ADHD and Chronic Pain

If you have ADHD and chronic pain, there's a good chance you've been misunderstood from more than one direction.

You've been told to pace yourself, to build routines, to just notice your body. Maybe you've tried. Maybe it even made sense. But something about it never quite stuck.

Your pain is real, but it doesn't behave predictably. Your attention is sharp until it vanishes entirely. And somewhere along the way, it starts to feel like maybe the problem is you.

It's not.

What the research shows

People with ADHD are significantly more likely to experience chronic pain than the general population. And the relationship goes both ways: ADHD affects how pain is experienced, and persistent pain makes ADHD symptoms worse.

ADHD shapes:

  • Attention regulation — Pain captures focus and won't let go

  • Interoception — Noticing body signals can be inconsistent (too much or not at all)

  • Executive function — Following through on pain management strategies becomes harder

  • Emotional regulation — Pain intensity and distress amplify each other

What that tells me is this: the usual pain advice wasn't designed with your brain in mind. That's not a failure on your part. It's a mismatch.

What Pain Fermata offers when ADHD is part of the picture

Pain Fermata is about repatterning your pain systems. I listen to how your pain operates—across your body, emotions, and lived experience—and help you make sense of what's going on in a way that's specific to you.

With ADHD, that specificity matters more than usual.

This work isn't about doing one thing perfectly every day. What I focus on is:

  • Tools that work with your attention, not against it

  • Precise interventions rather than vague practices

  • Understanding why something helps so you can use it again

  • Finding what gives you the quickest, most sustainable impact

I'm an expert in how pain approaches came to be, how they interact, and how they fail—especially when nervous systems are fast, sensitive, and easily overwhelmed.

What tends to shift

When ADHD is explicitly accounted for, people often notice more clarity and less pain.

Many clients report back-to-back pain-free days after just a few sessions. They tell me:

  • "I finally understand what my pain is doing"

  • "I'm not blaming myself anymore"

  • "I can interrupt pain spirals before they take over"

Pain Fermata is about giving you the tools and agency to resolve pain on your own. And that confidence—knowing you can respond when pain shows up—feels really good.

Not sure this will work for you?

If you're thinking, "This sounds like me, but I'm not sure I can commit to something structured," that's exactly what we can explore on a free intro call.

This work is flexible. Let's talk about what would actually work for your brain.