If caffeinated drinks like coffee are meant to give you boosts of energy then why is it recommended for kids with ADHD to calm them down?
In: Biology
I have ADHD. The way it was explained to me was, that everyone has barriers/filters in their brains to help them sort through external stimuli – so for example, when you’re driving, you’re able to pay attention to other cars and pedestrians on the road, but you’re not distracted by the fact that the sky is blue, or the fact that you recognise someone on the road side, or by the random thought passing through your brain.
In people who have ADHD, those barriers are lower than most people’s, so our brains have to deal with a shitload of information at once. Hence the distraction (too much information going through the barriers to focus on a few things), or hyperfocus (brain is concentrating really hard to raise the barriers really high to focus on only one thing – but it’s exhausting), and eventually hyperactivity (side effect when the brain is trying to keep the barriers raised).
When people with ADHD take stimulants like caffeine, it helps the brain raise up the barriers to a level where most people have them, so it isn’t so hard as when the brain tries to do it by itself. Thus less distraction, and less hyperactivity since the brain doesn’t have to work as hard.
What most people don’t understand is that having ADHD is *exhausting*. The hyperactivity you see isn’t from us having too much energy, it’s from our brains trying really hard to filter out all the useless information coming at us.
Edit: wow, thanks everyone for all the upvotes! I had no idea it would resonate with so many people. Shoutout to my psychiatrist for explaining it to me like this in the first place!
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