My original question todsy was was "can meditation or exercise help with grounding, settling emotional bad stuff? If yes, then how?I have some personal thoughts. And lots of experiences to debrief.
I started watching the video and was a bit intrigued. I'll watch more of it when I have more time.
I had heard from Dr. Andrew Huberman (Stanford professor and researcher, not a clinical doctor) on his podcast mention multiple times the same thing about dopamine. Even though it has often been called the "reward hormone", he says that it is actually the primary neurotransmitter for motivation (not reward).
The video's mention of a study of both farmers and nomads with ADHD in Kenya interested me. So far, I've only found a study about nomads with ADHD in Kenya. (There might have been separate studies, not a single one comparing the two people groups.)
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Regarding the question that took you down the rabbit hole:
• There is much evidence that both exercise and meditation can help with managing ADHD, and each can also help with emotional regulation. I'm sure there is research specifically on the emotional regulation benefits for ADHD that each of those treatment methods can provide, but I haven't looked it up yet.
I did feed this through ChatGPT to see if I could simplify it.
TLDR; I believe this is saying "Fix the dopamine, you'll do better with motivation to do hard things"
Quote: "Before undertaking any task, humans implicitly determine whether reaching the goal is worth the effort.
Weighing costs and benefits is a fundamental brain function that often occurs unconsciously, allowing for the adaptive use of resources to attain goals.
The neurotransmitter dopamine is a key player in this process (1).
On page 1362 of this issue, Westbrook et al. (2) clarify the role of dopamine by showing that increasing an otherwise weak dopamine signal shifts attention toward the rewarding outcome, resulting in greater readiness to perform cognitive effort to reach the goal.
As such, increasing dopamine appears to be beneficial specifically for those individuals with relatively lower dopamine function.
This finding may explain the efficacy of dopamine-enhancing medications such as Ritalin (methylphenidate), which is prescribed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and has been used without a prescription by students as a “study enhancing drug.”
It's funny you mention dopamine. For the first time in my life today I realised something new about my dopamine levels. I have always expressed that when I feel low I turn to the 'things' to make it better, i.e alcohol, gambling, sex, lights, partying etc. I have been taught that's ADHD/autism and the dopamine fix we desire when it's low. It's true, when dopamine's low, we feel low, we need that pick up and we choose to go 'heal' it with whatever. Usually ending in self sabotage and only realising we've ruined it for that 'fix'... Hence, medication, which works it's magic. It all makes sense, which is great, we now have a reason for the ups and downs blah blah.
That's the lows to get to a higher ground
However....
Today, I had some good news, which lifted my spirits, had finally found clear focus on this tiny issue/non issue that has been sat with me for a while, and because of this, I found myself wanting a desiring all the 'good stuff' to intensify the feel good I was feeling. Like a celebration.
I havent... which is good, and I won't, which is better, but for the first time, I realised that we as ADHDers/Autistic/ AuDHDers are at risk of being cut on either side of this double edged sword. From one extreme to the other. Feel low, dopamine hit needed, feel good and an dopamine hit is wanted. Satisfy both with 'a fix' and you will go round and round in circles.
We need to find balance with this condition, that middle ground. We need to be able to control the lows AND the highs of life and bring it back to the level playing field, so we dont continuously go round and round.
being dis regulated because of ADHD not because your emotional. This seems to be putting the cart before the horse. ADHD affects the motivation reward center of your brain, which is called the anterior cingulate. This part of the brain also helps you to make decisions so reward motivation and decision-making are all kind of integrated in this area of the brain. There is a very good study that was done with ADHD and typical controls on this area of the brain. In the subjects with ADHD, that part of the brain did not signal. As you look at an functional MRI you would see some sort of color or or or lighting up however, in this particular making the subject count, they noticed that this area the brain does not seem to work. Counting is something boring I guess and with the non-ADHD subject. This area of the brain did light up. It’s very interesting in the study. Is that did light up on the ADHD or the ADHD was the limbic system emotional center of our brain. Are connected in circuitry called the frontal Olympic circuit so while they are connected, ADHD precludes the subject to having a different part of the brain Activate when it should be another part of the brain.
FMRI of anterior cingulate. This part of the brain controls decision making/reward/motiva
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