<story><title>High IQ linked to drug use</title><url>http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/14/high-iq-linked-to-drug-use/?hpt=hp_t2</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tomlin</author><text>As someone who suffers from ADHD-PI, I can&apos;t help but wonder a possible co-relation here. Before my occasional marijuana use a few years ago, I wasn&apos;t aware of my concentration issues. Like many others, I thought I was just lazy or unmotivated. When smoking marijuana for the first time, my friends lay around unmotivated and relaxed while I couldn&apos;t stop thinking about working on one of my many &quot;one day&quot; projects. This eventually lead me to getting tested for ADHD. Now I am on pharma, but the benefits appear the same.&lt;p&gt;I feel like drugs helped me realize a lot about myself. While I am not so sure IQ is a reliable measurement, I can definitely say I can handle a lot more information and make good use of that information much better than I had ever before.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve done some research on brain wave activity and dopamine receptors/activity. It seems that people with ADHD tend to have misaligned brain wave activity and stimulants manage to align this activity up to a point. My theory, from my own experiences, is that there is an optimal brain wave frequency and people with ADHD are suffering from dopamine deficiency that skews below optimal frequency, and too much dopamine activity skews above optimal frequency. Further, I&apos;ve noted that those who experience drugs as a depressant tend to have normal dopamine activity whereas those who experience drugs as a stimulant appear to have low dopamine activity. It&apos;s just a wild theory with no medical evidence - I&apos;m just trying to understand the pattern. I would love to hear others chime in here and adjust my theory as necessary.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve been told that alcohol or marijuana makes one drowsy or lazy. For me, it stimulates - until a point - then I also become drowsy and lazy. This is where I believe I&apos;ve gone past optimal dopamine activity. For the average person with normal dopamine activity, passing this threshold seems to happen much sooner.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ihnorton</author><text>There is some evidence that methylphenidate (ritalin) effects wave activity (synchronization/latency) see eg (not paywalled): &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v21/n2/full/1395347a.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v21/n2/full/1395347a.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;For some background see here:
&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P200&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P200&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>High IQ linked to drug use</title><url>http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/14/high-iq-linked-to-drug-use/?hpt=hp_t2</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tomlin</author><text>As someone who suffers from ADHD-PI, I can&apos;t help but wonder a possible co-relation here. Before my occasional marijuana use a few years ago, I wasn&apos;t aware of my concentration issues. Like many others, I thought I was just lazy or unmotivated. When smoking marijuana for the first time, my friends lay around unmotivated and relaxed while I couldn&apos;t stop thinking about working on one of my many &quot;one day&quot; projects. This eventually lead me to getting tested for ADHD. Now I am on pharma, but the benefits appear the same.&lt;p&gt;I feel like drugs helped me realize a lot about myself. While I am not so sure IQ is a reliable measurement, I can definitely say I can handle a lot more information and make good use of that information much better than I had ever before.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve done some research on brain wave activity and dopamine receptors/activity. It seems that people with ADHD tend to have misaligned brain wave activity and stimulants manage to align this activity up to a point. My theory, from my own experiences, is that there is an optimal brain wave frequency and people with ADHD are suffering from dopamine deficiency that skews below optimal frequency, and too much dopamine activity skews above optimal frequency. Further, I&apos;ve noted that those who experience drugs as a depressant tend to have normal dopamine activity whereas those who experience drugs as a stimulant appear to have low dopamine activity. It&apos;s just a wild theory with no medical evidence - I&apos;m just trying to understand the pattern. I would love to hear others chime in here and adjust my theory as necessary.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve been told that alcohol or marijuana makes one drowsy or lazy. For me, it stimulates - until a point - then I also become drowsy and lazy. This is where I believe I&apos;ve gone past optimal dopamine activity. For the average person with normal dopamine activity, passing this threshold seems to happen much sooner.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pingu</author><text>What medication gave you the same benefits as weed, if you don&apos;t mind me asking?&lt;p&gt;My experiences very closely match yours, fwiw. 
I tried Ritalin but wasn&apos;t satisfied at all, and am &apos;back on&apos; weed.</text></comment>