Dr. Micaela

And so social anxiety can look like a whole bunch of different things as long as you just think about the fact that at its core is fear of negative evaluation, right?

Um, so, uh, someone with ADHD is going to be way more vulnerable to developing that because their emotions are going to be hyperreactive and then they're going to fall into this pattern.

And we have this like really fun nerdy saying like neurons that fire together, wire together.

So essentially the more often I do a thing in my brain, the stronger that connection is.

Or if you think about it, like I just got back from, um, hiking a bunch, um, on a trip.

And so,

if you go on a little trail that only the deer have walked on, it's pretty mild.

You can't really necessarily make out the path always.

But if you go on like a big ass like horse trail that like a lot of people walk every day, that's a well-trodden, established, wider path.

And so when we have repeated reactions, we're building horse trails, those big established path, highways, right?

If we're thinking instead like a car metaphor because not everybody hikes in the wilderness.

So we've got that going for us.

The other thing is that especially people with ADHD, but people without ADHD can be weirdos too or unique, but neurodivergent people literally are different.

And so are highly likely to be judged for being themselves because they're not fitting in with what's going on with the mainstream society.

And so it's not just my brain like misreading cues and like being hyper reactive.

It's no very legitimately people think you're weird, or you different.

And so depending actually especially on your age or social situation.

So, adolescence so.

around 12 to early 20s uh again depending on puberty and hormones and all those fun things um the developmental task of a brain at that stage of development is to begin focusing on other people their age and to fit in with other people their age and yes there are all sorts of kids who are like yeah i'm gonna fit in but also i'm gonna be really different and i want my unique identity

but the mechanism of that behavior is still designed to fit in.