Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition. It is marked by persistent inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity, and it affects daily functioning in concrete ways. People with ADHD lose the thread of a task, struggle to organize activities, and act before weighing consequences.
Emotional dysregulation follows from those patterns, and it is frequently the most damaging part of the diagnosis. Without the hyperactive component, the condition is much harder to spot. Meanwhile, rumination tends to be worse. As a result, ADHD is often misdiagnosed as anxiety or depression. Both may genuinely be present. However, treating only anxiety and/or depression leaves the cause of the anxious and depressive symptoms in place.
ADHD usually emerges in childhood and often persists into adulthood. Many clients seen here had worked around their symptoms so effectively that they never considered it an issue. Then new stressors arrived. College, a promotion, a new baby, a move, a bereavement. Suddenly the symptoms could no longer be managed alone.
ADHD reaches into every area of life. Academic and work performance. Personal goals. Family, friendships and romantic relationships. It is also a complex and varied condition. Severity and presentation differ widely between individuals, and it frequently occurs alongside other diagnoses, which complicates matters further for the person and for those around them.
Psychiatric medication was once the first and often only intervention. Modern treatment combines behavioral work with psychoeducation, tailored to the individual. In addition, some people prefer to avoid medication altogether where that is appropriate. The evidence is consistent on one point: greater awareness and understanding of ADHD leads to better support and more effective accommodations.
Inside a romantic relationship, ADHD can make arguments frequent and intense enough to be debilitating. The partner without ADHD may feel their partner does not love them enough to remember events, tasks and agreements. The partner with ADHD may not have realized ADHD was the mechanism. This is not a scapegoat. Rather, it is the route to becoming accountable for the effects and collaborating to get the relationship back on track.
This office works with ADHD as a superpower rather than a disorder. Like every superpower in the comics, the task is to understand it, constrain it, and aim it at its best ends, so that it harms neither you nor the people around you.
What an ADHD Therapist in Los Angeles Actually Works On
Most adults who come here for ADHD were not misdiagnosed because their symptoms were mild. They were either never diagnosed prior, or misdiagnosed because they compensated for their ADHD to avoid issues. School was manageable. A parent ran the calendar. College or a job was structured enough that nothing visibly fell apart. Then something changed — a graduation, a promotion, a second child, a move, a bereavement — and the workarounds stopped compensating for the gaps in attention, memory, and planning.
An ADHD therapist in Los Angeles working with adults spends less time on the label and more on what it costs you daily: the unanswered emails, the projects stalled at ninety percent, the partner who stopped believing that “I forgot” is not the same as “I do not care.”
Emotional regulation, not just focus
Inattention and impulsivity are the headline symptoms. Emotional dysregulation is usually the one doing the real damage. Without the hyperactive presentation, ADHD is harder to spot and rumination tends to be worse, which is how it gets misread as an anxiety or depressive disorder. Both can be genuinely present. Treating only anxiety or depression leaves the engine underneath untouched. And that engine runs hard and fast. Emotions run high and low. What do Hallowell and Ratey write in ADHD 2.0? “Ferrari engine (brain) with bicycle breaks.”
ADHD inside a relationship
When ADHD exists within a couple, the frequency and intensity of arguments can become the main problem. The partner without ADHD may understand forgotten dates and broken agreements as evidence of not being loved enough. The partner with ADHD may not have connected the two. Naming it is not a way to excuse the effect; it is the first step to being accountable for ADHD, and determining how the two of you handle it — together.
Medication is one option, not the only one
Psychiatric medication was once the first and often only intervention. Current practice combines behavioral strategy with psychoeducation, shaped to the individual; some people prefer to work through deficits without medication (and succeed). The evidence points the same way each time: understanding how your own attention behaves does more for daily functioning than any single intervention or technique.
This office treats ADHD closer to a superpower than a disorder. Like every superpower in the comics, the work is learning to understand it, contain it (discipline), and point it somewhere useful BEFORE it hurts you or the people near you.
Getting started
Adult ADHD frequently travels with anxiety, depression or relationship strain, and can be worked on individually or in couples therapy.
Consultations are free and run 15 to 40 minutes. Call (310) 927-1755, email michael@michaelneetherapy.com, or use the contact page. The office is at 13101 W. Washington Boulevard, Suite 454, Los Angeles, CA 90066, in Mar Vista near the Culver City line, and telehealth is available anywhere in California.