Although science was never a subject I was really good at, dopamine and ADHD is something that I haven’t addressed before now and is something that I should discuss. So, here am I, ready to learn about it and share the information as best as I can.
Dopamine is an important of the brain and does act as a neurotransmitter. Dopamine is the part of the brain that controls the emotional responses and has us take action with specific rewards.
Another neurotransmitter called norepinephrine is found to be low with people with ADHD and this neurotransmitter goes hand in hand with dopamine.
Without these two neurotransmitters, certain parts of the brain won’t be able to communicate with each other. And this will lead to ADHD and executive function issues.
People with ADHD are low on these two neurotransmitters. Due to this, we don’t get the same kind of benefits as neurotypical individuals. We don’t see benefits such as calm, focus, motivation, patience, persistence, and pleasure.
And because we lack the dopamine, we don’t have any interest in doing the mundane tasks. These tasks aren’t interesting and we don’t always feel the rewards from doing these mundane tasks, such as doing the dishes, or paying the bills.
Although we may not be able to change how the neurotransmitters interact in our brain, there are other things that we can do, in order to get some of the benefits.
You can get up and move. Go for a walk, exercise, or just do something that gets your body moving.
Put on some music! Listen to music that you like. I find that listening to music I like will help me focus and get some motivation to get some things done. And I’m sure that it does help others.
So these are just some suggestions of things that you can do.
I do hope that I did explain the subject well. I’m sure there is a lot more to it than what I’ve mentioned. From what I’ve read, this is a bit of the gist of it. If I missed something, or there is something you’d like to add, feel free to comment.
Here are some extra information.
https://healthyadhd.com/adhd-dopamine/
https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/adhd-dopamine
Picture credit: Pixabay
1 Comment
I found that this article was interesting. I had to take a class, in college, and work with a student who had ADHD. For my project we had to learn about ADHD and how the brain worked. It was fascinating. I learned a lot during my project.