Makes sense that methylphenidate helps with most of the things associated with classical ADHD symptoms but not with clumsiness that can lead to accidental injuries; or, in my case, just bruises on my shins all the time.
Only personal anecdata, but I’ve observed that I’m far less accident prone since I was diagnosed and have had consistent treatment. I noticed it without prompt, and it never occurred to me before that there would be any correlation.
I’ve also noticed I’m much less accident prone since I’ve been sober, which came a couple years later. I couldn’t say for certain which event correlates with a more pronounced improvement, but both have been quite pronounced.
That said, yes, I can still relate to bruised shins! I’m less accident prone, but still pretty far from immune.
I don't really disagree with you but I wonder how the thwarted sense of "my body in the world" is so connected to ADHD while not being connected at all to executive functioning (which in my perception is what amphetamines help with).
My understanding is that motor coordination is a mostly separate issue from attention regulation and task completion, so it would make sense that a stimulant would address focus and impulsivity (as well as suicidality and criminality by proxy of those) but not clumsiness. Also, one can have ADHD without being clumsy, but being clumsy alone does not quality for ADHD.
I could be completely wrong, but hopefully that explains my take better. I'd be happy for someone to correct me.
Not a fan of "clumsy" reminds me too much of "lazy"...
Anyway, back on topic: I wonder if there are 2 specific neurodivergencies going on that got wrapped up into ADHD, but only one actually has to do with executive functioning and serotonin (the 70% that get helped by amphetamines) while the other has to do with sensory and body awareness stuff.
If they have high enough co-morbidity or are weirdly co-morbid so that we never see the body stuff unless the person has ADHD we might have a difficult time seeing them as 2 different things that might be close by brain-location or gene-expression or something.
There are murmurs around me about celiac disease being related to ADHD and autism so that would be another thing in the neurodivergent body area
My hypothesis - body awareness and injury avoidance is learned and ADHD folks have a less effective reward loop. While the meds help with the reward loop, the person has decades of catching up to do for body awareness.
ADHD is strongly associated with inattentiveness and daydreaming so it's not that surprising that people who are daydreaming or not paying attention tend to get injured walking or driving into thinks more often
It only didn’t help with the first incident of accidental injuries (makes sense, almost everyone has one early on regardless) but it was still also associated with reduced recurrence
honestly I only find that happens when the medication is wearing off. I'm much more spatially aware when its working and that leads to fewer accidental injuries, I see a huge difference in my driving, parking, etc.
