eli5 Why do stimulants calm and bring focus to people with ADHD?
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Stimulants increase the amount of dopamine available in the brain. Dopamine is a molecule that helps direct focus and attention. It’s the “reward” chemical in the brain, and your brain doles out little doses of it to keep you on task and motivated, even if a task is boring. Dopamine is also released when the brain encounters something novel and interesting, or in anticipation of something the brain wants.
People with ADHD have lower baselines levels of dopamine, and/or are less able to release additional dopamine as needed to direct attention. Part of the reason why the ADHD brain is so scattered is because it’s being drawn to stimuli in the outside environment (or sometimes drawn to passing thoughts that neurotypical people are able to ignore) because paying attention to these outside stimuli releases more dopamine in the brain than the boring task it was supposed to be working on does. Stimulants increase the release of dopamine in the brain such that there’s more available for your brain to use to keep you on task, and distractions are less compelling because the medicated ADHD brain is not as starved for dopamine.
This is why people with ADHD are actually quite capable of intense focus, but only on things that truly interest them. Interesting activities release a steady stream of dopamine in the brain, and the ADHD brain doesn’t really release much dopamine to reward itself for routine tasks. That’s why you’ll see someone with ADHD stay up for 20 hours doing something that interests them without making time to eat or attend to their other basic needs.
TLDR: Stimulants help the ADHD brain reward itself with dopamine for staying on task, reducing the propensity of the ADHD brain to bounce around to whatever thought or distraction is able to elicit a dopamine release in the brain.
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