Image: Gif of Steve Urkel looking around confused
Caption: When I take max dose of an ADHD stimulant and it makes me passout on the couch
this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
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Our brains are constantly understimulated. It takes effort to try and raise the level back up. When you first get medicated, it's like someone took a load off your back that you never realised you were carrying.
We also tend to be sleep deprived. It is harder to fall asleep, so the level at which we do requires more exhaustion.
Combine these 2 and the sleep thing makes sense. We are suddenly able to just relax, possibly for the first time. We are also constantly tired. It's not surprising we can fall asleep!
Thirdly, many of us self medicate with caffeine etc. Medication makes us but that back.
Those are a big part of it, it’s also that our brain chemistry interacts with stimulants differently.
One of the major effects of stimulants is the increase in availability of dopamine. The under-stimulated feeling comes from a lack of dopamine due to the reward system not functioning properly in ADHD. When the stimulant forces a release of dopamine it’s not as “stimulating” to an ADHD brain that didn’t have much dopamine to begin with, whereas a neurotypical person experiences a huge abundance of dopamine and feels incredibly stimulated and energized.