ADHD

The problem is ADHD is so misunderstood. It's so misunderstood that the name itself misunderstands it. It is not a problem with attention or hyperactivity. Those are just two common symptoms. It is primarily a problem of having a very low sensitivity to reward. To a person with ADHD, if a task has no immediate reward it feels like a punishment. The darker side of ADHD that is never touched upon in the stereotypical representations is what is sometimes referred to by people as an "addictive personality". People with ADHD are at a much higher risk of becoming drug addicts or alcoholics if the condition is untreated. ADHD also very often causes ups in downs in a persons mood all throughout the day. You can range from feeling depressed to feeling super happy. This is what is sometimes colloquially called "bipolar". I say colloquially because it is. This isn't bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is where the individual experiences long periods of depression (weeks or months) followed by long periods of mania. So the stereotype of a fidgety person who gets distracted mid-sentence is really just what fidgety people who get distracted easily are like. Sure, many people with ADHD might display traits like that at times, but those traits aren't what the condition is really about. ADHD is highly co-morbid, meaning that the condition normally produces other mental health problems if untreated. So if you wonder if you have ADHD, it might be worth asking yourself if you have mental health problems. Have you ever experienced panic attacks? Do you have issues with depression? These are two problems commonly experienced by individuals with untreated ADHD. People with ADHD also don't often fit in well with others. They experience over-focusing problems. This sounds contradictory but it isn't at all. Due to always seeking reward, people with ADHD can't take their mind away from stimulating things. You may be stressed as hell to the point of feeling ill because you haven't started any of your essays that are due, but have sat for hours researching string theory online. The issue is not about attention. It is about a lack of executive function, meaning tasks are not prioritised properly and decisions are made on impulse, and an issue of low reward sensitivity. The list goes on. This is in no way a full description of the condition.?


Impulse Control Syndrome, or at the very least classified as Dopamine Deficiency.



ADHD is caused by a lack of dopamine in the pre-frontal cortex. Neurologically this is what the condition is. How this then manifests psychologically is fundamentally a lack of executive functioning and impulsive behavior due to low reward sensitivity and high reward seeking behavior.

Saying "ADHD causes X" is a reification fallacy, because it's nothing more than a label for certain behaviors. ADHD is a social construct, determined by the demands of contemporary schooling, society, and the profit motives of pharmaceutical companies. It's nothing more than an invented category.


I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was a very young kid. Over the years the hyperactivity part has mostly faded, but the rest of the symptoms are still there. I used to not believe in ADHD as an illness, I believed (and still do believe) that things like hyperactivity are merely personality traits, but I didn't know about any of these other characteristics of the disorder until just now. You described me so perfectly in this post it's actually kind of scary. I literally just got done having a conversation with someone where I said pretty much all the exact same things, including the feeling of having a constant need for stimulation. If I get bored, I start getting depressed and eventually if it gets bad enough, I have anxiety attacks. I often have multiple things going at once, I'm either listening to music, watching a video, or playing a game, AT ALL TIMES. Most of the time, I'm doing 2 or even all of these things at once, even if I don't particularly feel like it, I just need SOMETHING to keep my mind occupied.