Glossary
Glossary.
The words, defined.
Affective lability. Rapid, frequent shifts in emotional state. Commonly reported in adult ADHD and measured within emotion-dysregulation scales rather than as a standalone diagnosis.
Appreciative inquiry. A strengths-based method of inquiry that begins from what already works and asks what more of it would look like. Developed for organisational change and adapted here for individual reflection.
Cognitive reappraisal. Changing the emotional impact of a situation by changing how it is construed. One of the better-supported emotion-regulation strategies in the general population.
Common humanity. One of three components of self-compassion: recognising that suffering and imperfection are shared rather than singular.
Deficient emotional self-regulation. A term used in adult ADHD research for difficulty modulating emotional responses, proposed by some authors as a core rather than associated feature.
Emotion dysregulation. Difficulty modulating the onset, intensity, or duration of an emotional response. Meta-analytic evidence shows elevated levels in adults with ADHD.
Emotional impulsiveness. The speed with which an emotional response is expressed in behaviour, distinct from the intensity of the feeling itself.
Executive function. A set of self-directed capacities — inhibition, working memory, planning, flexibility, self-monitoring — that support goal-directed behaviour.
Exposure, graded. Systematic, planned contact with feared situations in increasing order of difficulty, allowing new learning to occur.
Externalisation. Moving cognitive load out of the head and into the environment — lists, alarms, visible cues. A central mechanism in adult ADHD treatment.
Grounding. Deliberate use of sensory or orienting information to re-establish contact with the present moment during high arousal.
Hyperfocus. Sustained, absorbing attention to a task of high interest, often with reduced awareness of time and surroundings. Described by adults with ADHD as attention dysregulation rather than deficit.
Interoception. The perception of internal bodily states. Interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive awareness are distinguishable and only modestly correlated.
Internal Family Systems (IFS). A psychotherapy model describing the psyche as a system of parts in relation to a core Self. Evidence is early: pilot and small trials for depression and PTSD.
Masking. Effortful suppression or camouflage of neurodivergent traits to meet social expectations. Reported as a recurrent theme in qualitative accounts of rejection sensitivity in ADHD.
Pendulation. A somatic technique of alternating attention between activation and relative ease. Drawn from Somatic Experiencing; clinical model with limited controlled evidence.
Polyvagal theory. A model proposing three hierarchically organised autonomic states governed by distinct vagal pathways. Its physiological premises are actively contested — see Chapter Nine.
Rejection sensitivity. A measurable disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and strongly react to rejection.
Rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD). A clinical description of sudden, severe emotional pain following perceived rejection, criticism, or failure in people with ADHD. Not a DSM-5-TR diagnosis; the published empirical literature is small and largely qualitative or case-based.
Self-compassion. Kindness, common humanity, and mindful awareness directed toward oneself in suffering. Lower in adults with ADHD and associated with better mental health.
Self-inquiry. Structured questioning directed at one's own experience, undertaken to observe rather than to correct.
Shame. A self-directed emotion in which the whole self, rather than a behaviour, is evaluated as bad — distinguishable from guilt, which targets the act.
STOPP. A brief regulation sequence — Stop, Take a breath, Observe, Pull back, Practise what works — used widely in cognitive behavioural practice as a between-session prompt.
Values. Chosen life directions, distinguishable from goals in that they are ongoing rather than achievable.
Window of tolerance. A clinical metaphor for the arousal range within which a person can think and feel at the same time. Descriptive, not a measured construct.