Attention Deficit Disorder, also known as ADD, is a diagnosis made by a clinician when someone’s lack of ability to focus on appropriate topics or tasks is causing dysfunction for that person’s job, health, relationships, education, or other important life goals.
What do you call a lack of ability to focus that has not been diagnosed by a clinician and/or does not result in major life dysfunctions?
Just, attention deficiency. Or AD for short.
So…are people who experience ASMR more likely to have ADD or AD?
Yes and No. Let me explain.
I have been reading lots of articles and blog posts lately written by people who experience ASMR. Each story has a similar theme; the person learned about ASMR by accidental discovery.
They first heard about ASMR while listening to some podcast, browsing through YouTube videos, or scanning news articles.
No one introduced them to the term and concept of ASMR, most of them just “discovered” it on their own.
This is key. This means that they have a “discovery” personality. They tend to be the first of their peers to discover and understand new things.
Their brains crave novel and new things. They don’t like to focus on one thing for too long because that topic becomes stale and boring quickly. Their attention is pulled in many directions at once, always searching for more new information.
Guess what I just described? Yep, ADD or AD.
So yes, those people who know about and experience ASMR right now may be more likely to have ADD or AD.
But, there is still another 70%, 80%, 90% or more of the population that have never heard about ASMR and don’t yet know if they experience ASMR.
They don’t know about ASMR because they are focused on all the appropriate topics and tasks right in front of them.
Someday these people will know about ASMR because the knowledge about it is spreading rapidly. Friends, family members, TV shows, movies, books, etc. will eventually introduce these people to ASMR – no matter how focused they are.
And these focused people will just be among the last to learn about ASMR.
As well as, these focused people will be among the last to realize they experience or can experience ASMR.
So no, all people who eventually know about and experience ASMR may not be more likely to have ADD or AD.
But that is just a theory that needs testing.
By someone with a “discovery” personality 🙂
Click HERE to read more about ADD (and how it is similar to and different from ADHD).
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This post brought to you by the ASMR University. A site with the mission of increasing the awareness, understanding, and research of the Art and Science of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.
ASMR University 
Yes! I’ve noticed (last 8 years) that every single person who i know who has ADHD/ADD (which is actually same thing) and autistic people are able to experience ASMR! And those ONLY! Many people are just not aware they have ADHD or aspergers syndrome. Or they might have false diagnosis like bipolar..
Many people with AD(H)D are not hyperactive. Or it varies from time to time. Just like autistic people might be hyperactive as some aspergers for example. Hyperactivity might also be part of your natural personality. Hyperactivity is not the main problem with ADHD at all! The main problem with ADHD is: time blidness, difficulties with getting started on tasks, self-control and trouble managing emotions, easily distracted, hard time paying attention, problems with patience, difficulties holding information, difficulties completing long-term projects, trouble switching activity to another, forgetful, etc.
I’m pretty sure that ADHD and autism are caused by same source. And some people who are diagnosed with ADHD are actually suffering from something else like brain damage. Like my friend. She hit her head as an adult and she got every single ADHD symptoms after that! Later she was diagnosed with brain damage! What i would really like to know is that is she able to experience ASMR now..
I’m not native english speaker so there’s always some grammar mistakes etc..but i hope you got the point!
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I’m no researcher and I have no credentials, but I’ve been looking up many articles about ASMR on a credited search engine, and a few articles note a decreased functional connectivity of the “default mode network” (basically the resting brain state) in people who experience ASMR. This means that there is less inhibitory control on sensory experiences. In other regions of the brain, it interestingly found more connectivity. More research has yet to be done on this subject. When I looked up ADHD/ADD, it also says the same thing- decreased inhibitory control in the default mode network.
But as the old saying goes, correlation does not equal causation!
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I have ADHD and ASMR… I wondered if it’s somehow related. Apparently 5% of people have ADHD that’s a similar percentage to the percentage of people I’ve met who have ASMR
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I actually first experienced ASMR years ago listening to Julia Roy’s Tweetweek You Tube channel. It was bit of a surprise to me. She had a tendency to whisper in her podcast and I’d get chills. What’s interesting is that I have ADHD… which led me to finding out about ASMR when unfocusedly surfing the internet.
So I have no idea what that proves. I guess it goes against the causality part.
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