ADHD and Athletics

[Anonymous]

I am a graduate student at Yale with an interest in psychology and athletics. I am curious about your thoughts to the following questions:

1. Are you aware of any data showing that ADHD rates are higher for athletes? What about different rates across sports?

2. I came across this quote by Dr. Jain, “What I often find for athletes is that when they stop their intense training, their ADHD symptoms flare up a great deal. I’ve treated a number of ex-Olympians and I find that they miss the structure, the detail and the intensity of their training.” Why do you think ADHD symptoms flare up when athletes stop their intense training? Would it make sense then to test athletes for ADHD when their are not intensely training for their sport?

3. Which ADHD screening tool or questions would you most recommend before referring a student-athlete to a full battery of tests?

4. What advice would you give to student-athletes recently tested with ADHD?

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[Anonymous]

hey there,

my name is Nichole. i was a provincial competitive gymnast for over 7 years. when i retired from the sport my adhd kicked into high gear.

gymnastics is known as one of the best sports for kids/adolescence with adhd because it’s individual (we don’t do as well in teams), highly structured and requires a crap load of cardiovascular training. martial arts and track n’ field are also great.

at my peak i was training 30 hours each week on top of going to school full time. most training sessions were 6 hours or longer. cardiovascular training is like medication for ADDers – i read somewhere that it stimulates the same parts of your brain as 1st line stimulant meds. for me personally, training keeps me calm, less restless, motivated, less scatter-brained and helps me sleep well.

the most common ‘gateway’ screening tool, used by most referring GPs is probably the ASRS. you can easily google it. CADDRA can give you a lot of helpful clinical information too.

http://www.caddra.ca/cms4/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=26&Itemid=70&lang=en

for more general information, check out ‘ADHD for Dummies’

advice: don’t stop training. you can cut back if you need to, but don’t ever stop a basic level of cardio exercise (40minutes

4x per week was the last number suggested to me — it varies depending on who you ask). if you have adhd, getting back on the training horse once you’ve quit is HORRIBLY difficult. just don’t stop in the first place.

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[suej]

I’ve just taken up badminton and love it! My problem is that I’m unable to remember all the things I’m learning such as: keeping my eye on the birdy, foot placement, who served last and don’t even get me started on keeping track of the score! Anyway, I feel like Lucille Ball sometimes (I always liked her by the way). Anyone else suffer from this? Is it common?

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[allan wallace]

Kmyers, have you been diagnosed with ADHD? I played a few team sports, but enjoyed individual sports far more, like tennis and squash. I was a good sprinter, and often won the 100 m sprint without any training, or proper aths gear. I’d front up for school races in my sneakers and footy shorts and jumper and run the legs off the chumps wearing the full aths kit including spiked running shoes! But I had no interest in aths training, or being a part of any aths team…

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[kc5jck]

suej – My thinking is this. Unless you’re trying to play professionally, the point of the game is to have fun. Don’t let the rules of the game get in your way.

I guess people who feel otherwise would commonly suffer from what you describe.

I used to jog at the park. My goal was to keep up with the foxiest babe that passed me. 😉

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[suej]

I have two teenagers with ADHD and for the last 20 plus years have wondered if I had ADHD. Although not officially diagnosed, I feel certain that I suffer from it. Yes i said the S word. I don’t see it as a gift as my self-esteem has suffered along with my education. Maintaining friendships have also been a challenge.

I’m enjoying the badminton very much and am not aspiring to play like a pro, just well in time. I am guilty of being hard on myself at times but am not beating myself up over this and I have had plenty of laughs. I’m just wondering if my earlier complaints were common.

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[Robbo]

It’s a huge factor for a lot of us. I’m pretty sure that “runners high” is very much the same as the dopamine shortage problem. I was practically addicted to body building. I’m paying the price for keeping at it for so many years now. I really need my shoulders healthy but my left shoulder has been keeping me from doing as much as I need to for a couple months now. I guess moderation is the key there.

I don’t think there would be any different criteria for an athlete with ADHD to get diagnosed. It’s the same problem in general. Without all that extra exercise. Especially the stuff that really gets the adrenaline pumping, heart rate up. Sweat really running. The symptoms hit us like a freakin tidal wave. It can present like severe depression, so many of us end up getting treated for depression instead of ADHD. fortunately I’m guessing because of sites like this one, and general awareness about adult ADD, those days are over with. I still have to fight off some frustration and anger about the dang prozac holding me back from really growing and learning from my mistakes the way normal human beings do. It also made a difference on how well my pain medicatons have worked. That part has only recently become apparent. About the last 4 months. But it’s a wonderful thing to not have to tolerate the pain I used to live with. There’s a lot of different ways to get our heart rate up n pumping. The key is to be having fun I think. Anything that make the dopamine flow, right?

. Chasing a foxy babe sounds like the ticket!, thanks for the idea Kc if they get the creeps it’s not too hard to out run me though. So you won’t have to worry about me getting arrested for stalking!. That would be a funny headline in the newspaper though, huh?

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