When I was writing the book there was a lot of ‘stuff’ that I had to spend loads of time trying to figure out if it was too much info to include (thus producing the dreaded overwhelm.) One that I left out was the fact that there are two types of dopamine. Tonic and phasic.
Think of tonic dopamine as the steady, baseline level of dopamine that constantly flows through your brain. It’s like the ambient chatter of the crowd in a stadium before the band comes on stage.
In a neurotypical brain: The baseline crowd noise is at a perfectly healthy, medium volume. Because the background level is steady, the brain feels content, alert, and capable of handling ordinary, low-stimulation tasks (like doing taxes, washing dishes, or reading a long email).
In the ADHD brain: The baseline crowd noise is turned way down. The stadium feels practically empty and dead silent. Because this baseline is so low, the ADHD brain physically feels under-stimulated, bored, and restless. It feels a deep, urgent itch to “fill the silence.”
Phasic dopamine is a sudden, explosive spike of dopamine released in response to something exciting, novel, or urgent. It’s like the main act bursting onto the stadium stage with flashing lights, pyrotechnics, and blasting speakers.
What triggers it? Gaming, scrolling, eating something yummy, doing something risky or dangerous, panic over a deadline, or hyperfocus on a new hobby.
In a neurotypical brain, the background (tonic) and the spikes (phasic) work well together but because the ADHD brain has a chronically low baseline (tonic) level, it has to constantly hunt for spikes (phasic) just to feel awake.
