ADHD — Anti-Dopamine Hell Disease

That’s what it stands for, right?

ADHD is the most common mental disorder on the planet. It is also, in my opinion, one of the most misunderstood.

There are people who truly believe that ADHD does not really exist, that it is just a crutch for lazy people to lean on instead of doing the work to discipline themselves. Some people believe that ADHD is blown way out of proportion and isn’t nearly as serious or prevalent as they say it is. Still others believe that the majority of ADHD diagnoses are just people faking it to get legal stimulants.

I have coworkers that legitimately think that because everyone experiences ADHD-like symptoms sometimes, then they completely understand ADHD and it’s not really a big deal. My boss believes that ADHD is caused by stress and a poor diet.

None of this is true, of course. Science has clearly shown developmental differences in the brain between ADHD and non-ADHD people, specifically the under-development of the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) and the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC). These parts of the brain control mental functions such as working memory, cognitive flexibility (set switching, or switching from one task to another), impulse control, and emotional regulation. Collectively, these are known as executive function. Executive function is controlled mainly by the release and re-uptake of neurotransmitters, primarily dopamine.

Thus, ADHD can correctly be described as a dopamine deficiency.

Although ADHD is typically characterized as (and even named after) a lack of attention or focus, that actually isn’t true at all. People with ADHD have overactive minds, causing them to focus on all sorts of things, often just not the things that need focusing on. Their brain is desperately searching for its next dopamine hit, and this makes any sort of focus control nearly impossible.

Think for a moment about how you would feel if you went 2 days with no food. Your hunger would be so strong that it would consume your thoughts. Your brain would not be able to focus on anything else, because it is desperately trying to get you to eat. This is what dopamine deficiency feels like. You can’t focus because your brain is starving, looking for a way to fulfill its dopamine requirement.

Now, for those Doctors out there that might be reading this: I understand that this is an over-simplification of the mechanics of ADHD. However, I believe that we need to provide simple, accessible explanations for the reasons that ADHDers are the way they are. Many people with ADHD are not armed with enough knowledge on the way it works to accurately describe their plight to their parents, teachers, or bosses. In fact, I would argue that many of the people that we have tasked with diagnosing and treating the disorder don’t have even a basic understanding of its mechanics.

Please don’t misunderstand me: having ADHD does not give you a free pass to give in to your every whim and impulse just because you can blame it on your brain. We are still responsible for our own actions, but I think it is important for us to have a concise and comprehensive understanding of why we act the way we do before we can reasonably expect to change it.

You are not broken, you are not lazy, and you are not worthless. Your brain functions differently than those around you, and in many ways society is not built to accommodate that. The general public will never understand what living with ADHD is like. Understanding and being able to communicate the ways that your brain differs from those without ADHD is a vital step in learning to live your ADHD life to its fullest.