RDS- The Reward Deficiency Syndrome
Your brain's chemical factory produces serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, GABA, endorphins and many other "feel good" chemicals. These often work together in a domino like system, triggering each other to produce feelings of well being.
When neurotransmitter levels are abnormal or blocked from the brain's receptors, discomfort anxiety and pain are the result. This "reward deficiency" is associated with difficulty focusing, heightened anxiety, hypersensitivity and irritability.
Addicts, their offspring and those with ADHD and ADD may be born with an impairment to feeling good naturally. In 1990, a defect in the D2 (dopamine) receptor gene was found to be associated with alcoholism and ADHD. This lack of dopamine receptors interferes with the "neurochemical reward cascade" of the brain, creating Reward Deficiency Syndrome. RDS may be THE main factor in the cause of alcoholism, addiction and ADHD.
Self medicating helps those with RDS feel "normal". It helps them feel good and function with less anxiety. The medication of choice may be an illicit substance, food or an activity such as gambling, thrill seeking or sexual escapades. Risk taking behaviors as well as alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, marijuana and even carbohydrates cause a release of additional dopamine in the brain and provide temporary relief.
Many people enjoy the positive effects of mood altering substances. But people with ADHD experience an even more intense and powerful payoff. And a higher vulnerability to addiction. Once addicted, abstinence alone usually doesn't work as the symptoms of RDS quickly return.
"The difficulty concentrating, remembering, tolerating noise and managing stress in recovery causes some people to feel they may be going crazy. They are not. It is the return of their ADHD symptoms intensified by the changes in the brain brought about by the use of mood altering substances."- from the book Overload by Blum and Miller
ADHD symptoms and the increase in anxiety due to the changes of recovery and not understanding what is happening increase the chance of relapse. One may require treatment for both addiction and ADHD to lead a successful life in sobriety.
Check out the Orange County ACA website at: Orange County Adult Children
Showing posts with label alcohol recovery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alcohol recovery. Show all posts
Monday, March 26, 2007
Thursday, March 1, 2007
The ACA ADD Connection Pt. 2
What if your senses were turned up so that a pin drop sounded like a clanging gong, a slight touch registered as an intrusive poke and a ray of light appeared as a blinding flash?
According to recent research, "stimulus augmentation" or magnified perceptual input, is a common theme among addicts and their offspring and is closely tied to Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD).
Those who experience this have an inability to filter incoming stimuli that makes it difficult to focus attention in any one place. This can have a negative effect on memory and concentration, mood, anxiety, increase stress sensitivity and cause sleep disturbances.
Many people experience the perception that the world's volume is "turned up" without even realizing it. For them, drinking or taking drugs helps turn down the volume. Self medicating through alcohol consumption is one way of "quieting" an overactive mind.
When alcohol is consumed, it produces a substance called tetrahydropapaveroline (THP). This substance is also found in the poppy plant, from which morphine is derived. The reaction in the brain when alcohol is consumed is similar to the effect of opiates like morphine or heroin.
Here are some interesting findings:
Significantly more children with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) develop problems with alcoholism or drug abuse than do children without ADHD.
People who become alcoholics show a much higher frequency of symptoms of ADHD as children than those who do not become alcoholics.
Children of alcoholics have been shown to perform poorly on tests measuring attention, memory, perceptual-motor coordination, motor speed, spatial sequencing and language capacity.
Alcoholics have impaired verbal learning and memory and exhibit various other deficits similar to what has been observed in children of alcoholics. This indicates that these impairments may have preceded drinking onset.
Many people with ADHD are children of alcoholics and ADHD is common in the relatives of ADHD children.
Sons of alcoholics have been found to magnify perceptual input (to amplify and be overstimulated by their own senses).
In alcoholics, stimulus augmentation has been demonstrated to be a strong motivation or craving to obtain alcoholic beverages.
Up to one third of alcoholics meet the criteria for a diagnosis of ADHD.
Sensory information is often amplified in addicts before they start taking drugs.
Stimulus augmentation is common in children of alcoholics.
From the book: "Overload: Attention Deficit Disorder And The Addictive Brain" by David Miller and Kenneth Blum, Ph.D.
Check out the Orange County ACA website at: Orange County Adult Children
According to recent research, "stimulus augmentation" or magnified perceptual input, is a common theme among addicts and their offspring and is closely tied to Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD).
Those who experience this have an inability to filter incoming stimuli that makes it difficult to focus attention in any one place. This can have a negative effect on memory and concentration, mood, anxiety, increase stress sensitivity and cause sleep disturbances.
Many people experience the perception that the world's volume is "turned up" without even realizing it. For them, drinking or taking drugs helps turn down the volume. Self medicating through alcohol consumption is one way of "quieting" an overactive mind.
When alcohol is consumed, it produces a substance called tetrahydropapaveroline (THP). This substance is also found in the poppy plant, from which morphine is derived. The reaction in the brain when alcohol is consumed is similar to the effect of opiates like morphine or heroin.
Here are some interesting findings:
Significantly more children with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) develop problems with alcoholism or drug abuse than do children without ADHD.
People who become alcoholics show a much higher frequency of symptoms of ADHD as children than those who do not become alcoholics.
Children of alcoholics have been shown to perform poorly on tests measuring attention, memory, perceptual-motor coordination, motor speed, spatial sequencing and language capacity.
Alcoholics have impaired verbal learning and memory and exhibit various other deficits similar to what has been observed in children of alcoholics. This indicates that these impairments may have preceded drinking onset.
Many people with ADHD are children of alcoholics and ADHD is common in the relatives of ADHD children.
Sons of alcoholics have been found to magnify perceptual input (to amplify and be overstimulated by their own senses).
In alcoholics, stimulus augmentation has been demonstrated to be a strong motivation or craving to obtain alcoholic beverages.
Up to one third of alcoholics meet the criteria for a diagnosis of ADHD.
Sensory information is often amplified in addicts before they start taking drugs.
Stimulus augmentation is common in children of alcoholics.
From the book: "Overload: Attention Deficit Disorder And The Addictive Brain" by David Miller and Kenneth Blum, Ph.D.
Check out the Orange County ACA website at: Orange County Adult Children
Saturday, February 17, 2007
The ACA ADD Connection
Does growing up in an alcoholic/dysfunctional home contribute to the development of Attention Deficit Disorder?
ADD and ADHD sufferers are often bright, extremely gifted people. They can sometimes appear absent minded, spaced out and disorganized.
Famous Attention Deficit sufferers include:
Albert Einstein
Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Edison
Galileo
Mozart
Wright Brothers
Leonardo da Vinci
Walt Disney
John Lennon
Winston Churchill
Henry Ford
Stephen Hawkings
Jules Verne
Alexander Graham Bell
John F. Kennedy
Louis Pasteur
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Beethoven
But just what is ADD or ADHD?
According to http://www.add-adhd-help-center.com/symptoms_add_adhd.htm, symptoms include:
_ Often fidgeting with hands or feet, or squirming while seated.
_ Having difficulty remaining seated.
_ Being easily distracted by extraneous stimuli.
_ Having difficulty awaiting turn in games or group activities.
_ Often blurting out answers before questions are completed.
_ Having difficulty in following instructions.
_ Having difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities.
_Often shifting from one uncompleted task to another.
*(One of the Common ACA Characteristics is "Having difficulty in following a project through from beginning to end.")
_ Having difficulty playing quietly.
_Often talking excessively.
_ Often interrupting or intruding on others.
_ Often not listening to what is being said.
_Often forgetting things necessary for tasks or activities.
_Often engaging in physically dangerous activities without considering possible consequences.
*(Another Common ACA Characteristic is "Locking themselves into a course of action without giving serious consideration to alternate behaviors or possible consequences.")
What Causes ADD?
Causes of ADD are thought to include emotional and physical trauma and heredity. People from alcoholic/dysfunctional families may be at risk for all THREE of these factors.
Emotional/Physical Trauma
"Both physical and emotional neglect contribute to ADD. Abuse causes a rush of stress hormones and chemicals that poison a baby's or child's brain. Stress hormones damage the memory centers and chronic stress causes the brain to become hyperalert, leading to severe distractibility and an inability to filter out extraneous stimuli." -"Healing ADD" by Daniel Amen, M.D
"When the noise and chaos in a family reach a certain level, the child is likely to tune it out. They do this by slowing down their brain- the slowed brain is less alert to what is going on. It is slow brainwave rhythms that characterize ADD.
In our clinic, we have seen the same slow brainwave patterns in children who are yelled at constantly and we have also seen this in verbally abused spouses. It is possible to conclude that anyone who lives in chaos and discord could suffer an emotional brain injury and would exhibit many classic ADD-type symptoms." - "Getting Rid Of Ritalin" by Robert Hill, Ph. D. and Eduardo Castro, M.D.
"Our data indicate a constellation of mild dysmorphic features of fetal alcohol syndrome, findings of hyperactivity and persistent school learning difficulties in children with normal intelligence born to heavy drinking mothers. Alcohol exposure in utero (during pregnancy) may be an important, preventable determinant of attention deficit syndromes in childhood." -"Hyperactivity - A.D.D. and Behavior Disorders Linked With Alcohol Exposure" Journal of Pediatarics, 96:978, 1990
"Attention, distraction and impulsive behavior problems were found to occur more often in a study of 475 young school age children whose mothers drank moderate amounts of alcohol during pregnancy." -Neurobehavioral Toxicology and Teratology, 8:717-725, 1986
Heredity
"NIMH investigators found important differences between people who have ADHD and those who don't. In people with ADHD, the brain areas that control attention used less glucose, indicating that they were less active. It appears from this research that a lower level of activity in some parts of the brain may cause inattention.
Other research shows that attention disorders tend to run in families,so there are likely to be genetic influences. Children who have ADHD usually have at least one close relative who also has ADHD. And at least one-third of all fathers who had ADHD in their youth bear children who have ADHD. Even more convincing: the majority of identical twins share the trait." -http://www.add.org/articles/causeadd.html
The Cycle
Alcohol use appears to be part of a vicious cycle- often a factor in both the cause and effect of ADD. Children of alcoholic parents may experience emotional and physical damage that leads to developing ADD. And many of them then grow up to try and control their ADD by self medicating with alcohol.
"Alcohol helped David Miller become more focused and calm, initially correcting low dopamine and GABA neurotransmitter levels, but eventually created more problems than it solved. Mr. Miller provides an excellent description of the heightened anxiety and overstimulation occurring in the newly abstinent alcoholic." -"Overload: Attention Deficit Disorder and the Addictive Brain" by David K. Miller & Kenneth Blum
"Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a childhood mental health disorder that can lead to alcohol and other drug (AOD)-related problems if it persists into adolescence and adulthood. Among adult patients receiving treatment for alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse, the rate of ADHD has been estimated to be approximately 25 percent (Wilens 1998)." -http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CXH/is_2_26/ai_95148614
Check out our website at: Orange County Adult Children
ADD and ADHD sufferers are often bright, extremely gifted people. They can sometimes appear absent minded, spaced out and disorganized.
Famous Attention Deficit sufferers include:
Albert Einstein
Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Edison
Galileo
Mozart
Wright Brothers
Leonardo da Vinci
Walt Disney
John Lennon
Winston Churchill
Henry Ford
Stephen Hawkings
Jules Verne
Alexander Graham Bell
John F. Kennedy
Louis Pasteur
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Beethoven
But just what is ADD or ADHD?
According to http://www.add-adhd-help-center.com/symptoms_add_adhd.htm, symptoms include:
_ Often fidgeting with hands or feet, or squirming while seated.
_ Having difficulty remaining seated.
_ Being easily distracted by extraneous stimuli.
_ Having difficulty awaiting turn in games or group activities.
_ Often blurting out answers before questions are completed.
_ Having difficulty in following instructions.
_ Having difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities.
_Often shifting from one uncompleted task to another.
*(One of the Common ACA Characteristics is "Having difficulty in following a project through from beginning to end.")
_ Having difficulty playing quietly.
_Often talking excessively.
_ Often interrupting or intruding on others.
_ Often not listening to what is being said.
_Often forgetting things necessary for tasks or activities.
_Often engaging in physically dangerous activities without considering possible consequences.
*(Another Common ACA Characteristic is "Locking themselves into a course of action without giving serious consideration to alternate behaviors or possible consequences.")
What Causes ADD?
Causes of ADD are thought to include emotional and physical trauma and heredity. People from alcoholic/dysfunctional families may be at risk for all THREE of these factors.
Emotional/Physical Trauma
"Both physical and emotional neglect contribute to ADD. Abuse causes a rush of stress hormones and chemicals that poison a baby's or child's brain. Stress hormones damage the memory centers and chronic stress causes the brain to become hyperalert, leading to severe distractibility and an inability to filter out extraneous stimuli." -"Healing ADD" by Daniel Amen, M.D
"When the noise and chaos in a family reach a certain level, the child is likely to tune it out. They do this by slowing down their brain- the slowed brain is less alert to what is going on. It is slow brainwave rhythms that characterize ADD.
In our clinic, we have seen the same slow brainwave patterns in children who are yelled at constantly and we have also seen this in verbally abused spouses. It is possible to conclude that anyone who lives in chaos and discord could suffer an emotional brain injury and would exhibit many classic ADD-type symptoms." - "Getting Rid Of Ritalin" by Robert Hill, Ph. D. and Eduardo Castro, M.D.
"Our data indicate a constellation of mild dysmorphic features of fetal alcohol syndrome, findings of hyperactivity and persistent school learning difficulties in children with normal intelligence born to heavy drinking mothers. Alcohol exposure in utero (during pregnancy) may be an important, preventable determinant of attention deficit syndromes in childhood." -"Hyperactivity - A.D.D. and Behavior Disorders Linked With Alcohol Exposure" Journal of Pediatarics, 96:978, 1990
"Attention, distraction and impulsive behavior problems were found to occur more often in a study of 475 young school age children whose mothers drank moderate amounts of alcohol during pregnancy." -Neurobehavioral Toxicology and Teratology, 8:717-725, 1986
Heredity
"NIMH investigators found important differences between people who have ADHD and those who don't. In people with ADHD, the brain areas that control attention used less glucose, indicating that they were less active. It appears from this research that a lower level of activity in some parts of the brain may cause inattention.
Other research shows that attention disorders tend to run in families,so there are likely to be genetic influences. Children who have ADHD usually have at least one close relative who also has ADHD. And at least one-third of all fathers who had ADHD in their youth bear children who have ADHD. Even more convincing: the majority of identical twins share the trait." -http://www.add.org/articles/causeadd.html
The Cycle
Alcohol use appears to be part of a vicious cycle- often a factor in both the cause and effect of ADD. Children of alcoholic parents may experience emotional and physical damage that leads to developing ADD. And many of them then grow up to try and control their ADD by self medicating with alcohol.
"Alcohol helped David Miller become more focused and calm, initially correcting low dopamine and GABA neurotransmitter levels, but eventually created more problems than it solved. Mr. Miller provides an excellent description of the heightened anxiety and overstimulation occurring in the newly abstinent alcoholic." -"Overload: Attention Deficit Disorder and the Addictive Brain" by David K. Miller & Kenneth Blum
"Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a childhood mental health disorder that can lead to alcohol and other drug (AOD)-related problems if it persists into adolescence and adulthood. Among adult patients receiving treatment for alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse, the rate of ADHD has been estimated to be approximately 25 percent (Wilens 1998)." -http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CXH/is_2_26/ai_95148614
Check out our website at: Orange County Adult Children
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