We live in the age of curated perception. Instagram filters, clickbait headlines, “vibes.”

It’s all illusion, and we’re all falling for it.

So here’s the question: if you can train your brain to unsee an optical illusion—can you train it to unsee the culture that raised you to fall for it?

Science now says: sort of (PsyPost, 2024).

Let’s start with a bang—except, apparently, for some women with ADHD, the bang doesn’t always come.

A new study published in The Journal of Sex Research (Jensen-Fogt & Pedersen, 2024) offers compelling evidence that ADHD symptom subtypes—particularly inattentive traits—may be quietly undermining women’s orgasmic consistency during partnered sex.

This is not about libido, trauma, technique, or even partner compatibility.

It’s more about the brain’s tricky wiring when it comes to attention.

And it turns out that the wandering mind, a classic marker of inattentive ADHD, may be the real third wheel in the bedroom.

You’re sipping coffee, thinking about an old friend, and the phone rings—it's them.

You dream about a place you’ve never been and then end up there a year later. You feel someone watching you before you turn around—and you're right.

Coincidence? Imagination? Or something more baked into our wiring?

According to new research published in Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice (Palsson, 2025), these so-called anomalous experiences—premonitions, déjà vu, out-of-body events—aren’t fringe occurrences.

They’re part of being human, especially for people with a curious trait: subconscious connectedness.

Imagine you’re living in a body wired like a pinball machine—flashing lights, relentless motion, reactive tilt sensors.

That’s ADHD for many adults: a combination of emotional speed, impulsivity, and executive dysfunction. Now add alcohol. For some, it’s used as a numbing agent, a social lubricant, or a momentary off-switch for a brain that never quite powers down.

But a new French study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research (Luquiens et al., 2025) suggests that this combination—ADHD and alcohol—doesn’t merely fail to soothe. It amplifies suffering.

Alcohol, already notorious for wreaking havoc on mood and cognition, exacts an even steeper toll on quality of life for those with ADHD, particularly those stuck in patterns of emotional suppression and impulsive regulation.

Let’s explore why this interaction is especially toxic, what clinicians can learn from it, and how we might support neurodivergent clients in more adaptive emotion regulation.