Eli5: Why is the medical treatment for people with ADHD/ADD often a stimulant?

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So, being a young adult with a suspicion of having some sort of the aforementioned, I’ve read that the treatment involves medicine of the stimulant sort.

Wouldn’t that make the underlying anxiety and restlessness worse? Or is it some sort of “shove” to artificial motivation, like making an old engine start up? Thanks in advance.

In: Biology

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Anonymous 0 Comments

That’s something that’s called a “paradoxal reaction”.

Stimulants make people calmer, depressants make you more stimulated. I don’t know excact mechanism.

But, something similar happens when you smoke lots of weed. After a long time, to acieve the same “high”, you can smoke less pot. (actually, it’s called reverse tolerance)…