Image thanks to Dani Cullen Photography
ADHD or adrenal addiction?
The term ADHD Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder has become well known in our society and there are many people being newly diagnosed with this condition or thinking that they have it. ADHD has strong genetic links and like any neurological imbalance can be exacerbated or alleviated by certain things. I am not a practitioner who can diagnose it, yet I do have a few observations and wisdoms that I can share through working with people’s brains and neurological systems over the past 25 years.
I worked with a nurse who had ADHD back in the early 2000’s and he was a very good nurse. I had not seen or heard much about it before that and I have been asking myself why is it so prevalent at this time in the history of the world? When there are shifts towards increasing numbers of autism, dementia, ADHD and other neurological disorders, I consider what is happening in our environment or in the global consciousness which may be influencing the body.
I will shelve that for a minute and now lets take a look at adrenal addiction. This is something that I have experience myself personally back in my nursing day and have seen it in many other nurses, teachers, parents, the list goes on. When we are highly stressed, the body produces adrenaline and cortisol to gear the body up for a heightened state of alertness and action to deal with the stress. High adrenaline is also experienced with risk taking and extreme supports or activities such as sky diving. Adrenaline gives you a feeling of being high, just like a drug or a sugar hit would do. Speaking of that, when adrenaline and cortisol goes up, so does the blood sugar levels. And how common is non insulin dependant diabetes and metabolic syndrome these days? After this high, there is then a low of energy and blood sugar and you can be left feeling quite flat and sometimes fatigued. Just like sugar and stimulant drugs, the feeling of the adrenaline high can be addictive and then we can unconsciously begin to seek out drama or put ourselves under high degrees of stress to get the adrenaline high. This pattern is worth considering in your life if you find you are having high and low energy swings or experiencing a lot of drama. There are many choice points in life. There are moments where you could choose the drama, blame, shame, guilt and inflate an issue, or you could choose peace and lean into forgiveness, letting go, win - win thinking and compassion.
The brain does not recognise the difference between a real or imagined stress. Online platforms and modern day entertainment has given us a lot of stimulus for drama. Whether you are playing a video game, watching the news, a horror movie, or seeing a drama through social media, the brain still goes through the motions of responding to that stimulus as if it was actually happening to you in your physical reality. This response then activates adrenaline and cortisol and the body has again just increased its burden of toxicity in the form of high blood sugars and overloaded cortisol.
With the advent of hand held devices and social media, we have entered into a time when there is a lot more external stimulation than there ever use to be. We are living in an attention economy where businesses are frequently vying for our attention so that we will come to know, like and buy from them. Advertising for your attention and your dollar happens on billboards, online platforms, television, radio to name a few. It is a known fact that the average attention span of people is getting smaller and smaller because of the way our brains are being trained to quickly shift focus from one post to another, from one platform to another and from one task to another. The nature of brain function is much like muscle function - the more you use certain brain pathways, the stronger they become. For example, it is easy to become automated in shifting attention from here to there as we scroll and consider all the things we can put our attention on, possibly at the expense of being able to focus on what really matters and be able to follow through with that. This is an ADHD tendency, which doesn’t necessarily mean that you have ADHD.
This constant stimulation of attention can make it difficult to switch off or to have quiet, still, contemplative time. When we are in the overstimulated state for too long, we are not giving the body and brain enough restoration time and contributing to chronic stress and therefore excess cortisol. Too much cortisol is toxic for the liver that has to process it, as well as to the brain. Restorative sleep and cycles of relaxation are necessary for restoring neurotransmitters (brain chemicals that help us to function and feel a sense of wellbeing). If there is a prolonged period of overactivity and not enough restoration of these neurotransmitters, we can be challenged in regulating thoughts and behaviours and can suffer with fatigue or depression. Chronic blood sugar excess (because of a high sugar diet or high stress) causes inflammation, particularly in the brain, which can then begin to manifest as difficulty with short term memory, concentration, focus and attention plus hormone imbalances, and mood disorders.
So do you see where I am going here? I am wondering how much of the ADHD symptoms are adrenal excess, over-stimulation with technology, devices and high sugar diets? If you genuinely have ADHD I am not discrediting your diagnosis. This is real, yet anything that is inherited can also be modulated by our lifestyle. Latest research into epigenetics has determined that the lifestyle factors are what influence these genetic disorders to be expressed, or not, and to what degree. So we can all help ourselves out, whether we have ADHD, adrenal addiction or any other mood or inflammatory disorder, simply by bring awareness to our environment and the amount and types of stimulus and pressure we put ourselves under.
Peace, love and soul nurturing everyone xo.