Are drugs being confused with ADHD symptoms in young adults?

[EverydayProfessional]

In my surrounding, I have noticed many adults (young adults) now claim to have ADHD. Just because they are unable to pay attention to their work, they have higher rates of distraction, presence of brain fog, high procrastination, inability to remember.
Many of them use drugs but do not admit a connection of drugs to ADHD exists. Is it actually the role of drugs which is causing a disturbance in behaviors or is that ADHD?

I tend to think of it the other way round as I've known young people who self medicate their ADHD, often undiagnosed, with drugs.

People with ADHD are more at risk to all addictive substances, including screens and gambling. Do they also cause ADHD symptoms?

Which drugs cause ADHD symptoms?
ADHDers often use substances to manage their symptoms. I don't know of any substances that would mimic ADHD symptoms.

What ADHD behaviour/traits are mimicked by which drugs?

Not every attention problem is ADHD. Substance use, poor sleep, stress and other factors can cause similar symptoms, while ADHD is a long-term condition that usually begins earlier in life and affects more than one setting. Proper assessment matters before drawing conclusions.

This.

Any substance use should be very carefully discussed as a part of ADHD assessment and yes, both can present similarily. I'd be super cautious using 'self medicating' as explanation on 'undiagnosed' condition based on a hunch.

Erratic behaviour, forgetfulness, lack of motivation, mood swings, hyperactivity, fidgeting.... list goes on.

I think that part of the reason why so many more people are self-diagnosing, or diagnosing their children, with ADHD, is the awful fracture, restlessness, and eroded concentration cause by our internet and media landscape.

Maybe. But IME of having DD at the beach every day, even in winter, just us and dog walkers. And the library 3 times a week. And groups and music and friends and play and on and on... it's genetic. And NDs have a long history of blaming mostly mothers for things you can isolate and scan and identify as entirely medical.

Many use drugs because of not having been diagnosed correctly with ADHD.

Agreed. My DC grew up pre smart phone. And didn't have screens. And we did playgroups and library story time and crafting and park in the afternoon. I was the mother who took them to waterstones for a treat. House full of books that we read.

And still the symptoms are there.

The thing is, ADHD has to be present in childhood - what was the reason back then for those who now take drugs rather then have ADHD

I was writing about current behaviours that can be similar between substance use and ADHD. If you want to look at childhood, I'd suggest the first alternative is FASD which is massively underdiagnosed, but it'd be ironic on this thread...

@Namechangedforthisthread89 They do look at childhood when they do an ADHD assessment. They ask a lot of questions about it of the person who is being assessed, and they also ask for input from a family member or someone who knew the person as a child. If there were no symptoms present before the age of 12, a diagnosis won’t be given. So as PP says, whilst a person’s substance use in adulthood might possibly cause behaviours that look like ADHD, they won’t get a diagnosis unless there were also signs before the age of 12 (at which time presumably the vast majority of them were not using drugs).

I’m pretty certain my 7 year old isn’t taking drugs.

As an adult with ADD I will say I sometimes wonder if people think I'm on something when I blurt out what seems like a non sequitur, or if I get easily mixed-up & thrown off if someone interferes with my process at work for example. I find it makes me act more awkward & stilted when I hyperfixate & worry about people finding my natural demeanor "odd," so now I just try to not think about it and "let my freak flag fly" as they say 😅

I agree with you, FASD is so often misdiagnosed.

People with adhd produce less dopamine, substances create dopamine so there is your link. Or are you of the opinion that adhd doesn't exist?