I'm scared about who they'll become

What to do right now

The fear spiralled from today into their entire future. Jobs, relationships, independence, safety. The catastrophising is your own ADHD brain doing what it does at 11pm: projecting the worst case with full emotional intensity. You cannot solve their future tonight. What you can do: show up tomorrow. The long game is built from the short ones.

What your brain just did

Your body

The fear about their future has the quality of an ADHD rumination spiral. Full intensity, worst case, no off switch.

Your brain

ADHD brains project future scenarios with full emotional intensity. The catastrophe feels imminent because the emotional system does not distinguish between 'this might happen in fifteen years' and 'this is happening now.'

What this did

You cannot solve their future tonight. The fear is a feeling, not a prediction. What you can do: show up tomorrow. The best predictor of outcomes for ADHD children is the quality of the parent-child relationship, which you are actively building.