If I have medication off days, I tend to binge eat to generate dopamine. Seems counter productive. I’m not actually hungry, I just need the dopamine.
Someone mentioned exercise, it seems like if you have an excess of serotonin compared to dopamine (and Autistic people tend to have hyperserotonemia – a natural excess level of serotonin compared to controls), you get fatigued.
Exercise Serotonin and Dopamine
Interestingly also that elevated plasma levels of serotonin are linked to airway hypersensitivity, which can lead to asthma.
All of the science I’ve seen recently around serotonin makes me wonder just how much antidepressants and blocking the receptors I needed to absorb stuff might have exacerbated so many health issues I had.
Interestingly depression is linked to asthma development (with or without SSRI).
Holy shit this is why venlafaxine nearly killed me… maybe.
Autistic people have increased levels of norepinephrine.
Giving someone who has an excess of serotonin and norepinephrine a drug that inhibits reuptake of both seems incredibly dangerous.
Excess norepinephrine seems to be linked to increased hyperactivity. So when I went to get diagnosed with ADHD and they rejected me without looking at evidence and put me on an SNRI they effectively nearly killed me. I was destroyed on this drug.
Ugh. They say it slows the reuptake, what is happening to the excess stuff that isn’t subject to reuptake. Where does it go? What causes SNRI withdrawal symptoms… so many questions. Apparently increased norepinephrine production happens with PTSD too.
So much stuff points to the intense world theory of Autism. I seem like a raw nerve exposed to the world. I feel everything cranked up to 11.
All of this is leading me to the hypothesis suggested in the 1970s that depression is a repeated life stress result.
I’m not saying this for everyone, but I truly wonder now if my ADHD is the result of being Autistic and subject to extreme trauma as a child. There are a number of studies that link ACEs with ADHD severity. I don’t know what to think anymore honestly.
“However, two studies presented results that showed children with ADHD had high levels of norepinephrine in their 24-hour urine sample. A higher level of norepinephrine in urine is associated with higher levels of hyperactivity.”
Sensory stress causes norepinephrine production.
One of the things that dopamine production did for me was help me to realise how much sensory pain I’ve been in. I had very low awareness. Since attending to sensory stress levels I’ve lost my stress related health problems.
This is all conjecture based on a case study of one. These are my own personal musings based on science I have read. This is not ever medical advice.
Originally tweeted by Rory – ADHD Autistic OCD (@roryreckons) on October 15, 2021.
Rory's Reckons 