Mungo's Adult ADHD Blog: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Where Mungo Goes on a Low Stimulus Hike to Restore His Brain's Balance

In a previous post, I mentioned that my hobby of hiking and camping is a good way of helping to manage ADHD symptoms - relaxing and allowing oneself to settle and de-stress.

"[...] ADHDers are 'stimulus junkies' and engage in high-stimulus activities just to keep that ol' epinephrine flowing through our executive-function fulfilling frontal lobes. That's all very well and good, but the downside to that is that the brain has a series of looped connections which ensure homeostasis - i.e. balance. And if one part of the brain is full-on stimulated, then the looped in portions join in. And our limbic system, the seat of our primitive motivations, like sex, hunger, anger, fight or flight, etc... are connected and affected in ADHDers.

Our limbic system when turned on high causes stress hormones to be released, resulting in sympathetic nervous system stimulation. Our immune system (macrophages, white blood cells, and all the T-cells and bits and pieces that comprise our bodily defense system against both external threats like infection, and internal threats like heart disease, abnormal cell growth, gastrointestinal disorders, auto-immune problems like lupus, some arthritis, and perhaps chronic fatigue syndrome) becomes suppressed. We get sick. We get worn out. And the the vicious spiral continues until we fall over with a loud thunk, or find a way to relax."

I was reading "Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood through Adulthood" more a couple of nights ago, and came across this section that discusses stimulant medication (and this explanation is also applicable to the action of the NRI or selective Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor medication Strattera) and an etiological theory of ADHD:

"One of the first attempts to unite the effects of the stimulants with what we know about the brain was made by C. Kornetsky, who in 1970 proposed the Catecholamine Hypothesis of Hyperactivity. Catecholamines are a class of compounds that includes the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine. Since the stimulants affect the norepinephrine and dopamine neurotransmitter systems by increasing the amount of these neurotransmitters, Kornetsky concluded that ADD possibly was caused by an underproduction or underutilization of these neurotransmitters. Although this hypothesis is still tenable, biochemical studies and clinical tests of neurotransmitter metabolites in urine over the past two decades have not been able to document the specific role of the catecholamines in ADD.

No single neurotransmitter system may be the sole regulator of ADD. Neurons can convert dopamine into norepinephrine. Many of the drugs that act on the catecholamines act on serotonin. Some of the drugs that act on serotonin can act on norepinephrine and dopamine. And we can't rule out the role of other neurotransmitters like GABA (gamma amino butyric acid), which have showed up in some biochemical studies. The most likely possibility is that the effect of dopamine and norepinephrine and serotonin is key and drugs that alter these neurotransmitters will have the most telling effect on the symptomatology of ADD.

So can we say that ADD is a chemical imbalance? Like most questions in psychiatry, the answer is yes and then again no. No, we have not found a good way to measure the specific imbalances in the neurotransmitter systems that may be responsible for the ADD. But yes, there is enough evidence that neurochemical systems are altered in people with ADD to state that the problem derives from the chemistry of the brain. Most likely, it is a dysregulation along the catecholamine-serotonin axis, a dance where one misstep by one partner creates a misstep by the other, which creates another misstep by the first. Before they know it, these dance partners are out of step not just with each other but with the music--and who is to say how it happened? "

So this past weekend, my friend Matt and I went for a hike down into the valley woods near my home. We brought backpacks and supplies for a quick lunch. Matt brought his camera, and took all of these pictures... Once you have viewed these pictures, please remit a royalty check in the amount of $12.50 to him immediately. He will appreciate it.

I pointed out plants wherever I could. I'd be a lot of fun at a cocktail party. If they had wild plants about. That is. This is a jumble of Yellow Wood Sorrel that I forced Matt to consume.

I don't know what this fungus is, and I don't have my mushroom book with me, so I'll update this post once I figure it out. All I know is that it looked really interesting.

Also, I am jealous of Matt's camera. It is a big ol' Canon DSLR. It takes some nice pictures, with his assistance, of course. He pushes the shutter-release button and aims the lens in the right direction.

I was mildly terrified when I realized that the rotten wood upon which the fungus was feasting was completely occupied (infested) by ravenous, pissed off Red Ants. I was bitten or stung by one last year and it hurt and burned for ages.

I rapidly dusted off my arms and inspected my shirt carefully lest one of them decide to crawl down my collar and express its disdain of bipeds. Ants are really interesting. I don't know much about them. Maybe I'll learn more about them. In the (winner of most unfortunately pronounced acronym of a journal of the year award - think about it) 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' journal, there is an article that says this:

"Ants are arguably the greatest success story in the history of terrestrial metazoa. On average, ants monopolize 15–20% of the terrestrial animal biomass, and in tropical regions where ants are especially abundant, they monopolize 25% or more. But ants did not always run the world. They do not appear in the fossil record until the mid-Cretaceous, and for more than the first half of their history—a period spanning 60 to 80 million years—ants occupied a relatively modest position in the terrestrial biosphere."

Here is a picture of me making tea. I like milk and sugar in my tea, so I made a small bag containing half and half milk powder and sugar. I thought that was very clever of me.

Here I am again. I'm situated close to our fire, and our pile of birch wood. I am using a ferrocerium rod to light my Trangia alcohol stove.

A funny thing happened. (Normally when you come across that phrase, you should expect to hear that something not so funny occurred. In order to remain consistent with other writers - as I shall refer to myself - I will ensure that you are not surprised.) I had filled up my aluminum pot and placed it on my Trangia stove, and walked away to get some dried pine branches to get the fire going. Matt said 'Hey, your water is boiling...'. I looked over and indeed, much to my non-surprise, steam was bubbling out of the lid. So I replied 'Yeah, it is', and sat down to make my tea (This is not the exciting part of the story, as you can probably surmise by the casual tone of the conversation).

Here is the exciting part of the story:

As I prepared my little pot-gripper - the one that came with the mini Trangia kit - the steam that bubbled out from the lid became intermingled with little licks of blue and orange flame. I tilted my head like a dog, trying to figure out what was happening. Matt looked at it too and I looked at him and he looked at me and he looked confused. Then in an instant, I realized that I had brought the wrong Nalgene bottle with me on the hike. Not the one full of cool water for drinking and for cooking, but rather the one I had filled with methanol for my stove, and had intended to label 'Poison - Methyl Alcohol Stove Fuel'. I had a pot full of rapidly boiling stove fuel in front of me. I took the lid off and it flared up. But not like white naphtha gas would have, and I quickly dumped it on the ground where the fire was.

So I learned the following: Store fuel in a Nalgene bottle if you must, but always label it. It is a good thing that I didn't take a swig from it, as I was thinking I might, just as I was filling my pot full of fuel. That would have been a bad thing. And don't use a permanent ink pen to label your bottle directly, as methanol dissolves the ink, leaving you in the same vulnerable situation... wrap your bottle with duct tape to distinguish it from your food and water bottles. Word to the wise...

Okay, so it wasn't that exciting, but still... it was exciting in the moment.

I brought a pouch of ready-made rice with me for a bite. They're great, but already have the water in it, so not great for light-weight trekking. Matt had a bottle of hot sauce. I followed his lead and liberally applied it to my meal. It was good and fiery hot, like a pot of boiling stove fuel.

I have a hat.

I have a Mora knife in a neck sheath.

A good campfire is a good antidote for the pains of living and working.

This unknown flowering ground vine looks nice. It tangled around our feet as we walked toward the woods from the river.

In an image reminiscent of Patterson's Bigfoot footage, here I am walking away to get more fuel for the fire. And not as in 'boiling vat of stove fuel' fuel. But wood fuel.

I had never seen the river so full and fast before. It had rained earlier that day, and maybe there had been a lot of rain up north... the beach I normally wander out onto was completely immersed. Amazing.

Here I am being amazed by the river.

Here I am on the river path.

Here I am maniacally smiling on the river path.

I like my thrift shop backsack.

After a good walk about, we returned to my home. It was getting hot by then, so I removed my hat. Here is that exact moment captured on film when that happened.

If I were President, I would have a photographer follow me around and take photos of me when I was walking about, just pondering things. As in the photograph above.