Feldes 1

Sonia Feldes

English 2010

17 December 2021

ADHD and Caffeination

What caffeine is and where caffeine comes from: It is important to know information

about caffeine such as what it is, where it comes from, and what it does to our bodies in small

amounts and high amounts. Caffeine is from plants including tea leaves, fruit, cocoa beans, and

the most common coffee beans (Tish, 2013 & Levesque, 2018.) Human Disease and Conditions

describes caffeine as, “a central nervous system stimulant because it reduces drowsiness and

increases alertness and the ability to focus,” (Caffeine Related-Disorders, 2017.) Caffeine is the

most common psychoactive substance (Levesque, 2018.) Its most known effect is less fatigue.

Caffeine is a common stimulant that most adults consume daily. Summary of Issue: The

knowledge of caffeine's effects isn’t talked about enough. Caffeine has benefits especially for

people who need extra stimulation especially people with ADHD. The effects of caffeine on

ADHD people are more beneficial than the average person because of this, information about

caffeine effects should be more normalized knowledge.

Caffeine and its effects:

There are many different ways caffeine can improve bodily functions. The most

commonly known of these health benefits are increased physical endurance, reaction time &
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motor skills, alertness & concentration, and decreased fatigue (“The Stimulating Truth About

Caffeine,” 2019.) These effects are what make daily caffeine intake so common, especially with

students. It is typical for students to drink higher caffeinated drinks to keep up with the

homework.

Caffeine is being considered the most commonly ingested stimulant by scientists

(Rothfeld & Deborah, 2017.) Most adults start their day with a cup of coffee and some even have

multiple cups of caffeinated drinks a day. Caffeine can be found in most sodas and can also be

found in some food such as chocolate (“Caffeine Related-Disorders,” 2017, “The Stimulating

Truth About Caffeine,” 2019, and Tish, 2013.) Because soda and chocolate are very common it

increases the amount of caffeine intake for the average person. It has been roughly calculated

that eighty-five to ninety percent of Americans ingest caffeine in any way daily (“The

Stimulating Truth About Caffeine,” 2019 and Rothfeld & Deborah, 2017.)

Caffeine affects each person differently. Because of this, each person's limit for a healthy

amount of caffeine and a dangerous amount of caffeine varies. Some people may not be able to

handle a single cup of coffee whereas someone else may be able to drink three cups spread out

throughout a day. It's important to know your own limits so as to not put yourself in danger of

causing negative effects. If a person doesn’t know their limits they might accidentally have a

higher caffeine intake than their body can handle.

One danger of a high daily caffeine intake is after a while the body develops a

dependence on caffeine. After one has developed a dependence if they suddenly stop consuming

the same high amount of caffeine as before they can develop withdrawal symptoms. Withdraw
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can cause trouble sleeping & concentrating, nausea, irritability, and headaches (“Caffeine

Related-Disorders,” 2017.)

The most concerning danger of high caffeine intake are caffeine-related disorders. There

are four caffeine-related psychiatric disorders established by the DSM-5. These disorders are

caffeine-induced sleep disorder, caffeine-induced anxiety disorder, caffeine intoxication, and

caffeine-related disorder non-specified (“Caffeine Related-Disorders,” 2017.) These

caffeine-related disorders are serious as they can become dangerous when extremely high

caffeine intakes and other drugs or alcohol are mixed in a short amount of time. Caffeine

intoxication in some extreme cases can result in death (“Caffeine Related-Disorders,” 2017.)

Some argue that the risks from consuming dangerously high amounts of caffeine are

enough to avoid caffeine altogether. It is true that the dangers of caffeine are very concerning.

There are many drinks that contain high amounts of caffeine for one serving. Most of these high

caffeine drinks are energy drinks. Energy drink companies are marketing towards teenagers and

young adults (“Caffeine Related-Disorders,” 2017.) These marketing tactics have some concerns

as most young adults aren’t aware of the risks of high caffeine intake. This can be seen as many

young adults have been seen chugging these high caffeine energy drinks. This amount of caffeine

intake all at once can be incredibly risky even if that is the only caffeine consumed in the day.

Although caffeine is something that can cause many health concerns, it is only dangerous

when consumed in high amounts in short periods of time. These energy drinks need to be

consumed responsibly to avoid concerns about them. This is why the knowledge of how

dangerous high caffeine intake is was more known especially among those young adults who are

drinking these energy drinks there would be more people being responsible. The negative effects,
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just like the positive effects, are different for each person. Each person is responsible for their

own caffeine intake based on how their body is affected by the stimulant. Knowing this will help

people to avoid going over their safe limit and into a dangerous amount of caffeine in a short

amount of time. It will also give them the knowledge to understand why they may start to feel

the negative effects of caffeine and know to reduce caffeine intake.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder:

ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a mental disorder that affects

self-motivation, executive functions, and self-regulation (Frey, 2020.) It has been estimated that

four percent of Americans older than eighteen need to manage their ADHD (Holland, 2018.) The

adult ADHD diagnosis wasn’t accepted until the nineteen eighties (Frey, 2020.) Before this time

ADHD was only recognized in children and the diagnosis didn’t follow them into adulthood

(Frey,2020.) The assessment process is still relatively new because of this and can be improved.

Because of this many people with ADHD will go undiagnosed and unhelped.

We must also take into consideration that there will always be people who are

undiagnosed. There are many reasons for someone to be undiagnosed. For instance, if someone

grew up in a family that doesn’t prioritize understanding mental health they most likely won’t

think to get tested. There is also a problem with people not understanding what ADHD looks

like. If people don’t understand the symptoms or think ADHD symptoms are misunderstood as

they may never consider getting an assessment. How it affects everyday life: One of the main

struggles of an adult with ADHD is executive function. Executive function affects everyday life

which can make seemingly simple tasks more difficult. Executive function affects the ability to
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make decisions when there are multiple choices, abstract thinking, change behavior either

appropriate or inappropriate for the environment, deductive reasoning, and plan ahead (Frey,

2020.) Many times people with no knowledge of ADHD will see these effects as disorganized

and lazy. However, it takes people with ADHD more effort and energy than people without

executive dysfunction. These effects can make school more challenging for students with

ADHD.

Another symptom of ADHD is craving constant stimulation. Constant stimulation can

look like taking prescription stimulants or finding other ways to satisfy the need for stimulation.

Most diagnosed ADHD adults take prescribed psychostimulants which balance levels of

neurotransmitters and increase levels of dopamine (Frey, 2020.) However, there are some people

with ADHD who prefer to stay off prescription drugs.

Levesque wrote in Encyclopedia of Adolescence, “In the alternative, individuals with

high levels of sensation seeking, impulsivity, and conduct disorder use caffeine as a way to

‘self-medicate.’” (2018.) Those who are diagnosed with ADHD but choose not to take

prescription drugs and those who are undiagnosed ADHD seem to self-medicate with a non-drug

stimulant.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and caffeine:

Caffeine can help ADHD symptoms such as being more focused, calm, concentrated, and

alert (Konstantinovsky, 2021.) The most common non-drug stimulant is caffeine

(Konstantinovsky, 2021.) Because caffeine is already normalized it makes it easier to find ways

to consume high caffeine amounts. This could lead to those with ADHD drinking caffeinated
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drinks more often throughout the day than the average person (Barclay, 2019.) Because caffeine

is a stimulant it can act as a very mild replacement for stimulant drugs prescribed for ADHD.

Although caffeine is much less effective than prescription drugs.

However, those with ADHD who are taking prescription drugs should be aware of the

dangers of having a high caffeine intake in their cases. The prescribed stimulants are already

working in their bodies. Adding caffeine on top of these medications can be potentially

dangerous. People who have prescription stimulants who also drink high amounts of caffeine are

at risk of consuming enough stimulants to double medicate (Barclay, 2019.) This could cause

many negative effects including anxiety, upset stomach, irritability, and muscle shakes (Barclay,

2019.) These effects are a combination of caffeine’s possible negative effects and medication's

possible negative effects. People taking ADHD medications should check if their caffeine intake

is safe to be mixing with their prescription. There may also be some prescription stimulants that

require little to no caffeine intake. It is important for people taking medication to be aware if

their prescription is safe with their caffeine habits.

Teach people about caffeine:

It is important to make knowledge about caffeine more common. With more information,

we can make more knowledgeable decisions based on our own beliefs and opinions about

caffeine. One aspect of consuming caffeine safely is knowing how it affects your body. Knowing

how caffeine affects your body will help people set their own limitations of how much caffeine is

ingested daily. This knowledge could possibly lower the number of people with dangerous
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caffeine habits. This also has a possibility to also help those who experience these negative

effects of caffeine realize these health problems may be a result of their high caffeine intake.

If more people knew about the difference of how caffeine affects people whether they

have ADHD or not. Because of high undiagnosed adult ADHD rates we could use this

information to see if someone should look into getting an ADHD assessment. Knowing how

caffeine affects you compared to the average effects and ADHD effects may help people

understand themselves more. This may get more people to look into assessments, diagnose, and

maybe even get help to make their every day easier. This could help more people get the

medication they need to make living their lives easier and less unnecessarily challenging.

We need to inform people not only of the benefits of caffeine consumption but we need to

include the dangers. The dangers of consuming high amounts of caffeine in a short amount of

time are very serious and can in rare cases result in death. We still need to be informing people of

the dangers even if those dangers rarely get concerning.

We must also think about how to inform more people about the dangers and benefits of

caffeine. There are many options that could help inform not only children and teens but also

adults and parents. If we include more information in parenting classes and parenting books

about caffeine they will then have the extra knowledge in order to inform the children later on.

Parents should also try to limit the amount of caffeine children consume from chocolate candy

and sodas. They should also teach their children about how to safely limit caffeine while they are

still young. This may help them in the future to avoid consuming high amounts of caffeine and

becoming dependant on caffeine. Schools should also include in health or science classes
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information on caffeine. This will ensure the information gets to more children while in a

learning environment.

Conclusion:

Caffeine, a stimulant, is a common part of our everyday lives. It gives us many benefits

when consumed in a reasonable amount such as increased alertness, physical endurance, and less

fatigue. There are many risks to ingesting high amounts of caffeine including caffeine-related

disorders. Many argue that the dangers of high caffeine intake are greater than the benefits

associated with caffeine. However, caffeine offers more than just feeling more energized

especially for those with ADHD. Caffeine can help ADHD adults focus or have more

concentration. ADHD is a mental disorder that can affect everyday life making daily tasks more

difficult. Self-motivation, executive function, and self-regulation are all affected making them

appear, to those who don’t understand ADHD, lazy or unmotivated. Not everyone who is

affected by ADHD is diagnosed because of how recent the adult diagnosis has been accepted.

Caffeine is helping those who are undiagnosed ADHD or are diagnosed but don’t want to

take prescription drugs. Caffeine is a way to self-medicate when they can't access prescription

drugs or don’t know they have ADHD. Caffeine can interact with prescribed ADHD medication

and can cause some negative effects. We should strive to increase the common caffeine

knowledge. By informing the general public at a young age they will better understand their own

limits for caffeine, the benefits of a responsible amount of caffeine, and the risks of consuming

high amounts of caffeine.

Works Cited

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Ph.D., PsyD, 28 Jan. 2019, [Link]/health/adhd/caffeine.

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