Boredom: How it Affects Someone With ADHD
Jeremy was a bright student who worked hard and succeeded academically. He loved to learn and had done exceptionally well at a prestigious university, but he had a tendency to get bored easily. As a result of his hard work, Jeremy attained his dream of being accepted to medical school. He expected that medical studies would be an extension of the smorgasbord of intellectual challenges he had experienced in college. But Jeremy was soon disappointed when he discovered how much rote memorization was involved.
Having to memorize a seemingly endless number of uninteresting facts made Jeremy and his brain feel half asleep. He resorted to simultaneously listening to both the television and the radio to remain awake enough and have sufficient attention to commit to memory what he needed for his exams. The fact that Jeremy’s brain began to fall asleep when faced with uninteresting information was an important sign that he had attention deficit disorder, also known as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD).
People with adult ADD, which affects an estimated 4.4% of Americans, have a high susceptibility to boredom, have difficulty tolerating boredom, and are easily distracted. They’re the ones who tend to look around the room, drift off, appear bored, forget where the conversation is going, or interrupt with extraneous information. Why is boredom associated with this condition? It starts in the brain.
Your Brain’s Role in Boredom
ADD/ADHD is a brain disorder that results in problems with low stimulation and increased boredom. Brain SPECT imaging shows that in people with ADD/ADHD, there is low activity in the prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain that is involved with focus, attention, concentration, goal-setting, planning, organization, and impulse control. Underactivity in this part of the brain can contribute to problems in these areas and feelings of boredom.How ADD/ADHD Boredom Interferes with Everyday Life
Because of the way the ADD/ADHD brain functions, people with this disorder have trouble completing everyday activities, such as paying bills, doing household chores, or organizing their files at work. If you have ADD/ADHD, this means you may fall behind on payments, neglect cleaning the house, or have a messy desk at work. This can cause a host of problems in your life—financial issues, relationship trouble, and problems holding a job. Some people with ADD/ADHD also have trouble maintaining everyday relationships. They often quickly become bored with their romantic partner. When the rush of new love wears off, boredom sets in, they end the relationship and seek out someone new.Why People with ADD/ADHD Need Stimulation
Because people with ADD/ADHD need stimulation or excitement in order to stay engaged. They can pay attention just fine to things that are new, novel, interesting, highly stimulating, or frightening. For example, they can easily lose themselves for many consecutive hours playing exciting video games. And activities that would make most of us tremble with anxiety—such as motorcycle racing, free climbing, or skydiving—seem to calm these individuals. Take a look at an Amen Clinics patient who was an airplane wing walker. This man required an extreme amount of stimulation in order to feel calm and comfortable. Most of us would be paralyzed by anxiety walking on the wing of an airplane mid-flight, but this man, who normally experienced boring situations as remarkably intolerable, was optimally stimulated when engaging in his hobby. He stopped being distracted and became mindful, alert, and fully aware in the present moment. Why? The excitement boosted adrenaline, which is often low in those with ADD/ADHD due to adrenal gland disorders and stimulated his frontal lobes. This allowed him to feel calm and focused while walking on wings instead of rattled by his normal state of intense boredom.Unhealthy Ways to Stimulate the ADD/ADHD Brain
Many people with this condition unconsciously—based on brain-driven mechanisms (not will-driven)—play ADD/ADHD games as a way to boost adrenaline and stimulate their frontal lobes. These games just seem to happen. No one plans for them to happen. Most ADD/ADHD people deny that they engage in these behaviors, but they are common in the patients at Amen Clinics.Here are 3 unhealthy ways that people with ADD/ADHD create stimulation:
- “Let’s have a problem.” Without enough stimulation, the brain looks for ways to increase its own activity. Being mad, upset, angry, or negative has an immediate stimulating effect on the brain. Whenever you get upset your body produces increasing amounts of adrenaline stimulating heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, and, yes, brain activity. Many people with ADD/ADHD pick on others to get a rise out of them, get them upset, or make them crazy.
- “Fighting as foreplay.” Many couples where one or both partners have ADD/ADHD have intense fights followed by a period of making up and making love. One minute you’re fighting and talking about divorce, and the next moment you’re making wild passionate love. It’s confusing, but the arguing provides the stimulation that gets you ready for love.
- “Let’s get addicted.” People with ADD/ADHD have a higher incidence of addiction, whether it’s to drugs and alcohol, food, video games, social media, or even work. Think of those who are addicted to their iPhones and other mobile devices. It’s the constant pings alerting them to new information and novelty that stimulates their brain and relieves their boredom.
Healthy Ways to Stimulate the ADD/ADHD Brain
There are better ways to support and stimulate the brain, including:
- Intense exercise
- Goal setting
- A diet that is higher in high-quality proteins and fats and lower in simple carbs
- Omega-3 fatty acids that are higher in EPA
- Supplements that support focus, such as green tea, rhodiola, ginseng, and tyrosine
