At least once a week, illustrator Pina Varnel will find some mysterious bruise or scratch on her leg or arm she has no recollection of getting.
“I also don’t pay attention to the obstacles I’m bumping into on the way,” she said. Instead, “I’m preoccupied with not forgetting to take the trash out and hyper-focusing on a new hobby, thinking of what cute streaming graphics I could draw.”
As Varnell, author of the upcoming book “Feeling Like an ADHD Alien,” puts it: “It’s almost like my head isn’t fully in the room with me when I walk. I’m not really paying attention to where my body is in space, and by the fifth time I’ve walked into the vacuum, the pain has just faded into background noise.”
If you have ADHD (or suspect you do), mystery bruises like Varnell’s are not uncommon.
“Many adults with ADHD report frequent bruising or bumping into objects, and this is often related to differences in proprioception, which is the body’s ability to sense where it is in space,” said Cristina Louk, a mental health counselor who specializes in ADHD and neurodiversity-affirming therapy in Washington state.
Proprioception allows a person to move through the environment with precision, Louk explained, adjusting posture, distance, and force without consciously thinking about it.
“When this system is less finely tuned, people may misjudge how close they are to objects or how much force they are using, which can lead to accidental collisions,” the counselor told HuffPost.
Louk often hears adults with ADHD talk about bumping into things or tripping, but they don’t initially connect it to their diagnosis.
“It is usually interpreted as, ‘I’m just clumsy’ or ‘I move too fast,’ rather than as a difference in how the brain is processing spatial and sensory information,” she said.
“For many, naming this as part of ADHD can be relieving: It reframes the experience from a personal flaw to a neurocognitive pattern,” she said. “It’s not that I’m careless, it’s that my brain is processing space and attention differently in certain moments.”
Darya Komarova via Getty Images
Cristina Louk, a mental health counselor who specializes in ADHD, often hears adults with ADHD talk about bumping into things or tripping, but they don’t initially connect it to their diagnosis.
A Neurological Explanation Why ADHD-ers Are All Bruised Up
Keep in mind, persistent, unexplained bruising can also indicate something more serious: blood-thinning medications, nutrient deficiencies (vitamins C, K, B12), or blood-clotting disorders. But if you have ADHD, there’s a strong likelihood it’s tied to that.
From a neurobiological perspective, ADHD is associated with differences in brain networks involved in attention, motor planning, and sensory integration, Louk explained.
“The cerebellum, which plays a key role in coordination and timing, and the parietal lobes, which help map the body in space, do not always communicate as efficiently,” she said. “In addition, dopamine regulation, which is central to ADHD, influences not only attention but also motor control and the brain’s ability to fine-tune movement.”
Attention plays a role, too. Many people with ADHD are directing cognitive resources toward internal thoughts or competing stimuli, which can reduce moment-to-moment awareness of their physical surroundings.
“It’s not simply clumsiness,” she said. “It reflects how the brain is allocating attention while simultaneously processing sensory and spatial information. What often gets labeled as “being accident-prone” is more accurately understood as a difference in how the brain integrates sensory input with movement.”
Varnell noted that her ADHD affects her spatial awareness in other ways, too.
“I almost knocked my coffee cup over, a minute ago, thinking it was further away than it really was. I’m not really paying attention to processing the room around me when I’m deep in thought, but also, when I’m too energetic and a little hyperactive, I’m accidentally breaking things by gesturing wildly as I speak.”
Maria Korneeva via Getty Images
Woman using mobile phone while walking in front of concrete wall.
What To Do If You’re Always Bumping Into Things
Louk tells her bruise-prone ADHD clients that the goal is not to eliminate any of their behavior entirely, but to support the brain in becoming more anchored in the body and environment. For instance:
Move your furniture around so it is less of a menace.
“Environmental adjustments can also reduce friction,” Louk said. “Keeping pathways clear, creating more predictable layouts, and minimizing clutter can lower the demand on spatial processing in day-to-day life.”
Practice mindfulness to increase your spatial awareness and bring your focus back to your body.
Terri Bacow, a psychologist who specializes in treating ADHD in New York City, encourages her clients to practice mindfulness to increase their awareness of their surroundings.
“Mindfulness is a skill where you try to stay in the present moment and direct your attention to visual and sensory experiences you are having in that moment,” she said. “It involves noticing, observing, and describing your surroundings.”
Bacow said mindfulness doesn’t have to be complicated. You can be mindful of your thoughts and feelings and also engage your five senses ― noticing what you’re hearing, smelling and seeing at the park.
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Terri Bacow, a psychologist who specializes in treating ADHD in New York City, encourages her clients to practice mindfulness to increase their awareness of their surroundings.
“I’ll move my palms across the table and describe in my head how the wooden texture feels, then ask myself if my back hurts, if I’m thirsty and so on,” she explained. “When I move between rooms, I’ll repeat in my head or say out loud what I’m doing, to mentally stay with the task.”
Try an exercise that refines your proprioception and body awareness.
Louk struggles with spatial awareness in her personal life, but her exercise of choice helps.
“I was classically trained in ballet and spent years teaching it, and I now maintain a daily yoga practice. That kind of movement training significantly refines proprioception and body awareness,” she said.
That said, she still finds herself with unexplained bruises or occasionally running into doorframes or furniture.
“That’s been an important realization, actually,” she said. “It suggests that while movement practices can strengthen proprioceptive feedback, they do not fully override the underlying attentional and sensory integration patterns associated with ADHD. The issue is not a lack of skill or body awareness.”
Try to slow down.
We’re all in a hurry to get things done, but especially ADHD-ers, who move quickly, particularly when cognitively engaged, Louk said.
Building in small pauses or even for a second or two before you run to turn the stove on or walk to the office bathroom allows the brain to “catch up” to your body’s movement through space.
“Ultimately, all these shifts are subtle but important,” Louk said. “It is less about trying harder to be careful and more about creating conditions where the brain has the sensory and attentional support it needs to move through the environment with greater accuracy.”
