– ADHD brains are said to be constantly searching for dopamine – aren’t all brains craving dopamine? What’s the difference?
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All brains crave dopamine, but normal brains *get* a baseline level of dopamine just by existing. ADHD brains don’t. So people with ADHD have to engage in activities or behaviors that give them dopamine just to feel “OK” or content. On the flip side, when normal brains have to do tasks that are annoying, boring, unpleasant, or just not intrisincally stimulating, they have that baseline level of dopamine that they can “spend” like a budget to focus, plan, or remember things. This is how they can “push through” and do the task anyway. These faculties (focusing, planning, remembering) are collectively referred to as your “executive function” and are all parts of what people with ADHD struggle with. ADHD brains don’t have that same “budget” to spend and either struggle to muster their executive function at all or struggle to maintain it for very long.
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