This also helps explain recent longer-term datashowing children with ADHD treated medically with stimulant medication (giving them the dopamine they need) have a lower risk of problematic substance use in later years, versus children who have not been treated with stimulant medication (reasonably start self-medicating on their own). Interestingly, use of substances like nicotine and cannabis have been shown in research studies to mediate dopamine receptor activity, which might explain why smoking is overrepresentedin the ADHD population. Taking a closer look can help shed some light on why things have and continue to go down in your life the way they do. They just don't deal with the same symptoms at nearly the level that an ADHDer does on a daily basis. It's not that people with neurotypical brains don't struggle. But these can be hard fought battles that sometimes, we need to be able to admit we are losing. In doing so, we have been forced to adapt and come up with all kinds of strategies for making our lives happen. The blessing is that ADHD brains to go undetected – we may or may not be conscious we are unwitting experts at the old ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ adage. When the potential for diagnosis comes – usually because either one’s child has been diagnosed, and we hear it’s highly heritable (genetically influenced), or one’s life is falling apart in a variety of ways, and then it can be both a relief and still upsetting. The struggles of ADHD are often not obvious to both the person with ADHD, as well as those in their life. Ultimately, it's the invisibility of ADHD that allows this unique condition to go undiagnosed for as long as it does in many cases. If you ARE interested in helping your loved one’s get over the hump of the label, remember how amazing you are, and want to actively work on how to, perhaps, gain more insight into how your symptoms affect you (and them), then read on, my friend. Picture author JD Salinger, living in a cabin in the woods, in isolation. if you live alone, aren’t in close intimate relationships, or don’t depend on healthy relationships for your wellbeing). If your symptoms don’t bother you, it’s no big deal right? ( Maybe. Symptoms affect every unique ADHD brain to different extents, but one general ‘rule’ seems to be that the more things are on your plate at whatever phase of life you are in, the more your symptoms show up. Regardless of one’s personal choice regarding formal diagnosis, symptoms still exist and can be problematic, for lots of different reasons. If you think you might have ADHD, but aren't diagnosed, to be totally transparent, there are debated pros and cons of being ‘officially’ diagnosed, and I have also seen compelling arguments (around accessibility) supporting moving forward with an unofficial or 'self-diagnosis' in the neurodivergentworld. The relative ‘ invisibility’ of the symptoms of undiagnosed ( or unmanaged!) ADHD can feel like both a blessing and a curse. (This article will reference ADHD and ADD interchangeably, which for the purposes of this topic, makes sense).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |