Dopamine, ADD and ADHD: Why We All Feel Like Headless Chickens

“I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.” – Lily Tomlin

Lately, I’ve found myself unable to concentrate on anything. Maybe having kids also contributes, but I used to be able to focus easily.

But now? Now I feel like a chicken with its head chopped off! (My hockey coach at school used to say that’s what I looked like when I played hockey… I wasn’t very good and didn’t actually want the ball anyway.) But now I feel like a headless chicken on an ordinary day. I have good intentions to get things done, but I don’t. I want to do some stretches but I just end up leaving ties all over the house and never actually stretching.

This got me thinking about dopamine, the latest buzzword, and how everyone and their cat seems to be diagnosed with ADD or ADHD these days. Is it just me, or does it seem a lot more prevalent than a decade or two ago?  I first thought some doctors were “trigger happy” with their diagnosis. But, a diagnosis doesn’t always look at the cause, and it seems more adults and kids are meeting the criteria for ADD and ADHD. This doesn’t mean everyone needs to be started on medication.

The Dopamine Dilemma

Dopamine is our brain’s “feel-good” neurotransmitter. It’s responsible for our motivation, pleasure, and reward. When you eat a piece of chocolate cake (or in my case, the chocolate cake batter) and feel a surge of happiness, you can thank dopamine for that blissful moment. However, in people with ADD or ADHD, there’s often a glitch in this reward system or they have a lower baseline of dopamine levels to start off with.

ADD and ADHD: The Basics

According to the DSM-5, to diagnose ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) in adults, the following symptoms are key:
– Difficulty sustaining attention in tasks.
– Often doesn’t follow through on instructions.
– Easily distracted by extraneous stimuli.
– Forgetful in daily activities.
– Avoids tasks that require sustained mental effort.

This sounds like me lately… Have I developed ADD?

Adults and kids with ADD generally have lower levels of dopamine, making it hard for them to stay motivated or interested in tasks that aren’t immediately rewarding. Interestingly, some doctors have referred to ADD as “demotivation syndrome” because it fits so well with the symptoms of struggling to finish boring tasks or those without immediate deadlines. Sounds like me and a lot of other “normal” people I know. Maybe our Dopamine baseline is normal but because of the constant dopamine highs were need more and more to actually have an effect. Sort of like insulin resistance (pre-diabetes), but only dopamine resistance.

The Dopamine Flood

In today’s world, we are bombarded with high-dopamine activities that require minimal effort. These activities provide quick, high bursts of dopamine, similar to fast food: they offer instant pleasure but aren’t good for us in the long run. Conversely, there are high-dopamine activities that require more effort but are healthier for our brains, much like nutritious, real food.

High Dopamine, Minimal Effort Activities
1. Scrolling through social media
2. Watching YouTube videos
3. Watching TV
4. Playing video games
5. Eating sugary foods and drinking alcohol

High Dopamine, Higher Effort Activities
1. Exercising
2. Meditating
3. Taking a walk
4. Engaging in creative hobbies (like painting or writing)
5. Completing challenging tasks at work or school

These higher effort activities, much like nutritious food, provide lasting benefits and help build resilience against dopamine resistance. However, the instant gratification of minimal effort activities is so tempting that it can feel like we’re all addicted to being constantly entertained and constantly fed. Also, we do not like feeling uncomfortable and it’s starting to get more difficult for people to do hard things. Are we becoming weak? Like those humans in the cartoon, WALL-E.

The Difference in Dopamine Sources

But why is the dopamine from a cold plunge different from the dopamine from scrolling through Instagram? The key difference lies in the effort and challenge involved. Cold plunges are physically and mentally demanding, triggering a natural and healthy release of dopamine over a prolonged period. This type of dopamine release is less likely to cause resistance because it involves overcoming a challenge, which is beneficial for our brain’s reward system. In contrast, the dopamine hits from Instagram are instant and require little effort, leading to potential dopamine resistance as our brain craves more frequent and intense stimulation to achieve the same reward. If I am getting dopamine from scrolling Instagram, why would I feel motivated to get into cold water?

The Modern Dopamine Overload

Imagine life 120 years ago: we didn’t constantly listen to music or have endless entertainment at our fingertips. We had time to wonder and ponder. We looked at the stars. We sang. Today, even our food is designed to give us dopamine boosts – sugary snacks, soft drinks and processed foods. Our brains are on a constant high, which can lead to burnout and lack of motivation for more mundane, but equally important, or even more important activities.

Medication: A Double-Edged Sword?

Medications like Ritalin, which are commonly prescribed for ADD and ADHD, work by blocking the reuptake of dopamine and noradrenalin. This increases the levels of these neurotransmitters in the brain, helping to improve focus and attention. However, this can also push the brain into a fight-or-flight state, rather than a rest-and-digest mode, leading to feelings of stress and anxiety if not carefully managed. Some people do really benefit from medication, but I don’t think all of us should try it, and it shouldn’t be your first option.

Balancing the Dopamine Scales

So, what can we do to sustain healthy dopamine levels without becoming dopamine-resistant? We need to avoid too much ‘easy dopamine surges’ and incoporate more ‘effort related dopamine release.’ And sometimes, maybe, we just need to be and not be doing too much.

– Diet: Eating more real food and less processed food. Eating foods rich in tyrosine (like almonds, bananas, and eggs) can help boost dopamine production. Sometimes eating bland or boring food. Some people tend to eat like a king every day with rich flavours and sauces- it’s exciting to eat like this, but also stimulates a lot of dopamine. Not abusing alcohol and being aware of alcohol’s affect on our dopamine and brains is important to remember.

–Don’t overdo the caffiene: coffee, coke, energy drinks. Caffeine also increases dopamine and too much caffeine is not contributing to good health. They say one shouldn’t have coffee within the first hour of waking up and seven hours before going to bed.

– Exercise: Physical activity increases dopamine and endorphins, improving mood and motivation. It’s dopamine you worked for, it took effort so it’s the kind of dopamine which is good for you.

–Challenge Yourself : Do something challenging, something you find difficult every now and then. This may  be building a puzzle or practicing a new piece of music.

–Be Bored: Let your kids be bored sometimes, it’s good for them. Allow yourself to be bored. Sometimes stare at a tree, or at a wall, or stroke your dog without scrolling through your phone. When busy with something, maybe rather take a “boring” break as opposed to scrolling social media during your break. (because the dopamine surge with minimal effort is so much easier.)

–Get some morning sun:  the neuroscientist, Andrew Huberman, suggests people get outside for some morning sunlight.

–Wait: Just wait. When standing in line or when your friend goes to the bathroom, just wait. You don’t have to grab your phone every gap you get. Observe yourself and the environment around you.

–Connect in real time: Connect with people around you, with animals, with nature.

– Cold Therapy: Exposing yourself to cold (like a cold shower) can increase dopamine, giving you a natural high. It boosts metabolism and also builds a resilient mindset.

– Mindfulness, breathing practices and Meditation: These practices help reduce stress and can help the brain reset its reward pathways. It can also teach you to sit with a feeling. Become aware that you are feeling a certain way.

– Digital Detox: Taking breaks from screens and social media can help lower the constant dopamine hits and allow your brain to recover.  This is a tricky one when it comes to kids too! My kids love screens and we find if there are no restrictions they will default to constant screen time. (I can also understand why they don’t want to go for a walk after screen time.)

–Just get started: when one lacks motivation it’s difficult to get oneself to actually do anything, but knowing that motivation often follows activity, could help to just get started. Maybe tell yourself you only have to do this task for 20 minutes. Set a timer for 20 minutes and allow yourself to stop if you want to, but often once you get going, the going gets easier.

–Gratitude: Be thankful for the ordinary, enjoy ordinary moments.

How are we going to incoporate these things? Or at least some of these?

Just because I have the symptoms of ADD and ADHD, doesn’t mean I need medication. But it might mean I need to make a few adjustments to my lifestyle if I want to actually be able to function more optimally and feel better while doing it.

While medication can be beneficial for some people, I think everyone should be incorporating lifestyle changes that can help manage dopamine levels and improve focus and motivation. Remember, it’s not just ADD and ADHD we are worried about, the dopamine system has an effect on so many aspects which can result in many different mental health disorders. I’m sure we all know that mental health has become something we all need to know more about and work at maintaining.

It almost sounds as if we all need to go and live on a mountain somewhere to get away from this modern, dopamine-drenched world. But running away is not an option for most of us.

That’s why it’s essential to at least be aware, that everything is programmed to grab our attention! It’s not that you are weak. It’s the way things are at the moment. It can be truly tough to start making more informed, better-for-our-mental-health changes! We need to actively decide on a coping strategy and find a balance that works for us and for our kids.

“The best way to get something done is to begin.”