I ran across this interesting blog post over on totallyadd.com. Totally ADD is a Canadian site for adults living with ADD/ADHD, by comedians and Adults living with ADD, Rick Green and Patrick McKenna.
Why bring up ADD on a SUD Recovery Blog?
There is a significant overlap between ADD, (especially with un-diagnosed or un-treated ADD), and Substance Use Disorder (see below).
Back to that interesting post…
In the blog post, Rick Green talks about what life was like before his diagnoses–chaotic, inattentive, disorganized. And how when he was diagnosed and treated, he thought his life would be like everyone else.
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“I assumed that with medication, meditation, and some lifestyle changes I would become normal. And function like everyone else.” |
But he didn’t.
Instead, Rick writes about discovering that while the treatments helped, they didn’t fundamentally change how his brain already worked.
He describes this discovery as freeing, since he no longer needed to expect himself to think and work like “normal” people. However this also meant he needed to identify what worked for him, and do that.
I’ll leave you with the link to read more about Rick’s story, but the key takeaway I found was that when we expect think our thoughts, feelings and behaviour should be like other people’s, we are setting ourselves up for failure.
Instead, it is more helpful to understand who we are, and how we work, and what we can do.
Here’s the link: totallyadd.com/blog/no-more-agendas
Ever wonder if you have un-diagnosed ADD? Start with these quick 18 questions: totallyadd.com/do-i-have-add
Putting the ADD in Addiction
While adults with ADD are only 5% of the population, ADDers are dramatically over represented in individuals living with substance use disorder. The lowest numbers on ADHD and addiction are 20-25%[1] in peer reviewed clinical journals.[2]
If adults with ADD aren’t diagnosed and treated (85% of them aren’t) they will unknowingly self medicate. Some will self medicate in positive ways with exercise, work or hobbies they enjoy, meditation and sex. Others will self medicate with alcohol and drugs, tobacco, food, and gambling, because they all boost dopamine, the brain chemical ADD’ers are short of and that the ADD medications increase.
So at a minimum, adults with un-managed Attention Deficit Disorder are 4 times more likely to over-use alcohol and other drugs. Adults with ADD also sees higher rates of disordered eating, depression, dysthymia[3], anxiety, and crime.
[1] Alcohol and Alcoholism. 2008 May-Jun;43(3):300-4. doi: 10.1093/alcalc/agn014. Epub 2008 Mar 7.
[2] Comprehensive Psychiatry. 1993 Mar-Apr;34(2):75-82.
[3] A mood disorder with the same problems as Depression, with less severe but longer-lasting symptoms.
Were you ever disappointed during your recovery from substance use disorder or other mental health concerns that something didn’t return to “normal”?
