Emotional control
Controlling emotions, or emotional control, is the ability to manage emotions in order to achieve goals, complete tasks, or direct behavior.
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For example, a young child who has this skill can recover from a disappointment -- a low grade on a math test -- in short time. A teenager can manage anxiety over taking a test and perform well. A middle-schooler can handle a call from the ref that doesn't go his way.
Emotional control helps us to avoid being overwhelmed with unpleasant feelings such as irritation, dejection, and nervousness. Additionally, the flip side of managing unpleasant emotions is being able to generate positive feelings as a way to overcome obstacles and keep going. Studies suggest that over half of the people diagnosed with ADHD struggle with emotional self-regulation. |
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People with good emotional control are able to create a pause between the emotion and action. This allows them to change how much the emotion drives the action. For example, a child may get angry at the teacher but remember that it's important not to yell at adults so he suppresses his emotion and responds without the anger. People with good emotional control are able to view their emotions more objectively and see that someone else might feel strongly and differently about the same situation. |
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Emotions are a very difficult part of ADHD. Emotional immaturity can hurt self-esteem, relationships, and thus, just about every part of a person's life. More than half of those diagnosed with ADHD have difficulties with emotional regulation. To read an article about this, click the button below.
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To read more about emotional aspects of ADHD, click here.
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For some "do-s" and "don't-s" in addressing emotional control, see the document below:
Go back to the main EF strategies page so you can choose which executive function to go to next.
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Click here to go forward to the next executive function: Sustained Attention.
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