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
ADHD is a disorder of your executive function, which is basically your brain’s ability to control itself (ELI5 level). As such, people with ADHD have difficulties directing their attention, hence the name. But it’s not just attention, it’s a lot of other things like motivation and emotions. One common symptom is procrastination, which has to do with only getting the motivation to do something once it’s crunch time, whereas people with normal executive function are better able to motivate themselves based off of a future consequence. Some people with ADHD have drastic mood swings because their brain isn’t regulating emotions well, leading to impulsive behavior as well.
Caffeine and other stimulants improve executive function, so if you have ADHD and take the ‘right’ dose, you can more or less have a regular person’s ability. Now they can regulate their emotions, which in many people results in a calming down because now they can regulate all of those impulsive thoughts coming into their head. Also, caffeine helps many people with ADHD sleep for a similar reason. Instead of falling asleep with your mind going all over the place, caffeine can restore focus and allow your brain to tune out those thoughts and actually go to bed.
Imagine the brain like an office. There are lots of people doing the day to day tasks and some managers to make sure that the employees are working on the proper projects and accounts.
In the brain of someone with ADHD, those managers are less effective because they don’t have enough energy to fully function. The workers bounce around between lots of different tasks and don’t see any one task to completion. Drinking coffee(or taking Adderall/Vyvanse) gives more energy to those managers, enabling them to wrangle the workers beneath them and get them back to task.
This is also why ADHD people are often able to focus on things like video games but not on homework or chores. The adrenaline rush from playing games causes those middle managers to perk up and enable focus.
The brain of a child with ADHD is looking for more stimulation than normal. So the child is constantly moving, distracted, etc. because it is trying to gain this extra stimulation from their environment. The “energy”(stimulant) in caffeine (or whatever stimulant they’re taking) feeds the brain’s need for more stimulation so now the brain is happy and fulfilled, reducing the need for the child to look for it in their environment thus being able to calm down and focus better.
Source: completing master’s in early childhood mental health
Does this explain why, as an adult with ADHD, I can take my amphetamines with a cup of coffee and then lay down and take a nap?
OP, you do realise Ritalin (the most common medication for ADHD where I’m from) is low dosage amphetamines right?
ADHD is caused by *underactivity* in the frontal lobe of the brain – the part responsible for organization and impulse control (think of it as “the brain’s secretary and the brain’s breaks). The reason kids with ADHD are hyperactive is because that front part of the brain is underactive – the hyperactivity is because their brain is not active enough to stop them from moving and fidgeting, *not* because their brain is overactive. Stimulants (like caffeine)* increase activity in these areas, which lets them control their impulses better and results in them being “calmer.”
Source: I’m a clinical psychology professor who specializes in studying ADHD.
*Caffeine is actually not recommended for ADHD though, because it is more of a central nervous system stimulant. Stimulant medications like Adderall or Ritalin/Concerta specifically target the front part of the brain, which is why they are used for ADHD.
I strongly felt an urge to pitch in here, given what people were posting.
Psychostimulants such as amphetamines and methylphenidate which many of you are probably aware of, are first line drugs used to treat ADHD. It may sound counter-intuitive to say a stimulant drug can treat a “stimulant”/”hyper” condition, but these drugs increase certain chemicals (neurotransmitters) between nerve endings (synapses) that control attentional function.
The drugs will increase dopamine and norepinephrine in your brain that interferes with attention negatively, thus bringing the patient back to perceived “normalcy”. It is similar with caffeine as well.
PS I am a doctor.
Folks with ADHD have an underdeveloped area in the brain called the prefrontal cortex. Basically think of it like the secretary of the brain. It’s job is to tell you what’s important to pay attention to and to generally organize incoming stuff. When this area is underdeveloped, your mind basically doesn’t know how long it’s supposed to pay attention to something, kinda like scheduling meetings. It’s not struggling to engage attention with something, it’s also struggling to disengage. When a nonADHD person sees a squirrel, they know whether or not they need to keep focusing on the squirrel thanks to the secretary. When you give a person with ADHD a stimulant like caffeine, it stimulates the area, essentially getting the secretary to do its job. When the secretary is doing its job, the person with ADHD doesn’t have to anymore, which means they can work better and don’t have to work as hard.
The part of the brain responsible for concentration is under stimulated in people with add/adhd. This makes it seem as though they are over stimulated but we just can’t pay attention because that part of the brain don’t work so well. When we take a stimulant, for me Adderall, it speeds up that part of the brain bringing us closer to normal to paying attention. People that already have a normal working brain that add stimulates now have an over stimulation causing them to look like tweakers.
Dopamine. ADHD is a lack of dopamine. Dopamine is your reward drug in your brain that lets you focus. It keeps you motivated. It let’s you function as a normal person. Caffeine activates dopamine. That’s all it is.
Latest Answers