Can being busy help improve ADHD? Here’s what a study says

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

(

ADHD

) is a

neurodevelopmental disorder

that affects one’s ability to pay attention, control impulse behavior and manage hyperactivity. It is a neurodevelopmental disorder with no fixed set of symptoms, as it varies from person to person.
ADHD is a complex condition that affects a person’s life, relationships, work, daily activity, and more.

While ADHD is said to make the person not very attentive towards what they do or have limited concentration, a new study has a contradictory perspective showcasing that keeping busy can help with ADHD.
A study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry discovered that higher environmental demand reduces

ADHD symptoms

.

The unexpected discovery was made after a study on ADHD for the past 16 years and it made two findings:
– ADHD has periods of temporary remission.
– Keeping a busy schedule may contribute to the remission.
The study was led by Margaret Sibley, a professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at, the University of Washington – School of Medicine. The research data was based on 483 patients diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 7 to 10 and it was based on the last 16 years.

Why keeping busy can help with ADHD?

According to the study, people diagnosed with ADHD need more stimulation to maintain their attention and the study explained that it helps when there is a demanding challenge, the ADHD rises to challenge and reduces symptoms.
A busy schedule can increase the dopamine levels in the body which can fight against the ADHD symptoms of procrastination and anxiety. Sibley, through the study, noted that they were surprised to notice that higher levels of stress could lower the level of ADHD.

“We speculated that increased stresses would be associated with higher levels of ADHD in participants. But, we were surprised to find quite the opposite, that higher levels of demand were associated with remission of ADHD. In other words, people with ADHD were rising to the challenge when demands were high,” the study explained.

The vanishing act

Margaret Sibley, in the article, also explained that over the past 16 years, ADHD symptoms improved at some point. She called the remission the ‘ADHD’s Vanishing Act’ when most of the cases had faded symptoms that returned after three or four years. Sibley also explained that most individuals might get through with the symptoms for years without it having caused any meaningful problems in life.

She wrote, “The neurocognitive risks are always present, but the clinical problems may only emerge sometimes. This is comparable to a person who may struggle with weight gain biologically, but who may fluctuate in and out of the obesity range throughout their lifetime.”