From what I understand, most ADHD medications are stimulants. Caffeine is too. Apparently a lot of ADHD people self-medicate with coffee or energy drinks unintentionally.
I know that anecdotally it’s true. Almost everyone I know with ADHD consumes caffeine like crazy.
All caffeine does to me is raise my blood pressure.
There is a gene (iirc) that’s linked to caffeine management and metabolism. You’ve probably got it. It also means that you don’t a lot of the measured benefits (eg sports performance). There’s also tolerance that develops over time but that’s different. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780443138683000533
ADHD is linked to caffeine tolerance but, speaking for myself, I get very jittery with more than my usual 2 strong cups of coffee. I do intentionally keep it that way; I don’t want caffeine tolerance.
Caffeine also doesn't keep me up or energetic, I tried with copious amounts of caffeine tablets and drinks. But no dice
Sadly, my anxiety issues have been way more severe lately and now if I ingest caffeine, I get massively severe anxiety symptoms
Not all stimulants work the same. Otherwise ADHD-targeted drugs wouldn't even need to exist and we could all just do meth or coke or whatever.
Coffee doesn't make me hyper or energize my brain so I can focus more, it just helps me avoid falling asleep when I'm exhausted.
It's part of the adhd experience for sure.
Yep, ADHD’er who consumes hundreds of mg of caffeine a day, checking in.
Dramatic amounts of caffeine and sugar is nothing. Long ago when I was in my 20s and 30s I was told that it seemed to have the opposite effect and calm me down.
That's quite frequent. My Not-a-doctor, simplified understanding is:
Caffeine doesn't target processes related to dopamine but it's a stimulant. Outside of hyperfocus mode, ADHD brains are constantly understimulated because the lack of dopamine makes things not feel engaging and interesting. This is why our thoughts race, our brain is struggling to find ALL THE THINGS (thoughts, hobbies, worries, plans, memories) that might give it the stimulation it needs.
Since coffee is a stimulant, the brain gets what it's looking for and doesn't need to race through all the possible thoughts, it's happy. The two main problems are:
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