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Comment by blueflow | Hacker News Reader

Theory (open for discussion): With ADHD you don't get addicted, the excesses are mostly to fill the boredom between the better things.

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Smoking is twice as common in people with ADHD. ADHD specifically affects impulse control which means you’re much more likely to get addicted because bad habits are harder to stop doing.

I'm diagnosed with ADHD and never had the impulse to take drugs.

I even forget to take my meds sometimes.

Addiction is uncontrolled and damaging repetition of the behavior after initiation not the initial initiation itself

Nicotine is a stimulant: ADHD'ers are self-medicating and probably before they even know they have ADHD. It's not (primarily) because of a lack of impulse control.

Nicotine does stimulate the prefrontal cortex like adderall so self-medicating can play a role, but a lot of people with ADHD don’t get addicted to their medication. From what i’ve experienced, its the behavior that’s hard to quit. Not saying you’re wrong, just that I think the higher number of smokers is more due to the fact that quitting is harder because of the action of smoking, not because it acts similar to medication in some ways.

At least it feels like that for me.

I tend to eat more unhealthy food when I'm bored or depressed, but the moment I have an interesting task, I forget to eat the whole day.

This is just plain wrong. People with ADHD are much more likely to develop addiction than people who don't. Most of the addicts I know, including myself, have it.

My experience is the opposite. I don't get addicted. Obsessed with a topic for a while? Sure! Compulsively repeating some behaviors, like checking HN? That's me! But once I get distracted by something interesting, it's like those never existed. They just lose their appeal.

ADHD is a pretty broad brush. While I’ve no doubt that some instances fuel a predisposition for addiction, I’ve seen exactly the opposite tendencies exhibited also.

I'm not saying there aren't people with ADHD who don't get addicted, but the statistics are unambiguous. Just google ADHD and addiction and you'll find plenty of studies.

21% of men with ADHD and 13% of women with ADHD

9% of men without ADHD and 5% of women without ADHD

Fair enough, more than double. However, not the majority of the people with ADHD, so it could still be a ADHD-relates boredom problem and less a typical addiction issue. (Which doesn't make the results less dangerous, but the mechanisms that cause it different)

Sources:

https://www.addictioncenter.com/addiction/adhd/

https://americanaddictioncenters.org/addiction-statistics

100% utterly wrong, people with ADHD are A LOT more likely to get addicted and stay addicted.

This is clinical data NOT open for discussion.

Blows my mind that people think medical data is a topic for discussion where your opinion matters.

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