On: Chronic adversity dampens dopamine production

[crb002]

I can attest to this. ADHD (low dopamine) caused by chronic stress. On Adderall XR 10mg to counteract it.

Symptoms that suck which adderall doesn’t fix is OCD (brain looping on stuff), amphetamine caused anxiety (rarely but it sucks), and depression.

Steam room at my gym and hard exercise helps a lot. Need 8 hours of sleep. Intermittent fasting in the AM. Caffeine is a hard dial to set right.

[thenaturalist → crb002]

Could you share a little context how that was diagnosed?

Like what's the bar for "low dopamine" with ADHD being identified as root cause? What type of doctor would do such a diagnosis?

Asking as I identify with the symptoms, but no idea where to start to check them.

[andai → crb002]

Have you tried cacao / chocolate instead of caffeine? Less unpleasant side effects in my experience.

[username90 → andai]

Cacao contains caffeine.

[arcticbull → username90]

It's a bit different: it's the bitter alkaloid theobromine, in the same family but with a lesser effect. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobromine

[pmiller2 → arcticbull]

It contains theobromine and caffeine.

First google result: https://www.dandelionchocolate.com/2015/09/14/caffeine-and-c...

[arcticbull → pmiller2]

I'm not sure the chocolatier's site with no numbers or data is a good reference. This study shows the ratio of theobromine to caffeine is like between 2.5:1 and 25:1, with most between 5:1 and 10:1 [1]. To your point it's not zero, but it's by far the minority bitter alkaloid constituent.

[1] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621....

[taneq → crb002]

Are you saying that chronic stress causes ADHD?

[chemeng → taneq]

I should hope not. Chronic stress and PTSD do have shared symptoms with ADHD, but do not cause it. ADHD is genetic and neurodevelopmental in origin. Functioning and symptoms do vary with stress though.

Of interest though is that the causality does run the other direction, with those who have ADHD at a higher risk of incidence for psychosocial trauma and development of PTSD subsequent to traumatic events.

[andai → taneq]

I had a similar experience. At a certain point in my life things got so bad I just didn’t want to know what was happening anymore.