In recent years, awareness of both Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (c-PTSD) has grown rapidly. While this visibility is essential, it has also brought confusion—particularly around the overlap between these two conditions.
Increasingly, people are being told their ADHD symptoms are “just trauma,” or that ADHD is being overdiagnosed when trauma is the real cause. These narratives may be well-intentioned, but they are often inaccurate and can be deeply harmful. Many individuals live with both ADHD and cPTSD, and their co-occurrence deserves far more attention than it currently receives.
My Story: The Missed Diagnosis
I grew up in a home marked by violence, emotional abuse, neglect and addiction, experiencing eight adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). These early wounds shaped my life. I spent decades in therapy, earnestly working on what I was told was complex PTSD. It made sense. The reactivity to triggers, emotional flooding, deep mistrust and forgetfulness that seemed like it must be dissociation all seemed rooted in trauma.
But for years, something didn’t quite fit. Despite extensive trauma work, I still struggled with forgetfulness, restlessness, intense emotions, blurting out things I wished I had kept quiet and an overwhelming sense that I just didn’t function like others. Still, no one ever flagged ADHD as a possibility.
When I was finally diagnosed, ADHD reframed my entire life. Where c-PTSD made me feel like my brain was damaged by experience, ADHD helped me understand that many of the things I had blamed myself for were actually innate neurodevelopmental traits. They weren’t failures—they were part of how my brain is wired.
This isn’t to say trauma didn’t affect me—it did, profoundly. But the lens of ADHD gave me permission to stop viewing everything through the framework of damage. It allowed me to understand myself differently, and with far more compassion. It also left me wondering: why had no one seen this before?
c-PTSD and ADHD: Distinct but Intersecting
What is c-PTSD? Whereas PTSD can develop after exposure to a single traumatic event or multiple traumatic events as an adult, and is considered treatable because it is a trauma response that is taking place on an otherwise “healthy” brain, c-PTSD has more lasting impacts because it is most commonly developed by prolonged exposure to interpersonal trauma in early in life. It shares core symptoms with PTSD – intrusive memories, irritability, hypervigilance, distorted blame and guilt – but it also includes additional difficulties with emotional overwhelm, self-concept (e.g. shame and self-loathing) and relationships (e.g. distrust, chronic people pleasing, isolation).
What is ADHD? ADHD is a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by difficulties with attention, executive function, impulse control and emotional regulation.
These are not interchangeable diagnoses. Yet the symptoms can look strikingly similar, which leads to misdiagnoses or oversimplified explanations.
The False Binary: Trauma vs. ADHD
The popular narrative that trauma “mimics” ADHD or that people who think they have ADHD are “really” traumatized creates a false binary. It suggests these conditions are mutually exclusive when, in fact, they frequently coexist.
Key truths that often get missed:
- ADHD and trauma can and often do co-occur.
- ADHD increases vulnerability to trauma exposure.
- Trauma can intensify ADHD symptoms.
A Swedish twin study (Capusan et al., 2016) found a strong correlation between ADHD and trauma exposure, suggesting a shared vulnerability. People with ADHD are more likely to experience bullying, neglect, and abuse. In turn, trauma may amplify ADHD-related struggles with attention, regulation, and trust.
Why Do ADHD and c-PTSD Look So Similar?
There is significant symptom overlap between ADHD and cPTSD:
- Inattention
- Distractibility
- Impulsivity
- Restlessness or agitation
- Sleep disturbances
- Emotional volatility
But the origins differ. Speaking in broad brushstrokes, ADHD symptoms mostly arise from atypical dopamine signaling and prefrontal cortex development (Barkley, 1997). In trauma, they stem from chronic stress, hypervigilance and nervous system and brain adaptations that develop as an adaptation to growing up in an unsafe environment (Van der Kolk, 2006).
Misinterpreting one for the other, or failing to recognise when both conditions exist at the same time, can have serious consequences.
The Cost of Misunderstanding
1. Misdiagnosis
When trauma is mistaken for ADHD, individuals may be prescribed stimulants without receiving trauma-informed care. While medication can help with focus and arousal regulation, it doesn’t address intrusive memories, dissociation or relational trauma.
The opposite is also true: when ADHD is dismissed as “just trauma,” people may spend years in therapy without the tools, strategies, or medications that could help manage their executive function challenges.
I lived this myself. Decades of hard, honest work in therapy still left me confused and exhausted. It wasn’t until I understood the ADHD piece that things began to make deeper sense—and feel truly manageable.
2. Fragmented Care
The mental health system often treats trauma and neurodivergence in separate silos. Clients bounce between services, with no one provider seeing the full picture. This fragmented approach leaves many people unsupported or poorly treated. This type of treatment increases feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.
3. Stigma and Internalized Shame
The all-too-common narrative that ADHD isn’t real or is just “trauma in disguise” causes harm. People begin to doubt their experiences, delay seeking appropriate support or blame themselves for not improving in therapy. More than that, this misunderstanding based on largely on bias rather than scientific fact erodes people’s self-trust and feelings of self-effacacy.
The Science of Co-Occurrence
Studies support the idea that ADHD and c-PTSD frequently co-occur:
- Children with ADHD are more likely to experience adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), which are known predictors of PTSD and cPTSD later in life (Szymanski et al., 2011).
- Adults with ADHD report higher rates of interpersonal trauma, especially when emotional sensitivity and impulsivity lead to repeated difficult life events.
- Trauma may worsen existing ADHD symptoms or contribute to emotion regulation difficulties and executive dysfunction, muddying the diagnostic picture.
Why Curiosity Matters
There is still so much we don’t know about how ADHD and trauma interact. But if we aren’t asking better questions, we won’t find better answers.
Clinicians and the mental health community must be willing to hold both truths—that trauma shapes us, and that some of our traits might also be neurodevelopmental. We need more research, more nuance, and more curiosity.
People are right to be cautious about overdiagnosing ADHD. But they should also check their biases: ADHD is still underdiagnosed, especially in women, people with trauma histories, and those who’ve been mischaracterized as “difficult” or “emotionally unstable.”
The trauma/neurodivergence overlap is a frontier we are only beginning to understand. If we don’t explore it with care and open-mindedness, we risk missing opportunities for healing, integration, and self-acceptance.
A Better Way Forward
The outcomes of an open-minded approach to the co-existence of ADHD and cPTSD leads to better care:
- Integrated treatment: Combining executive function coaching, nervous system regulation, trauma work, and—when appropriate—medication.
- More accurate diagnosis: Avoiding either/or thinking and validating complex lived experiences.
- Self-compassion and empowerment: Releasing the pressure to “just heal” trauma or “just focus better,” and instead learning to support the brain and body holistically.
Healing is often more complex than we would like
The overlap between ADHD and cPTSD is not a niche issue—it’s a widespread reality that is often misunderstood. The growing conversation around mental health must evolve beyond simplistic narratives.
Both ADHD and trauma are real. Many people live with both. And healing doesn’t come from forcing people into a single diagnostic box. It comes from seeing the full story, addressing both neurobiology and lived experience, and offering personalized, integrated support.
Sources:
- American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.).
- Barkley, R. A. (1997). ADHD and the Nature of Self-Control.
- Capusan, A. J., et al. (2016). “Sex-specific association between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and trauma exposure.” Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
- Ford, J. D., et al. (2010). “Trauma exposure and ADHD symptoms in urban youth.” Journal of Traumatic Stress.
- Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and Recovery.
- Szymanski, K., Sapanski, L., & Conway, F. (2011). “Trauma and ADHD—Association or Diagnostic Confusion?” AJP in Advance.
- Teicher, M. H., et al. (2016). “Childhood trauma and brain structure.” Harvard Review of Psychiatry.
- Van der Kolk, B. (2006). Clinical Implications of Neuroscience Research in PTSD.
- Volkow, N. D., et al. (2009). “Imaging the neurobiology of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.” Biological Psychiatry.
- World Health Organization. (2018). ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics.
