buy into the urgency they dawdle, keep playing, pick a fight (hello dopamine!), or urgently need a specific hairband/lip balm/key chain they’ve lost.”

While all of this is going on, Lauren’s stress levels begin to climb, which she reflects are “triggered by a lifetime of shame around being late”.

“I fall into old patterns from my own childhood, and suddenly I’m speaking like my mother. The kids pick up on my stress, no longer feel safe, and head straight into fight or flight. They shout, I shout, someone cries,” she says.

“Eventually, we soften. I apologise, we repair. And yes, of course, we’re late.”

While a lot of families might experience moments of friction as they try to get out of the door (especially as kids often have zero desire to stop what they’re doing and rush), Lauren and her eldest daughter also have ADHD, while her youngest is awaiting diagnosis, so the moment snowballs.

What follows after is essentially an avalanche of emotion and overstimulation.

ADHD – or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – is characterised by signs of inattention, or hyperactivity-impulsivity, or both, which can interfere with day-to-day life. It’s thought 2.6 million people in the UK have it – 694,000 of which are children.

People with ADHD can experience sensory overload, causing them to experience certain sensations more intensely or longer than normal. According to the Attention Deficit Disorder Association (ADDA), it can lead to overstimulation and a “fight or flight response”, which can impact daily functioning.

The overstimulation likely happens due to “differences in the structure and chemistry of the ADHD brain that change how it processes, receives, and organises stimuli”, notes ADDA.

Lauren........

© HuffPost