The Sacred Womb

Is It ADHD — Or Is It Attachment Trauma?


Listen Later

Have you noticed the huge rise in the diagnosis of ADHD?

It’s everywhere — in adults, in children, on social media, in therapy rooms. And while it’s often discussed through the lens of ‘neurodiversity’ or executive dysfunction, there’s something deeper going on that rarely gets named.

The Root Cause of ADHD
ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, but in many cases, what’s really going on is the result of unresolved, early attachment trauma, and for the majority of people, it’s more accurate to describe it as:

ATTACHMENT DEFICIT

In a very small nutshell:

  • The psyche developed without a secure attachment figure — someone who could consistently regulate, attune, and protect.
  • There were multiple sustained periods of intolerable pain or stress, so the system fragmented in order to survive.
  • These fragmented parts became hyper-vigilant, and being still or at rest felt unsafe.
  • By adulthood, this becomes a way of life — fast-paced, scattered, always ‘on’.

As a culture, we like to give palatable names to things we don’t want to face — and mental health diagnoses have become a socially acceptable way of masking deeper truths.

Even ‘neurodiversity,’ while helpful in some contexts, can sometimes act as a palatable blanket for what is, at its core, profound and unresolved attachment trauma.

Real Healing Is Possible

Therapies that address the root — not just the symptoms — can support us to come back into the body, out of self-preservation, and into the present moment. Modalities like:

  • IFS (Internal Family Systems)
  • CRM (Comprehensive Resource Model)
  • DBR (Deep Brain Reorienting)
  • SE (Somatic Experiencing)

It does take time. But the nervous system is designed to heal.

A great resource is Gabor Mate’s Book: – Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder

You’re Not Broken — You Adapted

I invite you to pause, take a deep breath, and notice what part of you is speaking if you say, ‘It’s my ADHD,’ as if that defines the whole of who you are.

Part of what’s affecting attention, focus, and emotional regulation is physiological

Send us a text

Support the show

Melanie is an experienced Soul & Shadow Worker, Womb Medicine Woman, podcast host, writer and trainer.

For over 20 years, she has supported individuals and healing professionals to restore connection with the body, repair attachment and separation wounds, and embody primordial wisdom rooted in the womb, heart and soul.

Melanie's approach blends somatic womb healing, shadow integration, shamanic healing and soul-level repatterning - offering a deep and lasting pathway back to the true self.

She hosts The Sacred Womb Podcast, leads The Unification Of The Divine Masculine & Feminine Training and is currently writing her first book: The Sacred Womb - a handbook for coming home to our true nature, along with Poems For Peri-Menopause.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Sacred WombBy Melanie Swan

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

33 ratings


More shows like The Sacred Womb

View all
The School of Greatness by Lewis Howes

The School of Greatness

21,305 Listeners

ReWilding with Sabrina Lynn by Sabrina Lynn

ReWilding with Sabrina Lynn

331 Listeners

Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel by Esther Perel Global Media

Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel

14,849 Listeners

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett by DOAC

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

7,165 Listeners