More Than a Busy Brain: ADHD, the body, what the new research is telling us

When: 22th October 2026 - 7pm to 8:30pm

Where: Zoom (the link will be emailed to you on the day of the event)

How: Click 'Register' to book your place via Eventbrite

Speaker: Dr Jessica Eccles

Dr Jessica Eccles is an award-winning researcher and neurodevelopmental psychiatrist working with adults with ADHD, autism and Tourette syndrome. She is Associate Professor (Reader) in Brain-Body Medicine at Brighton and Sussex Medical School and works in the Sussex NHS Neurodevelopmental Service, where she and colleagues set up the world's first Neurodivergent Brain Body Clinic. Her research asks why ADHD so often comes with pain, fatigue, dizziness and bendy joints — things that aren't in the diagnostic criteria but matter enormously. She chairs the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Neurodevelopmental Psychiatry Special Interest Group, and hopes to challenge stereotypes and encourage curiosity.

Agenda

This webinar starts where most people with ADHD already are — with the everyday things that don't get talked about at diagnosis: the tiredness that doesn't lift, the dizziness on standing up, the pain that gets dismissed, the sensory overwhelm, the sense that your body is working against you. From there it opens out into the science: ADHD rarely travels alone, and roughly half to two-thirds of people with one neurodevelopmental condition have traits of another, which is why so many people recognise themselves in autism descriptions years after an ADHD diagnosis (or the reverse).

The middle section introduces the brain-body link in plain terms — hypermobile or "bendy" joints, connective tissue, and the autonomic nervous system that quietly runs heart rate, digestion and blood pressure — drawing on the most recent findings, including a 2026 study showing that people attending chronic pain and fatigue services were around 13–14 times more likely to screen positive for ADHD or autism, with up to 70% screening positive despite most having no diagnosis, and new work in Nature Mental Health suggesting that how reactive someone's autonomic nervous system is may be the missing link between variant connective tissue and neurodivergent traits. It then turns to why this matters practically: research this year found that adults not in employment, education or training were substantially more likely to screen positive for autism (66% vs 49%) and ADHD (34% vs 26%) than their employed peers, with identical rates of formal diagnosis in both groups — underdiagnosis, not overdiagnosis, is the real story, and physical health and education are part of the pathway.

The closing section is deliberately hopeful and useful: what to raise with your GP, why "it's just anxiety" is often an incomplete answer, what reasonable adjustments can look like when the body is part of the picture, and where the research is heading — ending with live Q&A, since the questions people bring are usually the best part.

We may invite you to go on camera to ask your question, but this is completely optional. The Webinar will be recorded, so you are also very welcome to keep your camera switched off, or just listen in to the event.