You notice that someone you care about with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is drinking more alcohol than in the past, perhaps even exhibiting signs of addiction. Perhaps you’re gravitating towards this behavior yourself.
Is this cause for concern? Could there be an association between having ADHD and alcoholism?
June Silny, an ADHD coach who provides her expertise via Skype and phone conversations, says without hesitation that there’s a link. She explains that her son, who has ADHD, turned to alcohol during his teen years, although he’s now in his 30s and sober. Silny, who has ADHD herself, points to many similarities between ADHD behaviors and those of an alcoholic. “Impulsivity often exists for someone with ADHD,” she says, “just as that is also a common issue with an alcoholic.” She adds that someone with ADHD also may have an inability to consider the consequences of their actions or easily say no, which someone with an alcohol addiction may also experience.
Additionally, Silny says that “alcohol calms anxiety and can make it easier to manage emotion — things people with ADHD may struggle with.”
[See: 10 of the Biggest Health Threats Facing Your Kids This School Year.]
Indeed, alcohol can temporarily tame the anxieties someone with ADHD experiences, writes Frank South on ADDitudeMag.com. “I think everyone sometimes has critical and defensive voices chattering away in their heads,” South writes. “But our ADHD often increases, accentuates and amplifies that noise into an anxiety-ridden, confusing, dark storm, and a couple of stiff drinks at first seems to work miracles.” South, now sober, explains how drinking offered a comforting solace, if even for the short run, saying that “it does turn off the voices, takes the self-criticism and obsession with all the things you could have done better down a notch,” adding that he feels “an ADHD brain especially craves this kind of comfort and semblance of peace. And an ADHD alcoholic’s brain will full-on fight to the death to keep it.”
Entrepreneur Peter Shankman, who has ADHD and is the author of the forthcoming book, “Faster Than Normal: Turbocharge Your Focus, Productivity, and Success with the Secrets of the ADHD Brain,” knows about this comfort and peace. In his book, he details how he began replacing his run or fitness routine with “going out for a drink.” This continued, alcohol often a constant whether he was enjoying time with clients or ending a bad day. “My ADHD was exploding off the charts, but I wasn’t attributing it to my drinking, because I wasn’t noticing it while I was drinking,” he writes.
ADHD, Alcholism and Genetics
Silny too, initially tried to dismiss her son’s drinking as being somewhat par for the course for a hormonal teen faced with social and personal pressures. Although his drinking continued and it became obvious that it was more than a teenage phase, she’s not suggesting that ADHD and alcoholism always go hand-in-hand, or that one disorder or addiction causes or exacerbates the other. In fact, she’s quick to point out that there’s a genetic component to both ADHD and alcoholism, adding that trying to determine if one brings about the other is like figuring out whether the chicken or the egg came first. “You’re dealing with two genetic dispositions side by side,” she says, noting that alcoholism runs in her family. She personally feels that “ADHD is at the core,” though, and that any alcoholic tendencies may manifest later if certain life and biological triggers emerge.
[See: Hoarding, ADHD, Narcissism: Inside the Minds of History’s Great Personalities.]
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, genetics do indeed play a role in alcoholism. However, the organization stresses that genes are not the sole factor, noting on its website: “Alcohol use disorder (AUD) often seems to run in families, and we may hear about scientific studies of an ‘alcoholism gene.’ Genetics certainly influence our likelihood of developing AUD, but the story isn’t so simple. Research shows that genes are responsible for about half of the risk for AUD. Therefore, genes alone do not determine whether someone will develop AUD. Environmental factors, as well as gene and environment interactions account for the remainder of the risk.”
The Dopamine Connection
Dr. Julia Breur, a licensed clinical psychotherapist in Boca Raton, Florida, adds that dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with the brain’s reward and pleasure centers, is also worth exploring. “The dopamine hypothesis of ADHD explains that low levels of dopamine in the forebrain cause problems with attention and impulse control,” she says. “The dopamine system has also been researched and implicated in causing some of alcohol’s effects on the brain and plays a role in alcohol use disorders. Disturbances in the dopamine system may underlie both ADHD and alcohol use disorders and may contribute to the association between both.”
Shankman says that he had his last drink in October 2015, and that to this day he remains sober. He notes that to continue the high that alcohol often provided long after successful speaking engagements and client meetings wear off, he exercises, noting that he does so “because the dopamine and serotonin my brain will produce from that workout will last me long after my speech is over, and it’ll continue the ‘high’ I get from speaking until I’m ready for bed in the evening.”
[ See: 8 Things You Didn’t Know About Counseling.]
Breur says that education about both ADHD and alcoholism is essential, suggesting that people turn to helpful resources such as Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder or the Attention Deficit Disorder Association and also consider therapy, which she says may involve cognitive behavioral therapy, individual therapy or group therapy such as attending a 12-step program.
More from U.S. News
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Hoarding, ADHD, Narcissism: Inside the Minds of History’s Great Personalities
Is There a Link Between ADHD and Alcoholism? originally appeared on usnews.com
