Late January Lag: EMDR Support for Women With ADHD

Late January can feel like waking up to a quiet mismatch.

For the days you awaken to a vast chasm between the responsibilities you know you carry and what you actually have to offer.

For the days when that chasm feels so overwhelmingly wide that dread threatens to swallow you whole.

If you’re a woman with ADHD, this experience can feel especially familiar. The structure and momentum of early January may have faded, while your nervous system is still recovering from the demands of the holidays, seasonal darkness, and months of sustained effort. Lagging energy at the end of January isn’t a personal failure — it’s often a nervous system reality.

What if, instead of pushing harder, you took a moment to notice what you actually experience here and now?

Notice the inside of your head.

Then your neck… your shoulders… upper arms… elbows… lower arms… palms… fingers.

Your upper back, mid-back, lower back.

Your chest… navel… pelvis.

Upper legs… knees… shins… ankles… heels… arches… toes.

Then notice your body as a whole — not what it should be capable of, but what it is actually asking for.

For many women with ADHD, this kind of attuned body awareness doesn’t come naturally. Years of masking, over-functioning, or living in a chronically activated nervous system can disconnect us from internal signals. This is one reason trauma-informed approaches like EMDR for women with ADHD can be so powerful. EMDR doesn’t just work with thoughts — it helps restore the body’s ability to notice, regulate, and respond with compassion.

What if the truest answer that bubbled up became your starting point for the day?

What if your first priority was meeting the needs your body named — rest, movement, nourishment, stillness — and then noticing what you genuinely have to offer your original list of intentions?

What if the remaining responsibilities were gently reassigned:

to another day

to another person

or to a specific time after an activity that reliably restores you

This is not avoidance. This is regulation.

Imagine living each day with this mindset — knowing that at each moment, you have choice. That you are not broken for needing recovery. That your capacity fluctuates, especially in seasons like late January, and that this fluctuation is normal.

Living much like a water fountain: continually drinking, then overflowing — not by force, but by rhythm. Resting assured that the resources you need are available because you are the noticer, the provider, and the receiver — all within your sphere of control.

For women with ADHD healing from chronic overwhelm or trauma, this is often the deeper work beneath productivity: learning to trust the body again. Learning to listen without judgment. Learning that care is not a reward for completion, but the foundation that makes completion possible.

I wish you:

the freedom to pause

the insight to notice and honor

the creativity to plan accordingly

and the joy of recognizing the depth of your own resourcefulness

With care,

Dana

 www.flowingfountainlpcs.com