ADHD

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A casual community for people with ADHD

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Relevant Lemmy communities:

Neurodivergent Life Hacks

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founded 3 years ago

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When I'm sick, my symptoms go away. Do yours as well? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by HappyCatLuvs_U@lemmy.world to c/adhd@lemmy.world

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I currently have a sinus infection. That's annoying, but I've noticed for a long time that when I'm sick it's like I don't feel the ADHD symptoms.

I lose the constant slight understimulation and I'm more mentally sharp and content. It's like my body knows I need to rest and actually gives me the mental state to tolerate that.

Obviously it sucks to be sick, but it almost makes it a nice experience for me to be able to actually hone in and make a lot of progress on my projects or whatever without fighting my brain at all.

Anyone else experience this or similar?

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[–] Hegar@fedia.io 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

One time i was so stressed that i lost my adhd symptoms. I think that might be related to your experience, and dopamine processing.

My partner had a mental health flare up, which rolled into a marathon fight and almost no sleep. I wanted to call out from work, but once i started it felt like i had a super power.

I could just do boring repititive work until it was done. Then complete the next task. For a full day! No leaving my office for no reason, no realizing i'd been thinking about the bronze age for the last 10 minutes, no 30 minute side quests solving someone else's question. Someone asked me to do something that i didn't have time to do and i realized i didn't have time and actually said no.

Being absolutely shattered and maybe the most in-control i've ever felt was a weird combo.

My explanation has to do with dopamine processing. One contributor to executive functioning issues is overly-efficient dopamine processing in the frontal cortext. The motivation chemical comes in, you start to do the task, but then your brain's already processed all the dopamine so tough luck, we're off on our next adventure. The benefit of this is being resistant to the dopamine overload that cripples decision making in high stress situations.

I suspect that certain low-medium stress situations - being sick, tired, etc. - can produce enough extra dopamine to offset the issue, allowing neurotypical-like executive functioning.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's like the crisis flipped you into eating cortisol instead of inconsistent dopamine.

I noticed that I dont get sick in crisis mode, and at some dotcoms I've enjoyed years without the flu or a cold.

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 3 points 1 week ago

For the two years i ran an after school care center i only got sick during school holidays.