Why is ADHD Treated with Stimulants?

Have you, like many other people, ever wondered why ADHD, a mental condition characterized by hyperactivity, should be prescribed stimulant medications as a treatment? If so, you're not alone. There are many who look at this common treatment and think it must be counterproductive, that a stimulant medication should make symptoms like hyperactivity and lack of focus worse. This understanding is often cited as one of the prime arguments for why ADHD is somehow a myth concocted by the pharmaceutical companies for the sake of earning a fortune pedaling unneeded drugs.

But the fact is, there's a very good reason why stimulants medications can be effective at treating ADHD, and that reason requires understanding just what, neurologically speaking, ADHD consists of.

In all of our brains, there is a portion that deals with matters of impulse suppression and control. It is this center that gives us the ability to focus on things that don't interest us, to be patient enough to do dull things like stand in long lines, to hold still without fidgeting, and to remember to take care of chores, tasks and organizational duties which we know are important. It makes us less likely to get so absorbed in engaging activities that we lose all track of time and keeps us from getting so easily caught up in strong emotions.

But for those of us with ADHD, there is, for some reason, a shortage of electrical activity in these portions of the brain. For us, it takes a great deal more willpower to do things we find tedious or unpleasant. Our emotions distract us hugely, and we have more trouble setting them aside. Daily chores and tasks slip our minds because our brains are reluctant to think about things we don't have a high emotional stake in. This same deficiency is what causes our brains to generate more creative ideas than we know what to do with, and to be constantly carried away with excitement about each new one (while forgetting all the old ones).

This is why stimulant drugs help. With any form of stimulant, the brain's electrical impulses are kicked up in all areas, including these. This is why many people with undiagnosed ADHD will self-medicate with caffeine, nicotine, or even harder drugs like cocaine. While we do get the same boost in energy that anyone else does, the boost we also get to those underused portions of our brain give us the ability to manage it. In other words, we become very much like a normal person on a stimulant high, but that state of affairs is calmer and more focused than our usual state.

Whether or not a person with ADHD chooses to use medication, or chooses to use stimulant medication, it is important for them and those close to them to understand why these medications work, and what it tells us about the nature of the condition.

Far too often, those of us with ADHD are compared to people with fully-functioning neurological systems and told, "You're just not trying hard enough." But for any of us who have experienced the way in which a successful medication makes everything that's hard for us suddenly, blissfully easy, this statement is incredibly ironic: those of us with ADHD, much of the time, are trying harder than the rest of you will ever know.