Chasing Dopamine: Technology, Social Media & ADHD
Posted on February 22, 2024 by Karina Schneidman, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.
Low levels of dopamine in ADHD brains can wreak serious havoc on one’s life.
If you struggle with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), you have a lack of dopamine. Dopamine controls many important activities in your brain – mainly the “good feels” of happiness, satisfaction and motivation. You need dopamine to motivate you to go to work, manage personal relationships and eat healthy. Dopamine also controls your memory, sleep cycles, concentration and much more.
Low levels of dopamine in ADHD brains can wreak serious havoc on one’s life. It can destroy your memory, where you not only forget things on a daily basis, like your keys, but also have no memory of your childhood or the previous year. ADHD can cause headaches and migraines, can lead you to lose sleep and can prevent you from learning and working at your optimal levels.
This is all due to the lack of dopamine in ADHD brains, and one new development is seriously hindering dopamine levels like never before – the internet. Things like social media and video games provide an immediate boost of dopamine to the brain. While this may seem like a positive, it’s actually not, because those boosts are short lived and lead to technology addiction.
Social media and ADHD
Many individuals with ADHD have trouble forming personal connections with others, but social media offers the promise of social connections online. The likes, follows and comments provide instant gratification that an ADHD brain craves; however, it’s not rooted in real life. The ADHD brain becomes addicted to that instant validation and keeps chasing it, craving for more and more connections online.
This is a major problem because people with ADHD quickly become addicted to social media, which tends to distance them from reality and human connection. Eventually, many people see a major amount of time that went to exercising, working, and spending time outdoors to more and more time consumed on their phones or personal devices.
Social media allows users to create a brand new identity for themselves, with individuals often pretending to be something they’re not or making up facets of their identities to gain more attention and please others. This tends to lead to social isolation in their everyday lives, because the online world offers so much more dopamine than real life.
Social media actually ends up leading to more anxiety and depression in those affected with ADHD. The addiction for some becomes so bad that they can lose their jobs or end their relationships over it.
In fact, a study of 2,800 university students conducted by the University of Southern California found that those that used social media a lot were more than likely to develop new ADHD symptoms. This is a serious problem that clearly shows that social media only provides a very short lived boost of the happy chemicals, followed by very serious side effects that actually make their mental health much worse.
Video Games and ADHD
Video games offer a fast-paced world of exciting adventures and instant rewards. There’s no doubt that gaming is attractive to the ADHD brain, which constantly seeks dopamine. However, just like social media, heavy gaming will make ADHD symptoms worse, according to a 2021 study.
“A process called downregulation causes a drop in the number of dopamine receptors in the reward processing area of the brain that becomes more severe the more time one spends online,” says Clifford Sussman, MD, a psychiatrist who specializes in video game addiction.
Many parents have found that their kids are much more angry, irritable and annoyed when they’re playing video games, and even after the fact.
How to Stop Video Game and Social Media Addiction
The first step to realizing you have a problem with technology addiction is to realize it and acknowledge it. How many hours do you spend per day online? Does it keep you from socializing with others? Does it get in the way of your work or school?
If any of these applies to you, start by decreasing the amount of time you spend online. Check your phone or device usage and set realistic goals you can abide by. If you use a phone or iPad, you can set screen time for yourself which will turn off your access to social media or games after a certain amount of time. This is especially beneficial to individuals that have impulse control issues and don’t think they will be successful in logging off on their own.
If you live with a parent, significant other or a roommate, ask them to help keep you accountable, or even take away your device after a certain time frame.
As you limit your use of social media and games, replace it with activities and habits that will boost your mental health. Spend that time exercising and going outdoors to get sunlight. Read a book or listen to music. Spend time going out with friends. All of these things will help you create longer boosts of dopamine, as opposed to what technology will create.
