here is a post from the adhd $ub containing a couple thousand annecdotes showing that it either makes us tired, or has no effect for most people with adhd:
(link in comments else aut0m0d flags this as being about r3dd!t drama)
one of the top comments was a guy saying he drank it to sleep at night,
and i personally wanted to test this on myself, i dont consume much caffeine regularly, i usualy have one cup of coke containing 30mg per day, but today i drank two cups of coffee (the first two of my life it, was fucking disqusting) and 3 energy drinks. i got 8.5 hours of sleep last night, and its 6pm, i feel incredibly tired, and have done all day, the most awake i felt today was in the morning just before my first cup. my heart rate is 58bpm as writing this, which is the same as usual, maybe a tiny bit more. despite me consuming about 350mg, and about half of that was chugged about 45 minutes ago, this is the most tired i’ve felt today.
i’m interested in the science behind why this happens to adhd people?
In: Biology
A large part of it is timing. For most people, caffeine takes 30 minutes to start doing anything and it slowly ramps up for about 3 hours until the effects peak and then drop over the next hour or so. Drinking coffee is associated with pleasure and a little dopamine release from just eating or drinking something delicious (or addictive) can make you feel drowsy.
I could chug a cup of coffee and climb into bed while enjoying the warm fuzzies of how nice the coffee tastes, but if I wait 2 hours, it’ll be hard to sleep. Depending on when I get in bed, it would either lull me to sleep or make it hard to fall asleep.
Before diagnosing and treating my ADHD(among other fatigue-inducing issues), I was a serious coffee fiend, but coffee doesn’t really help ADHD. Having untreated ADHD feels like driving a car stuck in 2nd gear where you have to think very fast to keep up with everyone else who is cruising in 3rd or 4th gear. Caffeine sort of helps us feel like we’re faster, but it doesn’t necessarily do anything to help. It is stimulating to some receptors for alertness and awareness, but it misses the specific regions and receptors that help with ADHD. ADHD theory is that we lack sufficient dopamine and serotonin in specific brain regions. ADHD stimulant meds cause either extra release or slower reuptake of serotonin and dopamine in specific areas. It brings us closer to neurotypical brain function, but caffeine just cracks us out in a nonspecific way.
It’s sort of if you gave a 3 legged racehorse some PCP. it might be able to keep up with the other horses, but not because it regained a leg. ADHD meds would be more like giving the horse a prosthetic – closer to normal but not really normal. Yes, that analogy is awful but maybe it makes sense.
i love caffein, powdered one. Idealy combined wit some CBD – stims with sedative supplememt is just great. It turns me to crazy focus for many hours. Its much better source than regular coffee. i dont need presdribed meds.
Single one off caffeine consumption = less tired. Regular caffeine consumption = greater capacity to feel more tired.
That’s how it works for anyone
No effect? Brother, when I down two Rockstar energy drinks I can finally slow down, focus, and get things done like a normie neurotypical.
Yeah I got bad adhd. Thanks mom! Anyway coffee works fine on me like I think it works on most people. Helps me sit down and focus instead of getting up and walking around for no reason. Not sure where you got this info. Or maybe I just don’t understand how it affects normal people
Stimulants do that. Meth has the same type of effects on people with ADHD, but clearly it’s not in any way shape or form safe for consumption. A lot of meth users are self medicating.
I sleep very well after a cup of coffee. I sleep terribly and often only for about three hours if I have more than one alcoholic drink. No idea why.
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