Improved Mood With optimized ADHD medication, people typically report an improved overall mood. They're less stressed, with less anxiety — usually resulting from higher productivity and fewer social challenges.
As long as the dosage is correct, the medication should not affect your personality or sense of humor. What it will do is curb your hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity. An excessively high dose could temporarily “flatten” your personality, causing you to seem unusually quiet or withdrawn.
Certain ADHD medications, especially stimulant medications, can cause physical anxiety symptoms such as increased heart rate and difficulty sleeping. They may also worsen anxiety symptoms in people with ADHD and co-occurring anxiety disorders.
For most patients, the improvement that their ADHD medications make in their work life and their relationships shows up right away. Patients are relieved and happy to have more focus and less stress.
Stimulant medications increase dopamine and norepinephrine levels in the brain; dopamine is a brain chemical involved in things like focus and attention. Stimulants work to raise dopamine levels so that they're equal to levels in brains without ADHD.
In people who don't have ADHD, because Adderall produces an excess amount of dopamine, users may experience feelings of euphoria and increased energy levels, as well as possible dangerous physical and emotional side effects.
ADHD and Anxiety Disorders
This is often accompanied by feelings of restlessness, being "keyed up" or constantly on edge, problems with concentration (or mind going blank), sleep disturbances, muscle tension, irritability, fatigue, and feeling overwhelmed.
The ADHD brain also gets easily consumed. This means ADHD and overthinking kind of go hand in hand. The ADHD brain grasps hold of your thoughts and runs away with them, while emotions keep the engine running.
ADHD vs Anxiety: What's the Difference? The difference between ADHD and anxiety ultimately comes down to whether or not the individual is not focused because of fearful, apprehensive thoughts, or is not focused because of being easily distracted even though their mind is calm.
When the dosage is too high, stimulants can cause children or even adults to seem “spacey” or “zombie-like,” or to be uncharacteristically tearful or irritable (a condition known as emotional lability). In general, the best way to rein in these side effects is simply to lower the dosage.
Yes, ADHD is considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504). There are several types of disabilities, including but not limited to: learning disability. cognitive disability.
Effects on mental health and behavior
Stimulants increase activity in the brain and central nervous system, which can cause a person to feel anxious or jittery. Other people may appear less emotional, though. For these individuals, the medication can have a “blunting” effect, which can mimic depression.
The medication itself isn't always the problem. It could be that your ADHD symptoms have gotten more severe and that you need more medicine or a different one to get the same results. New life events can make your symptoms worse, too. For example, stressful and demanding situations can make it even harder to focus.
Not giving enough therapeutic benefits: Your symptoms don't feel sufficiently reduced. Too many side effects: The side effects are severe or outweigh any benefits. Over-responding: The symptoms control is overboard, and you no longer feel like yourself.
It may take a few weeks to even a few months to get the medication type and dosages adjusted to the most effective amounts. Strattera and Intuniv may take anywhere from three to six weeks to see full effect, or at least one month after getting to the target dosage.
OCD and ADHD: Treatment Considerations
As stimulants increase attention and focus, they may also lead an individual with comorbid OCD to focus more on the obsessive thought. However, there are cases when stimulants can help treat OCD, especially if symptoms are triggered by inattentiveness and other ADHD symptoms.
People with ADHD tend to experience life more intensely than others. This means that even if you're hyper-focusing on a certain task or assignment in front of you, you can still have many other thoughts and ideas coursing through your brain. It can feel like there's always a lot going on, which may become overwhelming.
Becoming easily overwhelmed and distracted can sometimes be hallmark symptoms of ADHD. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, people with ADHD might experience symptoms like: restlessness. difficulty focusing.
By Dr. David Velkoff. Ring of Fire ADD is a type of ADD characterized by abnormally increased activity in multiple areas of the brain, which in individuals on qEEG brain mapping scans can appear as over activity or overstimulation.
It's a chronic state of stress related to the struggle to live with ADHD, a stress that breaks down emotional tolerance, stamina, and a sense of wellbeing and spiritual health. The chronic, lifelong nature of ADHD-related stress can increase to become a syndrome akin to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Individuals with ADHD may engage in impulsive behavior that can lead to harmful consequences. When they consume alcohol, these symptoms can increase. Alcohol can also intensify symptoms of inattentiveness and restlessness.
Stimulant medications (such as dexamphetamine and methylphenidate) are the most commonly used medications for ADHD. They act on the release of dopamine a neurotransmitters (brain chemical). Greater amounts of dopamine can increase concentration and curb hyperactive and impulsive behaviours.
ADHD medicines improve attention by helping normal brain chemicals work better. The medicines target two brain chemicals, dopamine and norepinephrine. These chemicals affect a person's attention and concentration.
Many studies in the lab don't show that people without ADHD get any boost to their cognition when they take ADHD drugs, but real-life situations like exams and writing papers haven't fully been tested. But many studies do show that these kinds of meds make you think you did better than you actually did.