10/02/2025
THROWBACK Thursday! 🍩
In honor of October being ADHD awareness month, I wanted to share a post from 2022 that people found helpful! ⬇️⬇️
Today, I want to talk about dopamine. 🧠
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is responsible for feelings of enjoyment and pleasure.
In the ADHD brain, this neurotransmitter is not doing the job of sending those reward messages as effectively or consistently as a neurotypical brain. 🧠
This is why an ADHDer can be classified as hyper, fidgety, loud, scattered and even talkative, (hello, it’s me).😉
This is because our brain is looking for that enjoyment and reward…but it’s harder to receive. By moving or talking, we are providing some of the reward ourselves.
Another way we seek out dopamine is through sugar and even alcohol. 🍩
When eating sugar or even starchy processed carbs, our brain is flooded with HUGE amounts of dopamine. 🍭🧁
Our brain perceives this as a reward, thus making it harder to stop. This can kick off the binge eating cycle. 🔁
It’s important to be aware of this and learn ways to increase dopamine naturally.
This can be done by…
😄 Exercising (for me — cardio lights up the reward center in my brain!)
😄 Music
😄 Sunlight
😄 B vitamins (B1-B12)
😄 Vitamin D
😄 The amino acid, Tyrosine
😄 Cold therapy
😄 Meditation
😄 Caffeine
I find if I am getting in at least a few of these, I feel much more balanced and less likely to eat out of emotion. 💕
What works for you when you want to increase dopamine? 😁