ADHD and alternatives to caffeine & sugar

[Writerly Ink]

Hey all! I was wondering if I could get some help for my roommate.

She has ADHD, and both caffeine and sugar slow her down, rather than get her going like most people. Anyone else experience this? Any suggestions for things other than exercise to get her going when she's feeling tired? Mostly I ask for work reasons; she's the kind that dreads work, and feels sluggish when it's time to head out the door before a long shift, and I wish I could give her something to perk her up.

Thank you all!

And for discussion purposes, those of you who have ADHD or ADD, how do you try to explain your brain to people like your parents, siblings, friends, etc? Any funny stories as a result of your ADD/ADHD?

[Immoral Mathematics]

Fruits.

[Writerly Ink]

The Whiskey Rebellion

Fruits.

Really? Any specific ones?

[Hamelia]

Writerly Ink

Hey all! I was wondering if I could get some help for my roommate.

She has ADHD, and both caffeine and sugar slow her down, rather than get her going like most people. Anyone else experience this? Any suggestions for things other than exercise to get her going when she's feeling tired? Mostly I ask for work reasons; she's the kind that dreads work, and feels sluggish when it's time to head out the door before a long shift, and I wish I could give her something to perk her up.

Thank you all!

And for discussion purposes, those of you who have ADHD or ADD, how do you try to explain your brain to people like your parents, siblings, friends, etc? Any funny stories as a result of your ADD/ADHD?

It would probably help if she cut both sugar and caffeine out altogether. There's no such thing as a "sugar high", even for people without ADHD or ADD. Sugar won't get you going. Sugar can, however, cause you to feel tired - rapid uptake of glucose in the blood and tissues won't give you any particular sense of alertness, but the subsequent drop in glucose back down to normal levels will make you feel tired, lethargic, and weak.

Caffeine will make you wakeful, but only for a short period of time, after which one experiences tiredness and lethargy - in fact, it's often recommended to intake caffeine at specific times of the day in order to coincide with the natural rhythms of your body in order to avoid these negative side effects. Problematically, however, caffeine is an addictive substance and creates a dependence. You build up a resistance to caffeine, such that if you drink it daily, your body begins to need caffeine in order to feel wakeful, even when you would normally otherwise be wakeful were you not addicted to caffeine. In short, simply by virtue of drinking caffeine daily, you make yourself tired daily whenever you haven't had caffeine.


Basically, cut out excess sugar and remove caffeine almost entirely, and your friend will likely find that she's a lot more wakeful, less lethargic, less tired, and more attentive on her own. I know after I quit drinking soda - my primary source of both caffeine and sugar - I started seeing effects. Within a week of having quit, I started feeling more energetic, I started sleeping more regularly, I felt more focused and procrastinated less.



Besides that, regular stretches can help make one more focused and less tired. Stand up, move about, get your muscles working several times throughout the day.

[Raven Winter]

To put it simply, stimulants don't work on subjects with ADD and ADHD; rather, they have a depressive effect. Caffeine has that effect on her because it's a stimulant. Other things will have that effect because they're stimulants.

She shouldn't be consuming caffeine anyway; it'll only exacerbate the problems associated with her ADHD.

[Writerly Ink]

Hamelia

Thanks! Since caffeine and sugar actually make her tired, and not just because of a crash (although I'm sure that doesn't help), she doesn't have much of a caffeine or sugar intake. Within a half hour of hear eating or drinking something sweet and/or caffeinated, she gets tired enough to fall asleep wherever she happens to be. For some reason she might have a soda at work - though she knows it makes her feel worse, not better - but other than that, we drink mostly water and eat mostly ramen and ham sandwiches. Even when we go out she has water, eats a good meal, and declines dessert because she hates the immediate low she that gets.

I did enjoy reading your info on caffeine, however. You should add to the list the health problems caused by too much caffeine intake. My sophomore year of college I had 18 hours of the most complicated classes in the Biology major, and was basically living on coffee trying to keep up. I gave myself premature ventricular contractions of the heart as a result, and limit my own caffeine intake to a glass of tea at most.

[Writerly Ink]

Raven Winter

To put it simply, stimulants don't work on subjects with ADD and ADHD; rather, they have a depressive effect. Caffeine has that effect on her because it's a stimulant. Other things will have that effect because they're stimulants.

She shouldn't be consuming caffeine anyway; it'll only exacerbate the problems associated with her ADHD.

Thanks, Raven. Stimulants is how she usually describes it to people. I would argue your case about people with ADD, though; my other roommate has ADD and does just fine with caffeine and sugar. Not that she has a great intake anyways, she's way too health-minded, but when she did overnight desk shifts in the dorms a few years back, she did very well with stimulating hot teas, such as Tazo's "Awake" blend, which is caffeinated.

[Writerly Ink]

Hamelia

Besides that, regular stretches can help make one more focused and less tired. Stand up, move about, get your muscles working several times throughout the day.

My apologies, Hamelia, I meant to add further to this and forgot. Are you intending something like yoga? I've been wanting to start doing a bit of yoga for my own health, maybe I can get her in on it too... Thanks!

[AnActualLizard]

As much as I wished for the happiness of one...



I agree with the posters up there. Caffeine tends to have the opposite effect on me as well.

Explaining how my brain works...well, basically it's a chemical imbalance in my brain. I don't take meds for it because I can control it fine without them (I HAVE been diagnosed with the disorder though) but basically I have a low threshold for boredom. I find some way to entertain myself, and once I get bored I switch to a different task and back and forth and so on. I can focus intensely on things that really interest me, and other things not so much.

Funny ADHD stories. I went grocery shopping with my mom today and she was taking forever to put stuff in the cart (had to check and make sure the stuff she was buying fit in with her diet rolleyes ) And I was going absolutely stir crazy in the store and starting to fidget and attempted to distract myself by cracking jokes and generally wandering around. My mom understands my disorder though so she worked with me so we could get out of the store as soon as possible.



someone else must be equally cursed.

I'm such a fool.

[A Problem]

Get her to try some of these herbal supplements:

Rhodiola Rosea, Ginkgo Biloba, Ginseng, Holy Basil, Eleuthero root, Maca, Ashwagandha, Schizandra, Cordyceps, Astragalus, He shou wu, Reishi mushroom. Be sure to get a reputable brand.

[Rachuul]

I've been diagnosed ADHD since I was a kid, I think starting into first grade? ( whatever age I was then...) and I have been on medication ever since. It's extremely difficult , at times, for me to basically do ANYTHING.

My brain? Oh lord... It won't focus. On anything. When people crack jokes about ADD/ADHD, they just don't even understand. I can't read numbers ( without medication) that are too long. Phone numbers for example. Without dashes, my brain will flip out about three numbers in and distract itself.. Math is extremely difficult for me without medication. To the point where it's near pointless, because the numbers just all jump together, or I make up my own math because I can't/don't want to, deal with numbers anymore.
But wait, there's more!

I'm also diagnosed bipolar. Extreme anxiety. Severe insomnia. Depression.
ADHD enhances all of those, and makes me basically a threat to myself and people around me... I see a therapist and psychologist on a regular basis, and I take four medications daily to combat all of them.
( I have literally taken breaks while writing this, to look at things. )

I can't even stress enough the benefits of therapy and proper medication. I worked on the proper doses and medications for over a year, so I could get into college, and to be less.. Crazy.


I drink coffee all the time, but usually to relax myself. It's warm, and makes me happy! I don't really drink it to keep myself awake, in typically tired from insomnia, rather than ADHD. Or maybe the depression.

I haven't ever had problems being tired attributed to just ADHD ( I probably have, but not enough to remember or recognize it ) .
( I literally just stopped to watch a squirrel for two minutes...)

Anyway!

I found long walks, more so than yoga or stretches, helped a ton. Not treadmill walks ( my brain goes bat s**t when I'm on a treadmill...) but outdoor walks, where I can happily just work out, WHILE letting my brain indulge in looking/listening to everything around me. It keeps my body and brain busy, in a healthy way. :3 !!

[Pink Plaid]

Being sluggish and tired all the times could be something else. I'd go to the doctor and get a blood test done. I have ADHD and I'm usually very hyper and energetic. But I used to be very sluggish and tired all the time. It turned out I had anemia and an iron deficiency. I was a new vegetarian at the time and hadn't learned to eat properly. Taking vitamins a long with iron supplements helped a lot. As well as changing my diet. Eat lots of green vegetables and wash them down with a citrus juice like orange juice. The citrus will help your body adsorb more of the nutrients from the vegetables. Another issue could be the thyroid. My friend from high school had a thyroid problem making her very sluggish and tired all the time and all she would want to do was sleep. Once she got on medication she was like a new person.

But living with ADHD was difficult as a child because I was undiagnosed. So I just thought I was stupid and slow and had a very low self esteem because of it. In the 90's a lot of little girls went undiagnosed because the symptoms in little girls can be different and harder to spot then little boys. When I was 17 my teacher told us about his ADHD and he was describing me to a t. So I went to my doctor, got tested, and it was confirmed I had it. But by that point I had learned coping mechanisms without the use of medication and I already had a lot of mental health issues so my doctors have never seen it as problem or seen a reason for me to take medication with it.

I like having ADHD. Its really difficult sometimes. I had a lot of trouble in school. I can't work in any office type situation where I have to sit at a desk all day, I have a lot of trouble going to the movies, and at work I tend to be all over the place. I do public speaking for a living and if someone interrupts me, takes a picture, asks a question, or they talk to me over my headset, I'll completely forget what I was saying and where I was. Then I'll have to ask the audience the last thing I just said. But it also means I'm energetic, fun, playful, silly, and never have nothing to say.

[Hamelia]

Writerly Ink

Hamelia

Thanks! Since caffeine and sugar actually make her tired, and not just because of a crash (although I'm sure that doesn't help), she doesn't have much of a caffeine or sugar intake. Within a half hour of hear eating or drinking something sweet and/or caffeinated, she gets tired enough to fall asleep wherever she happens to be. For some reason she might have a soda at work - though she knows it makes her feel worse, not better - but other than that, we drink mostly water and eat mostly ramen and ham sandwiches. Even when we go out she has water, eats a good meal, and declines dessert because she hates the immediate low she that gets.

I did enjoy reading your info on caffeine, however. You should add to the list the health problems caused by too much caffeine intake. My sophomore year of college I had 18 hours of the most complicated classes in the Biology major, and was basically living on coffee trying to keep up. I gave myself premature ventricular contractions of the heart as a result, and limit my own caffeine intake to a glass of tea at most.

As someone going through a biology major right now, I know the feeling. It was difficult cutting the soda intake at first.

I'm not sure about your friend in this case. As another poster said, seeing a doctor may be a good idea if it's really, really consistently a problem. It could be a variety of issues, from some sort of sickness to something as simple as having a bad diet. It sounds almost like it could possibly be diabetes, though I'd consider it unlikely.

Writerly Ink

Hamelia

Besides that, regular stretches can help make one more focused and less tired. Stand up, move about, get your muscles working several times throughout the day.

My apologies, Hamelia, I meant to add further to this and forgot. Are you intending something like yoga? I've been wanting to start doing a bit of yoga for my own health, maybe I can get her in on it too... Thanks!

I wasn't really intending any specific kind of stretching. I work out at a gym myself, which tends to leave me with a lot more energy and making me feel more awake. Just anything that involves moving around, especially if it'll get your heart pumping faster. After all, it's generally recommended that a person have thirty minutes, or more, of activity every day that keeps their heart rate elevated. It's good for cardiovascular health, and it makes you more alert and focused.

[Tuah]

Damn... looks like I'll have to start drinking decaf. My addiction is to the taste~

[Shark Bacon]

B Vitamins. And fruits. Like apples. And lemon in my water perks me up.