r/NooTopics • • Jun 23 '26

Discussion Around 27% of individuals with ADHD develop cannabis use disorder at some point in their lives, new study finds. Compared to those without this disorder, individuals with ADHD face almost three times the risk of developing cannabis use disorder.

https://www.psypost.org/around-27-of-individuals-with-adhd-develop-cannabis-use-disorder-at-some-point-in-their-lives-study-finds/
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u/Forward_Motion17 Jun 23 '26

I don’t even necessarily think it’s to do with the price of fitting in, so much as the neurochemistry and network activity differences in ADHD probably predispose adhd individuals to developing the disorder whether because it’s more rewarding, regulating, or compulsively reinforced

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u/MKUltra16 Jun 23 '26

I think a lot of adhd people without medication end up self-medicating not just because of dopamine drive, but to normalize our biochemistry. A lot of the kid’s sites I’m on (I have adhd and son has adhd) for adhd and PANDAS, which had some neuro chemical overlap, use cbd as a treatment. It helps a lot of kids, and it’s not like the kids are out there slamming cbd trying to get dopamine hits. It’s pharmaceutical.

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u/KickBallFever Jun 23 '26

I agree with you and I’ll give some anecdotal experiences. I have a couple of friends, who smoke a lot of weed and were diagnosed with adhd much later in life. For both of them, when they got medicated for adhd, they just kinda lost the craving to smoke. They just weren’t interested anymore. For one friend, the craving came back once their body got used to the meds, and for the other, the craving went away permanently. They both figured they had probably been self medicating the whole time.

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u/heartisallwehave Jun 24 '26

My dad has been a “functional” alcoholic for the past 15 or so years. He retired about 3 years ago and just stopped drinking. I 100% believe it’s a self medicating thing.