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Why do people with ADHD sit strangely?

Anahi Wisoky
Anahi Wisoky
2025-07-03 23:08:17
Count answers : 11
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If you have ADHD, you might have greater postural sway, meaning your body sways more to stay balanced. One such motor deficit involves postural sway, which disrupts the small movements you make to stay balanced. In a person with greater postural sway, these movements become more visible. You might see them gently moving side to side or in small circles. This can be an indication of poor coordination and balance. Greater postural sway can indicate balancing problems and is commonly seen in people with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as ADHD, autism, and dyslexia. This may be due to abnormalities in the cerebellum, a brain region linked to gait, balance control, and cognition. The findings showed that children with ADHD performed more poorly on balancing tasks with significantly greater sway than typically developing children. Many children with ADHD also have developmental coordination disorder (DCD), also called dyspraxia, which affects physical coordination, causing the person to appear more “clumsy.”
Jamar Torp
Jamar Torp
2025-06-29 17:01:02
Count answers : 12
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People with ADHD are famous for not doing sitting still. We have an aversion to sitting still for the same reason we have an aversion to other boring tasks: its understimulating. Having ADHD means you have a brain thats hungry for reward, stimulation, something interesting. Essentially, sitting still is the perfect example of an “uninteresting task” thats unrewarding and unstimulating. By definition, sitting still is less stimulating than moving around. We feel the lack of stimulation viscerally, and our brains automatically try to balance things out through fidgeting. Its a subconscious reaction to understimulating situations like having to sit still. Because fidgeting helps me focus, which for people with ADHD has been shown to be true.
Kasandra Harvey
Kasandra Harvey
2025-06-18 23:58:42
Count answers : 6
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People on the autism spectrum in particular can have low levels of proprioception, and as a result, can feel almost ‘detached’ from their body. When we sit like we’re ‘supposed’ to, our feet are on the floor and our arms are by our sides or on a desk or table, which means our brain isn’t receiving much feedback. Neurodivergent people often favour sitting positions that give us more proprioceptive feedback. For instance, sitting in chairs with their legs crossed, or even crouching, are subconscious ways of seeking more proprioceptive feedback. ND people tend to favour sitting positions with contact between body parts, because it increases our awareness of how our body is occupying space. ND people, particularly those with autism or ADHD, are likely to shift around more than their neurotypical peers. This isn’t inherently problematic, but the NT people around them might perceive it as deliberate and/or disruptive. Some of the other ways that people might seek proprioceptive stimulation while sitting include bouncing their leg, tipping back on their chair, including rocking or spinning on one leg, rubbing their feet.