ADHD and addiction

[sharkticon]

Is there anyone here who has ADHD but does not have an addiction? Seems like the two go hand in hand. I've recently been learning a lot about this. One person I really like is Dr Gabor Mate. He has ADHD and has written books on both ADHD and Addiction. I've been watching a lot of stuff featuring him on Youtube, and it really hits home. If you are struggling with ADHD and an addiction I encourage you to look him up.

[Betsy74]

I’m sure there is a cohort of both but plenty of us without I’m sure, hyperficus does not always an addiction make!

[mikepen0287]

I wouldn't say those with adhd are addicted to their medication normally. taking meds so that you can function in society like a normal person doesn't really make you an addict.

I have a friend that has addiction problems and i can admit its difficult to see the differences but they are there. When addicts don't have their fix they tend to veer off into self destructive ways. But those with adhd have to go without their meds they tend to go into self preservation ways. Its the difference of knowing limits and ability and the balancing act that goes with it.

Addicts feel their limits dont exist with the meds because of the high they want.

Adhd we are trying to level out away from the high at first and just get to a normal feeling thats stable and find our limits to know them so we can just be the normal self that is expected of us.

True adhd we can't level out of brain chemistry on our own hence our need for the stimulants.

addicts already could level out their brain on their own. Though once they take their substance they get addicted to they loose a bit of the ability to level out on their own. But they are trying to get to the over elevated levels not normal levels. They can regain that ability if they can manage to go long enough without the stuff, where us with adhd often never can with out medication.

Again it looks similar on the surface both involve groups of people trying to level their brains out. But one is about self infliction and excess, where as the other is about an actual defect in the brain.

Its bad enough most people think adhd is a fake disorder and that we don't try hard enougn or are just lazy, when we actually just can't be like normal people. But for Dr.s to take on that stance and make pushes for medication to be further restricted and say all adhd doesn't need medication is doing more harm then good. especially for some of us with the adult adhd. I hear that if its treated as a kid while the brain is still growing it can help the brain develop to get rid of the need for medication, but some us slipped through the system and got to adulthood without getting that chance and won't ever be able to gain that ability.

For me i was told i have it as a kid but my parents didnt like ritalin. it was too up and down to be any good they thought. So i went 31 years without taking care out it..... and honestly it was a train wreck. Once i looked into it by chance and found out i should consider treatment and tried it and got used to the meds i started to see how vast the gap in development really was. Things like regulating and understanding my emotions, learning and understanding social ques, learning to understanding savings, planning, balancing lifestyle, work/life balance, good spending habits, ect...

There was just an enormous amount of things that quite frankly never made sense or just flat didn't stick that are quite vital to manage as an adult that i really couldn't learn to do with out getting my brain the help it needed for years.

I have done a spout of time without medication and honestly it's not like quitting something that is doing something bad for me.

Its not some effort that results in a normal person. going two months without medication and tapering off for 2 before hand was like feeling myself slip back away into a fog. gradually realizing i just need to give up on being able to focus or be in control of my life and self.

The danger with my medication is in not taking it more so then taking it.

Thats really what the split is between addicts and real adhd.

i do understand that some people struggle with quiting their medication once they have gained the ability to no longer need it.

As well as i understand the troubles with addicts. But it is not fair to lump people needing medication for adhd in with addicts. There is a real difference and with all the troubles we already get from being adhd its just ridiculous to throw more at us.

[kimber365 in reply to mikepen0287]

your expanation is right on. I have ADHD and do not have any substance abuse issues

[sharkticon in reply to mikepen0287]

That all makes sense. I think he just defines addiction different than the American doctors. I meant to include more than just chemical addiction. I doubt anyone who is ADHD would actually become addicted to their medication. Like you, I'm a better person with it. I definitely wasn't meaning to infer that ADHD people get addicted to their medication. I don't think that can even happen. The medication just helps you self regulate. Taking ADHD drugs from someone with ADHD is like taking headache medication from someone who gets headaches a lot. It sucks, but you're not going to do whatever it takes to get another hit of Tylenol. You'll just find a way to manage.

I thought a lot of the stuff he was talking about was helpful in navigating the compulsive behaviors that many ADHD people seem to create for themselves. Things like out of control spending, but not necessarily in an impulsive way. I think of impulsive as doing something right away without giving it any thought, which is super common in ADHD. But there also seems to to be this self soothing thing where you might actually weigh the consequences of wether you should buy something without telling your spouse and then just do it, or hide things that you bought. Sometimes people call this impulsive spending, which is also a thing, but I think this is a little different. So more like not being able to control your behavior as opposed to it just being impulsive like interrupting somebody in the middle of a conversation with your novel ADHD ideas. So things like excessive video gaming, and not being able to pull yourself off Facebook. More compulsive behaviors I guess. Stuff that ADHD people do to self sooth the pains that come from ADHD.

Anyway thanks for your reply. Sorry I wasn't more informative in my post. Maybe I'll try to make a more clear post later. I agree with you that it would be super unfair to lump addicts and ADHD together. There are very different things going on there.

[BlessedLady]

Several of my children have ADHD and are not addicts. They were diagnosed in the first few grades of elementary school. Now they are in their late 30's and early 40's. It seems that addiction usually occurs when a person with ADHD is not properly medicated.

[Slmndrs]

I was diagnosed as an adult and I do not have any substance addictions. I think it may be a family thing as well, we don’t have much family history of addiction.

I do get hyperfocus with games, Internet, etc, and have had some disordered eating (though I think not more than most women).

[Tallis33]

I was diagnosed at 34 and haven't had or currently have an addiction.

There are times I crave things, and have low impulsive control, so given into the craving.... But I am talking like I want a snickers bar or sometimes I want a second mocha.... Nothing all that unusual for just humans to want to do.

[HxaroClo]

sharkticon I have never once struggled with chemical dependency. But I totally struggle with process addictions. It is only in the last 3 years that I have actually met other people with clinically diagnosed disordered eating. My point is as always, the world's of clinicians have often been in silos. So therapists, medical doctors, addiction specialists and so forth may have only recently started talking to each other to see where certain intersections are causing overlapping and co-morbid dysfunction. Also, we still don't know what we don't know about ADHD and how it is connected to other areas.

ADHDers have lots of common traits and it has made me sigh in relief to see how others have things I have wrestled with for years. But there are also things that are common to ADHD that I have never struggled with. Thanks for the post and the resource.

[sharkticon in reply to HxaroClo]

Yeah me too. I have never struggled with chemical dependency either, maybe process addictions, compulsions or negative behaviors I can't seem to get under control might be better.

I agree we have a lot to learn about ADHD. I've seen some people discuss that not all ADHD is the the same condition. They are basically categorizing a bunch of symptoms together and calling it ADHD. But what's going on in the brain that is causing the ADHD can be very different from person to person which is why different medications help different people to a greater or lesser degree. Hopefully in the future as we understand the brain better, we can tackle these symptoms with greater finesse.

[sharkticon]

Guess I shouldn't have said addiction. I'm not taking about just chemical addiction in the medical terms. More like compulsions or unhealthy behaviors that can't seem to managed. I actually don't know anyone with ADHD that has a chemical addiction myself, but they all seem to have negative behaviors that impact their lives that they can't seem to shake. I'm talking about untreated ADHDers that found ways to self medicate, or negative behaviors to cope with their ADHD. Things like pornography abuse, excessive eating, video game compulsions. Basically using other things to cope with the pain, but in turn these things also have consequences.

I just found DR Gabors insights to be really helpful. His addiction, as he calls it, was to purchasing classical music. It was pretty interesting. He was buying more music than he could ever listen to and was hiding it from his wife and hiding it in his car and avoiding responsibilities to shop for music. So similar to an addict, and I think that's why he uses the term addiction.