Thursday, March 21, 2024

Adhd And Fatigue In Adults

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When All Else Fails Just Flip A Coin

How to Diagnose Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Adults? – Dr Sanil Rege

Some decisions need to be made on the spot, like whether to say yes or no to the friend that just invited you out for a drink or which dish to pick from a menu at a restaurant. In these cases, when its not a major life decision and you cant afford to procrastinate, just let random chance decide.

Flip a coin and just go with what it tells you.

Should I get the chicken nuggets? No. Should I get the bacon cheeseburger? Yes. Youre done.

Similarly, you can crowd-source these decisions in some cases. Dont know what cocktail to order at a bar? Just ask the bartender to make you their favorite one. Dont know which sheets to put on the bed? Text a friend and ask them to pick a color.

As long as the consequences arent life-altering, its better to save your brain the effort by leaving it up to chance.

Maintain A Regular Sleep Routine

You can have quality sleep by adopting a variety of regular bedtime habits. Essentially, you should aim at going to bed and waking up around the same time every day. When you have a regular sleeping rhythm, it synchronizes your biological clock with other normal functions.

You can achieve a regular sleep routine by doing the following:

  • Setting a regular time for going to bed and waking up
  • Having a bedtime ritual like reading a novel before sleeping
  • Turning off all distractive devices such as cell phones before going to bed

Whats The Biology Behind The Adhd

ADHD sleep problems may be a side effect of impaired arousal, alertness, and regulation circuits in the brain. Other researchers believe that ADHD sleep problems can be traced to a delayed circadian rhythm with a later onset of melatonin production. Despite similarities between certain sleep disorders and ADHD symptoms, research has failed to find consistent sleep abnormalities in people with ADHD.

Some individuals find it easier to sleep with the calming effects of stimulant medications that are commonly prescribed for ADHD. However, for many people, stimulant medications cause a number of sleep problems in their own right. Co-existing disorders such as anxiety, depression, or substance abuse, as well as poor sleep hygiene, likely also play a role in sleep difficulties.

Also Check: Can Liver Disease Cause Fatigue

Adhd And Fatigue By The Numbers

If it seems like youre alone, fighting ADHD and sleepiness, know that youre not! In fact, theres a growing abundance of studies that indicate that fatigue is a legit symptom of ADHD.

A 2006 study in Sleep found that children with ADHD had higher rates of daytime sleepiness than their counterparts without ADHD.

Another study found that up to 50 percent of kids with ADHD had symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing, while children without ADHD were only affected at a rate of 22 percent.

It is thought that sleep problems may make ADHD problems worse in a 2006 study in Journal of Sleep Research, researchers found that treating sleep problems actually eliminated ADHD in some kids.

Psychiatry Research found that sleep problems were also common in adults with ADHD. In this study, researchers compared participants who also had narcolepsy, hypersomnia, and ADHD and found that symptoms overlapped, indicating that ADHD may be misdiagnosed in some adults.

Can Adhd Make You Tired

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When most people think about someone who has an ADHD diagnosis they envision a child unable to sit still in school. Typical indicators ofADHD include struggling to pay attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. But often peopleboth children and adultswho have ADHD experience fatigue.

People with ADHD often struggle with maintaining good habits of sleep, diet, and exercise so they are often running on less than a full tank, saysAri Tuckman, Psy.D., a psychologist in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and author of Understand Your Brain, Get More Done: The ADHD Executive Functions Workbook.

Also Check: How Long After Radiation Does Fatigue Last

Sensory Overload And Exhaustion

Some people with ADHD can get overwhelmed with too much sensory information. This can be why they cannot handle the same amount of sensory inputs as well as others. As a result, numerous things might cause them to feel exhausted and they may become affected by these events more quickly than other people.

Yes, sensory overload can be experienced by anyone. But, some people with ADHD may be more vulnerable to it because their brain and senses work differently than most people. For them, things can be magnified, and they may become burdened by inputs, such as loud noises, bright lights, and strong smells that are usually disregarded by others. This increases the risk of fatigue and can even manifest physically. That’s why some adults with ADHD prefer white noise, wear sunglasses to avoid being blinded by the sun, and natural scents over strong ones.

Adult ADHD may lead to struggles in managing the settings for high sensory stimuli. They might feel like they are being attacked by their surroundings, making it harder for them to adjust and adapt to their environment. ð Brain fog, burnout, and inattentiveness can accompany exhaustion, making the person feel more troubled. And when this underlying exhaustion persists, it may turn into something more serious like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Understanding these sensory struggles can help us better support people with ADHD in our lives and know how to handle them when they feel exhausted.

Prescribing For Adhd And Fibromyalgia

The final results from Dr. Moyanos research are expected to be published in mid 2022. In the meantime, he recommends cognitive skills training to individuals living from cognitive difficulties such as ADHD as skills training has shown to improve memory and other functions.

In addition, he explains that both fibromyalgia and ADHD may present with other comorbidities, such as hypertension, arrhythmias, personality disorders, and alcohol or substance use disorder, so prescribers must use caution. “Each case should be carefully assessed by a neurologist or psychiatrist with clinical experience,” he concludes adds.

  • van Rensburg R, Meyer HP, Hitchcock SA, Schuler CE. Screening for Adult ADHD in Patients with Fibromyalgia Syndrome. Pain Med. 2018 19:1825-1831. doi:10.1093/pm/pnx275
  • Moyano S, Berrios W, Gandino IJ, et al. Prevalence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Among Patients with Fibromyalgia . Arthritis Rheumatol.2018 70 .
  • Pallanti S, Porta F, Salerno L. Adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome: Assessment and disabilities. J Psychiatr Res. 2021 136:537-542. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.10.027
  • Kara H, Çetingök H, lier R, et al. Childhood and adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms in fibromyalgia: associations with depression, anxiety and disease impact. Int J Psychiatry Clin Pract. 2020 24:257-263. doi:10.1080/13651501.2020.1764585
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    Adhd Symptom Spotlight: Decision Fatigue

    Rachael is a New York-based writer and freelance writer for Verywell Mind, where she leverages her decades of personal experience with and research on mental illnessparticularly ADHD and depressionto help readers better understand how their mind works and how to manage their mental health.

    ADHD Symptom Spotlight is a series that dives deep into a hallmark or overlooked symptom of ADHD each week. This series is written by experts who also share their tips on managing these symptoms based on firsthand experience and research-backed insights.

    Adults make an average of about 35,000 decisions every day, and as the day wears on, it becomes more and more difficult to make good ones. A large-scale study of Danish public school students found that test performance declined by about 0.9% per hour, reaching its lowest at the end of the day.

    The reason: decision fatigue. Taking tests requires a series of complex decision-making to choose the right answer, and the longer students spend doing that, the more exhausted their brains become. Just as you might start running slower and paying less attention to your form toward the end of a hard run, your brain will begin processing decisions slower and make more mistakes as it becomes more fatigued.

    Chronic Fatigue And Adhd

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    It is possible that there is a link between chronic fatigue syndrome and ADHD although this is still being researched. Individuals with ADHD struggle with attention, behavior and mood regulation, saysSam Goldstein, Ph.D., neuropsychologist and clinical director at Neurology Learning and Behavior Center. If they develop a syndrome such as fibromyalgia then they are more likely to experience more severe symptoms.

    Onestudy found that by treating patients diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome who met the criteria for ADHD with psychostimulant medication that their symptoms of fatigue improved. When medication is given in the right dosage, it can help calm the mind and allow for better, more restorative sleep.

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    The Link Between Adhd And Decision Fatigue

    As the studies of judges, doctors, and school students show, anyone can experience decision fatigue, but it usually happens after making a lot of really complex decisionslike answering increasingly challenging academic questions on a test or deciding the fate of a prisoner asking for parole.

    For people with ADHD, on the other hand, decision fatigue can become a near-constant state, even on days when they arent making any especially tough decisions. One possible explanation is that the vast majority of those 35,000+ decisions we make each day involve something called cold cognition.

    Cold cognition is a process or task that does not involve a lot of emotion. Research comparing hot cognitionprocesses or tasks that do involve strong emotionand cold cognition performance regularly show that subjects with ADHD, regardless of gender and age, tend to do worse on cold tasks than hot ones.

    Hot Vs Cold Decisions

    When the choices are emotionally charged enough, we can act on instinct and intuition rather than consciously and methodically processing information. Intuitive “hot” decision-making like that is exactly where people with ADHD usually excel.

    I have often noticed that while I can get easily overwhelmed in typical situations, I tend to feel calmer, and my thinking seems clearer in moments of crisis. Once, while I was still learning to cook, I accidentally started a grease fire in my oven. I’d spaced and forgotten to cover the ribs to prevent splatter.

    When my non-ADHD roommate saw the flames, she froze in panic, unable to figure out what to do. Meanwhile, I sprang into action. I sent a friend out to find a neighbor with a fire extinguisher since we didn’t have one, tasked my panicked roommate with going outside and calling the fire department, all while I went to get our very frightened cat into his pet carrier so we could all get away from the fire until it was extinguished.

    Within a few minutes, we’d secured a fire extinguisher, and the situation was under control without any serious injuries or damage. I then ordered a fire extinguisher to keep in our apartment for any future emergencies.

    We’re not putting out literal fires most of the time, though. Most days, we’re making thousands of emotionally-neutral decisions like what to eat, what to wear, what to watch on TV, and how many bagels to bring to the morning meeting.

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    Coping With Being Burnt Out

    You may be experiencing burn out, and wondering why youre having such a difficult time. Here are a few reasons why coping with burnout and fatigue isnt easy when you have ADHD or ADD:

    • We struggle to show ourselves self-compassion because we feel selfish for taking time for ourselves
    • The feeling of needing or wanting to do it all to prove to ourselves or other people that we can, so we take on too much responsibility
    • An inconsistent routine or no routine at all, and the guilt that comes with that
    • Our self-talk and beliefs regarding our psychological wellbeing, and how sometimes they contradict our need to feel accepted

    The Link Between Adult Adhd And Fatigue

    This Singaporean GP Shares Tips For Managing Fatigue In Adults And Children

    Working twice as hard for half as much is tiring.

    A good blog in Psychology Today explores the connection between ADHD and fatigue.

    Have you ever used the phrase, It makes me tired just thinking about it? Henry Ford reportedly said something along the lines of: Thinking is hard work. That may be the reason so few engage in it. There is some truth to the notion that thinking is a strenuous physical activity, witnessed by the fact the human brain weighs in at about 2 percent of our whole body weight but uses up about 20 percent of the bodys energy supply.

    What is the connection between these interesting factoids in a post on adult ADHD? Well, there is increasing, though not yet definitive, evidence of a connection between reports of fatigue and ADHD in adults. These connections arise in the review of social media post themes, reports of fatigue among adults with ADHD, and increased endorsement of ADHD symptoms among individuals with chronic fatigue. There are likely other distinctive sources of fatigue, such as sleep difficulties, which are common to adults with ADHD, or any health conditions for which adults with ADHD might be at elevated risk due to poor health monitoring. Tiredness is also an effect of many prescribed stimulants as they wear off later in the day.

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    Sleep Struggles Can Also Lead To Exhaustion

    For a neurotypical brain, hyperactivity can result in exhaustion that might be enough to have a good night’s rest. But for some adults with ADHD, it can be difficult for the mind to shut down and relax. This means that it can be hard to fall asleep or wake up naturally in the morning, resulting in sleep deprivation. This can make us feel exhausted and lacking in energy.

    Let me share a personal experience about this symptom. ð¥º

    There’s this one time after a tiring day of work and different activities that I did my usual sleep routine and then laid down in bed earlier than expected. I thought that Iâd have no difficulty sleeping because I had an exhausting day. But lo and behold, I still spent plenty of hours browsing tutorials, playing games, and thinking before getting that much-desired sleep. ð´ I ended up sleeping less than usual and required the help of caffeine to boost my day.

    Sleep issues are often associated with our hyperactive brain, and some people with ADHD tend to have sleep disturbances due to ADHD. Of course, we cannot forget that some medical conditions can also be attributed to sleep troubles, like insomnia and sleep apnea.

    Help Fight Adhd Mental Fatigue With Neurofeedback

    Mental fatigue can trigger physical, emotional, and psychological exhaustion in adults with ADHD. The COVID-19 pandemic has mentally exhausted millions of people, especially adults with ADHD. Neurofeedback Therapy can be very effective at treating a multitude of ADHD symptoms, including mental fatigue.

    Also Check: What Helps With Fibromyalgia Fatigue

    Adhd Fatigue: Why Adhders Feel Tired All The Time

    According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 60% of children who have ADHD progress into adulthood untreated. Although both adults and children have the same symptoms, some symptoms, such as chronic fatigue, may persist among ADHD patients.

    If you have ADHD and are feeling fatigued, you are not the only one. Fatigue is one of the most common and least talked about symptoms. So, what causes fatigue? It may be as a result of anxiety, medication, sleep issues, or stress. Therefore, you need strategies to keep it in check.

    Treat your ADHD online by clicking the button below.

    Read on for more information about ADHD fatigue and how to cope with the situation. We also help you understand simple ways to prevent chronic fatigue.

    Tiredness Is A Common Symptom Of Adhd

    ADHD and Anxiety – What You Need To Know!

    Recent research has found a connection between chronic fatigue syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder . Specifically, studies indicate fatigue may be a notable symptom in adult ADHD. Therefore, healthcare providers should look for ADHD, or a history of it, in people with ME/CFS or other types of persistent fatigue.

    This article explains ADHD fatigue and how to treat it.

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    The Adhd Multiverse: Co

    At the end of the day, ADHD cannot take all the blame for exhaustion. Come to think of it, other mental health concerns can make a person feel tired even if they donât have ADHD. Burnout, anxiety, and depression can likewise make it exhausting for a person to function well.

    However, ADHD fatigue sometimes hits differently to the point where having adequate sleep can no longer compensate for the lost energy. There are instances when you don’t know where your exhaustion is coming from. Suppose sleep difficulties can last for extended periods and are not addressed well. In that case, your risk of having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome can increase. At that point, you might feel exhaustion and extreme mental stress, and you cannot fully explain the root cause of having such.

    Burnout can also be an outcome of being hyperactive. Some people with ADHD experience fatigue because they tend to overwork themselves in the hopes of âkeeping up with society.â

    For an ADHD brain, there can be various causes of exhaustion. These possible causes are essential to understand because they give us the knowledge to better take care of ourselves and increase our chances of coping with other issues that can affect our energy levels. It is also important to seek medical attention and find solutions if we are experiencing extreme fatigue and exhaustion, whatever the reason may be.

    How To Treat And Cope With Adhd Fatigue

    When ADHD is untreated, many of the symptoms, including fatigue can get worse over time.

    Some people with ADHD related fatigue find that simple daily tasks are difficult, they are very disorganized and find most activities to be exhausting. Luckily, in most cases, the use of both medication and behavior therapy can help reduce symptoms of fatigue and help patients learn how to manage their lives better.

    Using Therapy and Medication to Help Symptoms

    Treatment for ADHD is offered through a licensed psychiatrist, who will evaluate you and determine the type of medication you need.

    According to experts, stimulant medications are over 80 percent effective in treating fatigue and the additional symptoms seen in patients with ADHD. Many patients claim that their fatigue is cleared up from the medication alone, but you may need to take extra steps to clear it up completely.

    Making Simple Lifestyle Changes

    Certain changes in your lifestyle may also need to be made to help reduce ADHD related fatigue. For one, staying up too late due to the inability to settle down can often lead to daytime fatigue.

    A mental health expert can offer you with information on techniques you can use to settle down at night, along with information on how to change additional areas of your life that may have been impacted by your ADHD, like healthy eating habits.

    Practicing Good Sleep Hygiene to Fight ADHD Fatigue Syndrome

    The key components of sleep hygiene include:

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