What is Dopamine and How Does It Affect ADD?

Dopamine?
Neurological research has identified over 50 kinds of neurotransmitters. Scientists have found that several neurotransmitters are directly related to mental health problems. These specific neurotransmitters are Dopamine, Serotonin, Norepinephrine, and Gamma Aminobutyric Acid. A shortage or excess of these neurotransmitters are thought to be responsible for emotional disorders such as anxiety, depression, ADDs, social anxiety and mood disorders.

Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter. It is a chemical messenger that is similar to adrenaline and affects the brain processes that control movement, emotional response, and the capacity to feel pleasure and pain. Dopamine is vital for performing balanced and controlled movements. A shortage of dopamine can cause a lack of controlled movements such as those experienced in Parkinson disease.

Dopamine moves into the frontal lobe and regulates the flow of information coming in from other areas of the brain. A shortage or problem with the flow of dopamine can cause a person to lose the ability to think rationally, demonstrated in schizophrenia. Also, an excess of dopamine in the limbic system and not enough in the cortex may produce a suspicious personality and possible paranoia. A shortage of Dopamine in the frontal lobe can reduce one’s memory. An increase of dopamine into the frontal lobe relieves pain and boosts feelings of pleasure.

Mr Van Der Borne

Can you pick out how your ADD is affected by your neurotransmitters?
Let me highlight what I have suffered in my lifetime:
- emotional disorders such as anxiety, depression, ADDs, social anxiety and mood disorders. - I have had all of these at one time or another in my life however, not all at once.

- lack of controlled movements - I have ticks.

- emotional response - Much of my life was like an emotional
roller coaster. One of my biggest problems was that I couldn't stop my mouth from saying whatever my emotions were bringing out.

- the capacity to feel pleasure - Growing up, I used sex to feel pleasure. Being impulsive, it lead to a life of destruction. Other people don't care about your feelings or about your body. They will use you for a time and your fix for pleasure is very temporary. I started purifying my life about five years ago. There is a longer lasting effect in feeling pleasure in daily wonders. Now I feel pleasure while watching birds, ants, flowers, nature's colour schemes. Sometimes I lay down on the grass, sand, snow... and I feel like I am becoming part of the earth. I feel the ground beneath me with my hands. I hear the sounds, smell the air, watch whatever is around me. I am in awe of God and His perfect creation. I learned persistance from ants...I think they have ADHD.
I love to feel the water against me when I am taking a bath. It's soothing.
I also take pleasure in watching someone learn something for the first time. In recovery, I get to see people's lives change. I get to see people who thought they were garbage transform into strong, secure people.
Dancing makes me feel free and alive.

- the capacity to feel pain - For most of my life, I toughened myself up. That was valued in my family. I didn't feel physical pain or emotional pain. I refused to.
When I hit my thirties, I went through some very difficult times and I felt the pain so deeply it would take me into a trance like state. I would have to let the pain penetrate to my very core and leave it there for a long while and feel it. It made me feel alive; it also made me feel depressed. I don't know why my need to feel all of the pain was so strong. I just know I'm glad it left. Just a few years ago, I started allowing myself to feel my emotions as they came. As for pain, my refusal to feel physical pain has left me with chronic pain on most of the right side of my body. It restricts me to a point but I am not one to just sit down and die. I am in physiotherapy now and I am trusting that I will be well soon. The biggest problem about denying pain is that it catches up to you as you age; emotionally and physically. I work hard daily to balance my feelings, including pain.

As you see, my ADD fits the bill for problems with my neurotransmitters, specifically Dopamine. I suggest you go through each issue and see how neurotransmitters are affecting you.

Be happy! Diane F.