Why do girls with ADHD struggle with emotional dysregulation?
The short answer is: their brains process and regulate emotions differently, especially under stress, due to differences in brain structure, chemistry, and function, and this affects girls just as much as boys, though it often shows up differently.
The neuroscience behind emotional dysregulation in ADHD
1. Frontal lobe underactivity (especially the prefrontal cortex)
The prefrontal cortex is responsible for executive functions like planning, impulse control, attention, and emotional regulation. In ADHD, this area is underactive and less efficient, which means it’s harder to:
Pause and reflect before reacting emotionally
Use logic to calm yourself down
Filter or “dampen” emotional responses
So, instead of being able to say, "I’m feeling overwhelmed, but I can handle this," the brain reacts more like, "This is too much!" and spirals into fight, flight, or freeze.
2. Hyper-reactive amygdala
The amygdala, the brain’s emotional alarm centre, can be overactive in ADHD, especially when the frontal lobe isn’t regulating it properly. This means that the emotional part of the brain fires up quickly, especially in stressful or frustrating situations. ADHD brains can go from 0 to 100 emotionally with little warning.
3. Dopamine and norepinephrine imbalance
ADHD is partly a neurochemical disorder, especially involving dopamine (the motivation, reward, and pleasure chemical) and norepinephrine (attention and alertness). Low levels or dysregulation of these chemicals make it harder to:
Stay calm in the face of stress.
Recover from frustration.
Feel emotionally balanced.
This is why things like transitions, rushing, or unpredictability — which require fast emotional flexibility — can feel overwhelming and out of control to someone with ADHD.
4. Slower emotional recovery
Research shows people with ADHD often experience "emotional flooding", intense feelings that linger longer. It’s not just that they react more strongly; it’s also that they struggle to come back to baseline once upset. This leads to more frequent and intense emotional fluctuations.
Why is this especially noticeable in girls?
Girls often internalise rather than externalise, so emotional dysregulation may look like anxiety, crying, perfectionism, or moodiness instead of classic hyperactivity.
Societal expectations may push girls to mask or suppress behaviours, which leads to more emotional build-up and later dysregulation.
Because girls often seem "well-behaved," their emotional outbursts or struggles are frequently misattributed to hormones, sensitivity, or personality, rather than ADHD.
