Eli5 how Adderall works
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Doc here.
While we don’t know the exact reason why stimulants help people with ADHD, it is believed that these people have abnormally low levels of dopamine in the parts of their brain responsible for attention and concentration. Dopamine is a feel-good hormone that is released with rewarding activities like eating and sex. It can also be released by certain stimulatory activities like fidgeting (or, in extreme cases, thrill activities like skydiving — which is why some people literally get addicted to thrill sports). Since people with ADHD can’t eat and have sex all the time, they respond to their lower dopamine levels by engaging in rewarding and impulsive behaviors, which usually come off looking like hyperactivity.
Drugs like Adderall increase the dopamine supply that’s available to the brain. In people with ADHD, it *corrects* the level of dopamine to normal levels. Thus, it improves attention span and, in people with ADHD, reduces the need for self-stimulatory behavior. Too much Adderall, or any Adderall in normal people, will cause hyperactivity due to its effects on the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight). But in people with ADHD, the proper dosage will, for reasons mentioned, fix the hyperactivity. You reach the happy medium.
Edit: Thanks everyone for the awards! There are a lot of questions on here and I can’t get to all of them. But if you feel you have ADHD and could benefit from medical therapy, definitely talk to your doctor!
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