Live Webinar on April 26: How Emotional Dysregulation & ADHD Transform Teen Relationships from Messes to Minefields

Register below for this free expert webinar on emotional dysregulation and relationship challenges for teens with ADHD on Tuesday, April 26, at 1 pm ET.
Sign up and you will receive the free webinar replay link after 4/26 as well!

Emotional regulation enables us to manage our feelings so we can proactively choose goal-directed responses. We depend on the brain’s executive functions to help us evaluate the demands of our environment and modify our emotions accordingly. In adolescence, fledgling executive functions emerge inconsistently in the prefrontal cortex, while rapid increases in post-pubertal hormones fuel unpredictable responses. Even the healthy processes of separation and individuation challenge the limits of emotional control as teens negotiate new terms with parents, teachers, and peers. Today, teens need new tools to help them manage their multiple emotional demands, especially in light of the disorienting and novel anxieties that teens experience daily in pandemic life.

The ability to regulate emotions exists on a continuum, and teens with ADHD have been shown to be twice as likely as their neurotypical peers to struggle with emotional dysregulation. Emotional dysregulation is identified as one of the most common and yet most impairing symptoms for teens with ADHD. Already coping with the low frustration tolerance, mood volatility, and impulsivity typical of ADHD, they are particularly susceptible to the demoralization of negative peer interactions. Since emotional dysregulation has been shown to decrease the quality of life for teens with ADHD more than ADHD alone, this webinar will offer a better understanding of this core symptom, and its relationship to ADHD. When both parents and teens are better educated and prepared, they can focus on coping with the emotional tsunamis together.

Attendees of this webinar will learn to:

1. Understand the relationship between emotional regulation and executive functions
2. Describe the ways in which emotional dysregulation can impair teen socialization
3. Explain why teens are most vulnerable to emotional dysregulation during adolescence
4. Explore the evidence-based interventions that have been shown to help struggling teens
5. Recognize the ways in which the pandemic has resulted in an escalation of symptoms affecting teens with ADHD