There’s a book that changed my life in my 20s: Feeling Good by Dr. David Burns. I’ve gifted it more than 100 times over the years — usually to anyone struggling with depression or anxiety. But years later, as a certified ADHD coach, I found myself returning to many of the same ideas, because they turned out to be just as relevant to ADHD cognitive distortions as they are to mood disorders.

ADHD coaching often focuses on the executive function side — planners, routines, reminders, task initiation. That work matters. But there’s another side that’s just as important: mind management. Understanding ADHD cognitive distortions helps explain why a perfect system can still fall apart, and why that fall isn’t a character flaw.

The Thought-Feeling Connection

Dr. Burns describes a simple chain: a circumstance leads to a thought, the thought creates a feeling, and the feeling drives what we do (or don’t do). For ADHD brains, this matters enormously. We can have the best planner in the world, get excited about a new system, and still get stuck — not because the system failed, but because a thought like “here I go again, I never stick with anything” created shame, and shame shut the whole thing down.

Common ADHD Cognitive Distortions

A few patterns show up again and again:

• All-or-nothing thinking — either the routine was followed perfectly, or it was a total failure.
• Overgeneralization — one missed deadline becomes “I always mess everything up.”
• Discounting the positive — nine things go right, one goes wrong, and the brain only remembers the one.
• Mind reading — assuming you know what someone else is thinking, often tied to rejection sensitivity.
• Fortune telling — predicting failure before you’ve even started.
• Labeling — “I procrastinated” becomes “I am lazy.”
• Emotional reasoning — believing something is true simply because it feels true.

Recognizing these ADHD cognitive distortions doesn’t erase the real challenges ADHD creates. It just separates what actually happened from the story the brain built around it.

The Triple Column Technique

One of the most practical tools from Feeling Good is the triple column technique: write down the negative thought, identify the distortion, then write a more balanced, believable response. Not fake positivity — just something more accurate. “I never finish anything” becomes “I struggle to finish things when they’re overwhelming, but I’ve finished many things, and I can make this easier by breaking it down.”

Why Small Actions Matter

Action and mood move together. When we feel terrible, we do less — and doing less makes us feel worse. Catching one distorted thought and taking one small action (opening the email, writing one sentence, setting a five-minute timer) is often enough to interrupt that cycle and create real momentum.

Free Resource: ADHD Thought Reset Guide

To help you practice this, I created a free ADHD Thought Reset Guide — a simple worksheet walking through circumstance, thought, feeling, distortion, and a more balanced thought you can practice instead.

If you want more personalized support putting this into practice, you can book a free consultation.

Work With Mande

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