Why does ADHD cause impulsivity?
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With psychological disorders, the name is more a description of the symptoms than the other way around. Adhd doesn’t cause impulsivity, it’s a description of a range of behaviors including lack of focus and impulsivity. It’s analogous to saying why does depression cause sadness or why does anxiety cause nervousness. Depression is just the word that means you are sad all the time in a chronic way.
There are exceptions to this, especially disorders or diseases with a specific known cause such as Alzheimer’s. However, dementia is a disorder that is often caused by Alzheimer’s, but dementia just means you get confused and lose memory and awareness, and it can have a number of causes.
Firstly, for OP and/or anyone else, know that “ADD” and “ADHD” are the same thing. They are both terms used to describe an array of psychological and behavioral symptoms. This is a common misconception.
Everyone’s brain has both a certain level of average actual brain activity and a certain threshold of *desired* brain activity (note: this is unrelated to intelligence). The brain craves a certain level of activity or else it will exert mental energy trying to boost that level. People with ADD/ADHD have an abnormally low level of baseline brain activity which causes the brain to constantly “reach out” for new sources of stimulation. This is where the H (“hyperactivity”) in ADHD comes from…it means the brain is hyperactively trying to boost its baseline activity level, not that the person behaves in a “hyper” manner.
So ADD/ADHD sufferers have a baseline level of brain activity that is too low, prompting the brain hyperactively reach out for anything that might provide stimulation. This is why people with ADD/ADHD get bored easily and multi-task. Anything that boosts the brain’s baseline activity level will reduce symptoms, and for this reason caffeine is actually very helpful. This is also why stronger stimulants like Adderall are prescribed to treat ADD/ADHD symptoms. By boosting the brain’s baseline activity level using stimulants, the mind is better able to focus because it isn’t constantly hungry for new sources of stimulation.
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