Cycling and ADD
 

I haven't ridden in a while and was trying to remind myself why I ride and realized it's almost like ritalin for me. I'm extremely AD/HD and am either lost in my own world or bouncing of the walls or both, so when I was thinking today, bouncing around in my seat, about the extremely few reasons why I don't ride, the one the came to mind was how lethargic I am after a ride. Physically, anyway. My mind is always plastered to what my ride was just like, what the next one will be, and the one great ride way back when...

I know for me, like many others for many reasons, riding, commuting especially, saved my life, but I never actually thought of cycling as being strictly therapeutic in any sense other than something between the regular bump and grind. I was curious if anyone else had any experiences like this.

I know someone with ADHD who gets the same effect from riding and running. I think many people find riding theraputic.

I get somewhat the opposite effect~~ I zone out while riding and crash into stuff....

i believe i may have ADD.
i tend to really focus on one thing at a time.. i can't always decide what this focus will be and changing this focus is a very difficult task for me.
i am not really hyper.

anyway, i can relate to the therapeutic benefit.
i originally rode my bike to work as a plan to drop some pounds and save a buck or two. i didn't ride much at all before this time.
i started in a january with a short 6 mile commute. then my job was moved considerably farther out and i suffered for this... then i would have some weekdays that i didn't ride at all.
then october rolls around and i reached a new fitness level where i wasn't wiped out by the commute and it was more invigorating.
it was on a particular day of october that i had a moment of happiness that i would otherwise missed out on if i weren't biking in.
the air was crisp, the sky was crystal clear showing a slice of moon and a billion stars (a rare treat for city folk), also there was a strong smell of burning leaves that i associate with childhood since we can't burn in town anymore, and i was just stoked to be there breathing it all in. i thought about how i might be grumbling my way into my car where i would curse other people as sped off to a place i really didn't want to get to. the bike seemed a better, more interesting way of getting there.

i soon had a similiar morning experience racing rainclouds in one of the following weeks and i was hooked on commuting ever since.
i have driven quite a few times and usually don't care for it. if i am sick it is a welcomed change but i don't let myself get too comfy for fear of losing the focus on why i do it. my payoff moments like these i describe are not daily, nor even weekly, but they are moments i otherwise would not have if i were to stop riding and that in itself is worth the pain of creating them.

i myself might not have the attention span to read all of that personal blathering but hopefully it was worth something to someone if not only to myself ;)

I have been told by a few psychiatrists and psychologists that ADD and ADHD is hereditary. I knew I had ADD, now my yongest son has it. We are very much alike. Very physical people.

I bike when I can, run 2-3 days per week. At the end of my work day, I have a excess energy that I need to get rid of. Running and biking help alot. It also gives me time to put my day in order without distractions.

I'm actually bipolar (well more like tripolar) and I do have ADD. And it's funny because I had the exact same conversation with my gf over dinner this summer. I was like, riding to work and trying not to die really zones everything out of my head. Well... unless some hot 19 year old in a wet t-shirt happens to be walking down the street.. I almost died because of her!

Clinically diagnosed and prescribed hyperactive kid right here. I have no proof and no strong theory as to why ADD/ADHD folks might be attracted to cycling, but I know it works for me. I also know that I get bored out of my head waiting for the train or bus and riding in a car makes me want to claw my eyes out.

So is it therapeutic? Hell if I know. I do know that it clicks for me and it's like fingernails on a chalkboard whenever I have to go somewhere other than by bicycle.

My wife says that my riding helps my ADD immensely and gets really upset when I tell her that I'm planning on driving in. Any kind of exercise makes a big difference Toasted. Glad you got back on the bike.

-Marcus

i don't think i qualify for clinical diagnosis of any kind, but apparently i'm not very normal either. it seems i think backwards or something. i know i have insane difficulties with the forwards, linear method of processing things in just about any other facet of life.

now you mention it, biking to work does actually help a great deal. i'm not even close to knowing why but i do have a theory. it's not like it changes my style of thought, but somehow it does seem to draw off a lot of whatever the excess is. now that i am thinking about it, i think that riding a bike is one of the few times i really get to use all that peripheral-processing neurology on a steady basis.

I am very likely either unipolar or bipolar, and am on both an antidepressant and antipsychotic. I know that cycling is definitely therapy. My wife has noticed that I *hate* driving now and will bike whenever possible. My commute sends me to a happy place (endorphin rush) that can last for hours, and not much will do that for me. In fact, a good 30 minute commute home, busting my butt the whole way, sends me into heaven. I absolutely love it. It also saves me from the aggrivation of putting miles on my already ancient car, and having to deal with being stuck in traffic.

If you're unipolar, would you be like that teacher from the Wonder Years?

It helps keep me from driving everyone else around me crazy. While I never was diagnosed as hyperactive or having ADD or ADHD, I am a very energetic, fidgety, high-strung person, and blasting off some energy on the way to work helps me sort myself out and be reasonable, and I'll often go on a lunchtime ride. Getting out to get some fresh air, get away from the office, get moving...it helps me get through the afternoon blahs, and again helps me sit still and not fidget like an itchy dog or chatter like a magpie at my co-workers. The ride home helps me put the work day behind me, to get into "off duty" mode, to slough off the annoyances of the day and be in a fit state to be around my husband and/or friends.

This is exactly why I don't believe in medicting 98% of "ADD" children.

If they're hyper, freakin' send em outside. Put em to work. Don't medicate their potential away, wear it away with sweat.


-unmedicated hyper-kinetic for 19 years.

I am not an expert, but cycling keeps a person focused on ONE task. The constant pedalin "drains" the urge for repetitive motion.

Think about it for a second ... in a 10 mile ride a person must pedal anywhere from 10 to 15 THOUSAND times. The urge from doing nonsensical repetitive tasks must be done by the time you finish your commute.

I do not think that a child can accomplish that kind of therapy in the classroom.

... mmm .... thinking of it ... I would get a track racing team staffed completelly by ADD sufferers. Think of the potential, for a fraction of the cost of doctors, medication, and miscelaneous treatment. The most severe cases could be champion sprinters!

I think for non ADHD/ADD riders the endorphin rush is therapeutic and addicting as well. More than most admit or even know.


There are other..um..."activities"....that help a lot with ADHD/ADD too. ;)

No.. it doesn't.
My gf and I frequently get distracted watching tv while we're doing it. It doesn't help.

Is this a subtle way of implying we're all in need of professional help?

That's beautiful. Explains why I ride, too. Those moments.

I'm not ADD. I'm not religious, either. But I have a theory based on the story of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were put to work--hard, physical labor--in the Garden of Eden tending the herds and farming the fields. My theory is that the modern elimination of hard work from our lives causes us all kinds of grief. We're supposed to work physically. It's what makes us feel good, whole, human. I love hiking and biking. The rhythmic movement calms and clarifies your mind no matter what your diagnosis. The simple, just being there moments help you feel alive. It's what we're supposed to do. That's why it makes us so happy. It's a little piece of paradise!

I concur. Nothing makes me happier than working out or working around the home.
Eating after working out is significantly more enjoyable than simply eating because you are hungry.

I do not have ADD. My brother does. Maybe I should sugest taking up cycling to help his ADD. My wife is bipolar and from time to time I have suggested that she take up cycling. According to her Doctors, exercise would help things out greatly.

I guess everyone is different. I was married to someone .....



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That's not what I meant, but "Bikeaholics" is Wednesdays at my house at 7:00pm. Bring snacks.

Maybe if I weren't such an NPR junkie I'd learn to focus....biking indulges my constant need to multitask--the need to exercise, the need to get to work, and the need to listen to Soterios Johnson....

this whole add thing is overblown. when I was a kid we never heard of add or kids on ritalin. we were outside the house, doing some activity. everyone paid attention in our class and do the work as assigned.

now everything has to be on medication. i guess you have to blame it on some disease or some brain chemical malfunction.

Just because you have never been directly affected by it doesn't mean it isn't real.

I was a plenty outdoor kid, rode bikes, mowed the lawn, swam, all that nonsense. Still a space cadet.

The prescription movement's a little alarming because it's just another quick-fix solution. I can speak personally that it made me a different person. Not better or worse, just a little different, and that's...confusing as a kid. On top of that, studies have shown that it really works best when combined with therapy, and yet too many parents don't also seek therapy.

Now why is it on the incrcease? Partly it's increased awareness but I suspect there's also a strong environmental correlation.

I agree. I think a lack of physical activity in the population is generally having a dismal effect on society as a whole, one bad apple and all that...

But why is it this way? My mom never wanted me to go outside and play because "girls shouldn't get all hot and sweaty" so I was lethargic, obese, and extremely hyper...it's almost like taking a battery and charging it but not letting any of the energy it gathers go anywhere or be used. It all just builds up until it explodes. Maybe that's why crime's on the rise...it's the only way to get all the excess energy out of the way.

As I understand it, there are two ways that vigorous daily exercise helps manage ADHD. (Note I am not a medical professional but have done a fair bit of research and reading w/r/t addiction, depression, and ADHD)

#1- in the short term, exercise provides a prolonged dopamine/endorphin release which just "feels good" and helps calm the restlessness and irritability that plague ADHDers

#2 - in the longer term, exercise helps to beef up the dopaminergenic pathways (just like your thighs!). This combats one of the neurobiologic roots of ADHD, that the physical structures that generate, transmit, and absorb DA (dopamine) in the brain are less developed than those of non-affected people. So it's very beneficial to improve DA 'fitness' because it makes each instance of #1 work better, in addition to helping baseline (non-exercising) concentration.

Some good links:
http://www.mastersofpediatrics.com/c...lecture5_1.asp

and everything off:
http://info.nature.com/cgi-bin24/DM/...BWgI0Cv0oeT0Ez

It sure doesn't look like everyone paid attention in class, did you maybe skip some English classes? I for one have been greatly helped by being on medication and wish someone would have given me that option when I was younger. As mentioned before, just because you've never experienced something doesn't mean you know what's going on in someone else's head. I would bet that there were more than a few kids in your classes who were having trouble staying focused that got labeled as problem kids.

And at the very least could you hit the 'shift' key every now and then and capitalize the beginning of your sentences, show us that you learned something when you were paying attention in class.

-Marcus

I agree, It's both. I did read something about a study that rasied a suspicion about an envrionmental factor. It was at least a year ago. I can't find it. Does that sound familiar to you ?

I don't think that there is a rise in ADD/HD, I think it is only more recently being diagnosed. As stated before there was a time when the characteristics of ADD could be a benefit, boundless energy, changing focus. It is only recently when people are being asked to become more like machines in the workforce that we are seeing this increase in problems. When I finished school and became a bike messenger my ADD symptoms went away. After riding 200 miles a week I didn't have any energy to stress or worry, all I had to do was focus on the tasks at hand (ride hard, deliver packages, smile at clients.) All very straight forward, it is only now when I'm asked to sit in front of a computer and do rote tasks that it gets difficult. I believe there needs to be a discussion of the benefits of people afflicted with ADD/HD, just like we recognize people with excellent math skills make good CPAs. For example, the CEO of Jet Blue is a self confessed ADD sufferer.

Anyways, I know that without meds and cycling I wouldn't be married and successful today. Maybe there is a problem of over medicating children, but just because some kids are over medicated doesn't mean that there aren't kids who benefit from being on meds. As an aside, it certainly doesn't help young kids that recess and gym class are being cut in favor of more test preparedness.

-Marcus

An article in Pediatrics about a year ago suggested a direct correlation between childrens' exposure to TV between the ages of 1.5 and 3.5 and then subsequent ADHD at age 7.

They were Danish kids--and only 2% of Danish kids that age watch TV, versus 50% (!) of American kids.

[PEDIATRICS Vol. 113 No. 4 April 2004, pp. 708-713

Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children]

That's it. NO wonder I could not find it, I read it at the doctors.