Are ADHDers a throwback to an older age?

Started looking at ADHD and energy and somehow fell down a rabbit hole once again.

One thing that most ADHDers would agree with me is that at times (or most of the time), they have felt like aliens on earth. Too different in many ways to easily and comfortably fit into modern society. We are too loud. We are too sensitive. We are too hyperactive. We are too deep (can’t do smalltalk). We are too emotional. We are too forgetful. We are too…..

Because of these differences we are seen as deficient. We have a disorder. There is something wrong with us and we need fixing. And yet, the symptoms that are ascribed to ADHD are context dependent. In other words, they disappear when we are in an environment that fits us. As children we often struggle as schools are not exactly designed for the ADHD mind. They are too loud for us, too bright, too much sitting still, too many emotions flooding through small bodies around us. Too much boredom. Not enough interest. As adults, we can choose to work in calm environments with lower lighting, less noise, less people, more interest, more stress which keeps us interested and so able to focus. This is why you see ADHDers be paramedics, be in the army, or in any other high stress job, as long as they could survive the training period which is much harder for us.

We are different in so many ways. I will mention a few….

We have no defense system against sensory overload - a 2024 paper gives EEG data which shows that in non-ADHD brains a defense system is activated in uncomfortable situations. In ADHD brains this does not happen. In other words, we do not have the filters that other people have, that can filter out the noise, the lights, the energy around us. This makes us ‘too sensitive’ in the eyes of non-ADHDers. We learn to disregard our own emotions and physical sensations in order to blend in, and this takes a toll.

Our energy flows in oscillating waves, with peaks and troughs that seem exaggerated to non-ADHDers. Our peaks are higher and we get more done than others get done in three times the duration. Our troughs leave us paralysed and exhausted and unable to do anything. The 9 to 5 job is a killer to us. It forces us to work at peak performance for much longer than we are able to.

Various research has been done into the hypothesis that our ATP production is deficient. ATP or adenosine triphosphate is the nucleotide that transfers energy - the energetic ‘money’. The earliest paper I found is from 2006 where deficient ATP production and slow restoration across the ionic gradient was postulated. Later chronic activation of channels that inactivate ATP was suggested as well as mitochondrial dysfunction. Maybe this is why we so easily get addicted to sugar? So who says this is a deficiency? Why is no one investigating what the results of this could be as both positive and negative consequences?

Maybe our bodies need an older diet? No fast food, no processed food, no dairy, no excessive gluten, no artificial colours, no added sugar? And instead lots of fish, lean red meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, wholegrains, seeds, nuts, and dried fruits. There is plenty of research to support this thought. Could it be that ADHDers kept the metabolism of our ancestors?

ADHDers have higher delta and theta waves in frontal and parietal brain regions. These slower waves are associated with drowsiness and sleeping and correspond to a slower depolarisation of the neurons. To me this links with the knowledge that when we go into focused mode, our default mode network doesn’t switch off, or not completely. We could see this as being a negative, except that it also means that we come up with brilliant insights because this daydreaming state allows us to meander through different subjects, linking them together in ways that no one has before.

We work much better when we get enough exercise as it improves our executive functioning skills. This is true of all people, but it is even more true for ADHDers. In many countries the first ADHD intervention given to children is exercise. Our modern lifestyle doesn’t allow for much automatic exercise in day to day living. We have to put it in ourselves.

Our emotions are intense. It is as if we live our lives on hyperalert. This is a negative when we sit in quiet offices, but in emergencies this tendency saves lives. In older civilisations we may well have been the guards that would warn of danger at the slightest indication. We need some stress in our day to day lives in order to function properly. The trick is to balance between stress and calmness and not spend all of our life in a fight or flight state.

If a random group of people were taken out of their daily lives and placed in the middle of nowhere, no civilisation in sight, predators tracking them, and were expected to survive. Which do you think would be more successful. The ADHDer or the non ADHDer?

I am not stating that all of us ADHDers are super fit and ready to go on expeditions to the middle of the jungle. I myself am middle aged, unfit, and loathe snakes and bugs. But our minds are ready to solve puzzles, find solutions, and respond instantly to emergencies.

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