Joseph CascianiGeropsychologist, Consultant, Public Speaking, Freelance · Podcast Host of the Living to 100 Club | Clinical Strategies for Senior Residential Settings & Lifestyle Directors | Geropsychologist | Keynote Speaker

ADHD was there the whole time, nobody caught it #ADHDtruth #BrainHealth

26 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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Joseph Casciani explains how trauma responses look like ADHD but differ in one key way: duration. ADHD is lifelong and pervasive, while trauma reactions are temporary responses to stress, like the difference between situational anxiety and an anxiety disorder.

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And a trauma response can mimic ADHD as well, but the difference is, did it persist— has it persisted over a lifetime, or did something occur? It's sort of like what I've learned, the difference between anxiety and anxiety disorder. And anxiety, and normal anxiety, is I know that I have to fly on an airplane and I don't like to fly, and as soon as I've flown, then my anxiety goes away, it's done. Versus a friend of mine who, as a young child, couldn't sleep at night because she was afraid that someone was going to come get her. And there was never an ending period. That was an anxiety disorder. She couldn't sleep. She couldn't eat. It disrupted her life.
Sure. Yeah. So, ADHD has that kind of pervasive, longstanding quality.
Exactly.
Yeah.
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