probably as a result of all the systemic issues surrounding ADHD.
ADHD at its core is a dopamine disorder. Effort without dopamine is extremely difficult in anyone, and ADHD makes it tough for these dopamine mechanisms to get going. Once that dopamine effect does get going, you're off to the races. That's the ADHD Hyperfocus effect you see.
But when you add in the modern quick dopamine fixes we've surrounded ourselves with—media, social media, processed foods, pornography, etc.—you've built a situation where ADHD individuals are prioritizing those activities over productive ones. This leads to a downward spiral: less productive action means fewer opportunities for future productive actions.
Lock into that mode for weeks at a time and you've got both situationally-supported and biochemical depression.
This is still merely hypothetical is it not? I have noticed people home in on dopamine, but no one ever mentions serotonin, glutamate, gaba, and all the other neurochemical systems.
I also thought the biochemical basis for depression has been completely thrown out, is that also not true?
Medically, it is defined symptomatically, and not mechanistically.
Those regions being sensory motor cortex and prefrontal cortex. But simply its a system of networks and attention regulation.
Those networks can be trained and I have experienced it first hand by reversing engineering my own brain and training it beyond normal baseline. This training is called neurofeedback and it transformed my ADHD into a super power.
During my evaluation my ability to focus(was measured) was worse than the average ADHD person. Afterwards it was above even normal people.
I need don't even consider myself someone with ADHD and everything just seems to come together naturally. ( Deadlines, managing details, time management and planning- all prefrontal cortex) The networks in my brain have been training to switch normally, and hyper focusing is just focusing but on anything I really want.
It was the cure I’d been searching for my whole life and it actually worked.
They did studies and it turns out the kind of ADHD abilities would’ve been useful back in our berry finding days. ADHDers would pick all the berries they could see and then go off to find another bush, not bothering to finish picking all the berries. The neurotypicals would follow along, picking the berries the ADHDers didn’t care about.
All this made berry gathering more efficient.
I think a lot of this fuels the substance abuse issues in ADHD as well. I have always spent too much time playing video games, doom scrolling, etc.. It's all just an escape. But I think many do not understand -- I, and perhaps many others, escape from this world because I do not belong.
Treatments for ADHD are cute and all, but nothing I have tried has really moved the needle much. At least not for long. There is always a reversion to the mean, and this condition always wins in the end.