Great outdoors may ease ADHD symptoms

[Guest]

I was also right about the sunlight effecting my high because I found an article showing the brighter the sunlight the more serotonin is released which will enhance the high being that it's a neurotransmiter.

Here's the article:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12480364&dopt=Abstract

Effect of sunlight and season on serotonin turnover in the brain.

* Lambert GW,
* Reid C,
* Kaye DM,
* Jennings GL,
* Esler MD.

Human Neurotransmitter Laboratory and Alfred and Baker Medical Unit, Baker Heart Research Institute, PO Box 6492, St Kilda Road Central, Victoria 8008, Melbourne, Australia. [email protected]

Alterations in monoaminergic neurotransmission in the brain are thought to underlie seasonal variations in mood, behaviour, and affective disorders. We took blood samples from internal jugular veins in 101 healthy men, to assess the relation between concentration of serotonin metabolite in these samples and weather conditions and season. We showed that turnover of serotonin by the brain was lowest in winter (p=0.013). Moreover, the rate of production of serotonin by the brain was directly related to the prevailing duration of bright sunlight (r=0.294, p=0.010), and rose rapidly with increased luminosity. Our findings are further evidence for the notion that changes in release of serotonin by the brain underlie mood seasonality and seasonal affective disorder.

 

[Guest]

As an update to my experiment.

Everyday the last 3 days I have gone to a park for at least an hour. Sometimes 2.
On those days I noticed I felt pretty good. But it was still too early to tell.

But today I went trailrunning, to an area where there was no one there...no buildings...just wilderness. I hiked/trailrunned/and just kinda wandered around a bit. At times I really felt myself kinda "losing touch" with civilization... a sublte shift of my consciousness.

I was only out there 2 hours. But today has just been great. I took a little nap that was EXTREMELY refreshing. I have been really productive around the house... I feel like I took caffeine or something, but I didn't. I just feel good. More focused, etc.

So I will keep this up. I think tomorrow I will wake up early, before the masses get up, to go to a local park and run around. I think just being in a nice green field with trees, without the sound of traffic and tons of people, will be similar to being out in the wilderness. For me, its about having space and privacy. I love being in non-crowded areas, because you just can't get that in the city.

Now I know one reason my mom wakes up so early to go walking in the morning. Its so much more peaceful when no one has woken up yet... and you can pretend for that precious hour that the world is quiet and there aren't so many people living around you!

I can't wait to see any more benefits from this simple change.

 

[I Used To Grow]

I don't have ADHD..but I do know that being outdoors makes me feel a whole lot better.

In fact..just tonight, I took a trip with a friend up to a mountain near town and checked out the view of the galaxy and the town...of course we smoked some herb while checking out the views..we both agreed that we felt a lot better after just chilling and smoking a couple bowls while observing the sky and town lights...maybe just getting out of town for an hour was all it takes?

 

[Guest]

IUTG - Thats awesome. I think some of it is just escaping the chaos that urban life creates.

I feel myself expand when Im in the wilderness. Its like after realizing I have more room to breath, something slowly expands out of me. Maybe its my spirt, subtle energies, whatever...but I feel it.

I think we need this. In all our humanity, it has only been recently that we decided it was good living in a dense 1 million plus city. You get the picture. Everywhere you go, there is gridlocked structure. Road, concrete, automobiles. Its not like you can just step out of your house and have expansiveness. Its all constricted. I think its possible our environments can make us a bit crazy. Thats kinda a given. I mean, as much as I like the beauty of gridlocked rush hour traffic....

This morning I went to a local park. I was going to wake up at 6:30, but ended up staying in bed until 8. And I paid for it. By the time I finally got to the park, it seemed the world had already awakened. Cars were going by, there were people there, even some guy flying his model airplane.

The point is, it was too crowded already. I think if you want to experience the feeling of the wilderness in a city, you have to wake up before everyone else. That way there is less people, less noise... just a peacefulness, the best you can find in the middle of the city.

But yeah, getting out of a town is a great idea.

 

[Deft]

I've used nature to quiet my rapid mind since I was 3 years old, its funny that they just figured that out clinicaly, I would have thought everyone knew. My private teachers in grade school (rich town, spend a lot on individuals with learning "problems") would take me to ponds and nature walks since they knew it too.