ADHD Roadmap: Riding the Wave: ADHD and Dopamine

Now, the question is, what does dopamine actually do for us? What is it used for in our brain, and how does that have anything to do with ADHD? Well, dopamine is all about reward, and the reason we need reward for certain behaviors is it drives us to do things that are pro survival, whether it's eating, whether it's procreating to develop the species further. If we didn't have reward, we wouldn't be driven to do certain things, right? So we used to think dopamine was just very simply, I do something good, therefore I get a reward in my brain, which is feeling good, right?

So it's like we're driven by positive reinforcement through reward or punishment, which is pain. If I do something bad for survival, I feel pain. Now, we used to think it was just this very simple relationship with pleasure and behavior. However, it's a little more complicated than that. What we're learning is that dopamine has more of a function on anticipating reward, right? So dopamine plays a big part in learning. When we learn what is pleasurable for us, it attaches to memory, right? It's like, I need to know where the food is.

So this is more important for my memory than what I did last Thursday evening at 05:00 so it's important for forming new memories. But also, like I was saying, anticipating reward, knowing that it's coming. I see the food on the table, I know I'm going to eat it, and then I get that reward. And that is just one of the unique ways that dopamine drives our behavior. So it plays a role in things, like I said, memory, but also our motor movements. Dopamine does affect the way we. Our neurons fire to perform certain behaviors.

And I'm not an expert in this, but this is just generally some other things that it does. But we know that it also regulates that stoplight, that stop go system, which is so integral in the process of how ADHD impacts our mind and our motivation. So with ADHD, when I'm receiving a lot of dopamine, that green light, that pleasure, to do certain things, I'm rewarded and motivated. However, when I'm lacking the dopamine to do certain activities, maybe some that are extremely necessary, there's an underdevelopment of dopamine.

And also the dopamine process in what we've talked about is the prefrontal cortex, which is a regulator. It's the one that turns that red light on when needed and turns the green light on when needed. And for us, it doesn't quite work that way. And that's why we have to take a potentially different approach using what we know about dopamine. So we're going to go over that as well. So in the strengths video, we talked all about the different benefits that ADHD can have, right? It's all a disorder of extremes, and sometimes those extremes can work towards our benefit, and we broke those down in the strengths video.

But dopamine does have a direct role in increasing those strengths. For example, a big part of that is creativity. Folks with ADHD have a higher corollary with doing creative pursuits, whether that's art, music, or even creative forms of problem solving. So dopamine does help the brain form new novel connections, ones that other people may not experience. And those novel connections, the new connections that drive for newness, really do increase our ability to be creative and to creatively problem solve.

It's important to know, but having too much dopamine can have a negative effect, and same with the under regulation of dopamine. So it's really important to note that dopamine does have a big role in creativity. Another role it has that could be helpful is our ability to risk take. Now, for better or worse, folks with ADHD are known to be more risk takers. But sometimes taking risk is important. When we're driven to do that new novel thing, sometimes we're hyper focused on it and therefore willing blot out to blind ourselves to some of the risks, which can be bad.

However, when we're able to take calculated risks, that could be of huge benefit. Another one is hyper focus. We know that folks with ADHD have this ability to sit down and if they're excited about something, if it's new, rewarding novel, we can really hyper focus. And a lot of times it is with those creative endeavors. So we're able to put time, focus, and a lot of energy into something which can obviously be of benefit. And that is partially due to the role of dopamine. So how can we use this understanding of the relationship with dopamine and ADHD to our advantage?

Well, there are many different ways we could do it, and we hinted on some of those talking about the strengths, for one, understanding what we like and what motivates us. Right, because it's a little bit more extreme with ADHD. The problem a lot of us fall into is we try to jam a square peg into a round hole, or the opposite, whatever that is. But we try to make something happen that doesn't work. Like, for example, becoming an accountant. I'm not picking on accountants. But maybe something someone with ADHD would not be very good at.

Some people with ADHD may be very good at it, but if that is something that is boring to us and we try to force that to happen, that could have a real negative impact on how happy we are. So finding what motivates us, what makes us happy, what makes us excited, what makes us want to get up in the morning, and what makes us want to sit in our chair or whatever we're doing, buckle down, and really focus on creating something of substance, of value, something beautiful, whatever that may be. So understanding our motivation is a really big part of knowing how dopamine affects us.

So that also applies to our ability to hyper focus. If we find those things that are pleasurable for us, it will make us better able to hyper focus. Now, some other benefits are using that as a reward system, right? So we're very driven by reward. And as we talked about in the task completion video, that a good way of kind of tricking our brain or a good strategy to take with task completion is offering ourselves a reward, whether that be taking breaks and breaking tasks down or gamifying. Right.

So certain games give us a reward. That's why gambling can be so addictive. And I'm playing volleyball all the time, and that's really addictive, too, because sometimes I'm scoring points, sometimes I'm not. And that's a very powerful driver of behavior. So gamifying things, we're just offering ourselves rewards. Like, if I go to the gym and I give myself my favorite smoothie afterward. Right. Those. That's very helpful for task completion, and that has a big connection with dopamine, so that could be very helpful in understanding that relationship.

Well, I hope you found value in that video. And I find it so important to understand the disorder that we have. Right. If I have a certain type of cancer, an orthopedic issue, it's important that I understand what almond that is, even though I'm not necessarily a doctor, so I know how to better manage it. So this is something that is much more than nitty gritty or detailed as far as brain and neurochemistry. But if we break it down in a simple way, if we know what our strengths are and how we could use this dopamine dysregulation to our advantage, we're going to be better able to manage our adult adhd and work towards that happier, more productive life.