Babbling About: Your Brain Might Not Be Broken, Just Wired Differently

#215: Your brain isn’t a character flaw, and “lazy” is not a medical explanation. We’re pulling on a thread that a lot of people feel but rarely get clarity on: why your life can look like ADHD on the outside while the root cause might be dopamine signaling, sleep debt, stress overload, thyroid function, or shifting hormones.

I share what I learned from my own pharmacogenomic genetic testing and how to read the results without spiraling. We talk through key genes that show up in dopamine and mood conversations, including COMT (dopamine breakdown speed), ABCB1 (blood brain barrier transport and medication sensitivity), DRD2 (dopamine receptors), BDNF (neuroplasticity and learning), and the endlessly discussed MTHFR methylation pathway. The point isn’t to self-diagnose from a report, but to understand why focus can be effortless in high-interest moments and impossible when something is boring or draining.

Then we bring it back to what you can actually do this week: sleep support, morning sunlight, exercise, enough protein, novelty, and real social connection, plus a reality check that thyroid health and hormones can strongly shape brain chemistry. If you’ve been questioning whether it’s ADHD vs low dopamine, this will give you a clearer framework and a lot more self-compassion. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s been stuck in self-blame, and leave a review then tell me: what part of your motivation pattern finally makes sense?

Transcript

Welcome And ADHD Disclaimer

Johnna 0:00

All right, guys, welcome back to another episode of the Babbles Nonsense podcast. Last week we talked about something that apparently a lot of y'all resonated with, which I love. I love when we can all like get on a topic and just be like, wow, that just spoke to me. And we talked about ADHD versus low dopamine. And if you've ever had like 10 tabs open in your brain or unfinished projects, maybe even a random burst of motivation at midnight, and absolutely zero motivation to do the one thing that you actually need to do, that's when we start wondering what ex what exactly is going on in my brain. But before we go any further into this topic, I know we talked a little bit about it last week, but this is going to be more, I guess, quote unquote, scientific nerdy, if you will. But I wanted to say something really important, and that is ADHD is a very real condition that does affect millions of people that can significantly impact their daily life. So this episode is not meant to minimize that in any way. And if you are experiencing any symptoms like severe attention issues, impulsivity, or executive dysfunction, the most important thing that you can do is talk to a qualified healthcare provider to determine is this truly ADHD? Am I having burnout, low dopamine, or what what else could be going on? Um, but today we're going to get into something a little bit different than last week, but kind of a continuation of the topic. And that's that we're going to talk about brain chemistry and dopamine and how sometimes people experience symptoms that look similar to ADHD, but may actually be related to neurotransmitters, hormones, stress, sleep, or even genetics. And I did get my genetic testing back, so we're going to nerd out a little bit on that. So if you're interested in hearing part two, stay tuned. All right, guys. So like I said, this week on the episode, it's going to be a little bit more nerdy. Um it's not going to be conversation style. I'm going to try to make it as conversational as I can and not boring. But I did want to share my genetic results just because I've been talking about this journey of do I have ADHD versus low dopamine response? Um, and so obviously if I'm talking about genetics, and unless you're a geneticist or a pharmacist out there, then you're probably gonna be like, what is she even talking about? Kind of like I was. Even though I'm in healthcare, we don't really study genetics that often unless you like maybe specialize or go into it. So when I first looked at my report, I was like, what is this? What have I purchased? What have I done? Like this, like it's obviously written where you can understand it, but I thought I was gonna get a report that actually broke down my genes and told me how like dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine all worked in my brain. And then how like each medication's reacted with my genetics, which it does do that. It does all of that. But when you first look at it, you're kind of like, okay, here's all the medications. And then it tells you if you should take the normal dose, a lower dose, or shouldn't take it at all. Like, and then if you, if it has like a contraindication, like you should not take this medication at all with your genetics, it tells you kind of why. And then below that, it tells you like, um, what was it? How was it worded? It was talking about like emerging evidence. That's how they they worded it, meaning that they're interesting, but they aren't considered diagnostic or something doctors use to guide treatment just yet. Doesn't mean that it maybe it won't change in the future, but that's why they just call it emerging evidence with the genetic testing. But that this testing can still give insight into how our brains might function. And to me, that was what was the fascinating part and why I wanted to do it. So we're gonna kind of jump into some of the genes, and I hope I do not bore you guys to death, but hang in there with me. And before we jump straight into the genes, I just wanted to mention that I'm not talking about every gene that was listed, so y'all do not worry about that. I'm only listing a few that are connected to the dopamine and mood so that we just don't get lost in the weeds and then it's become like, okay, we are tired of hearing your genetic report. It's just gonna be, I think, four of them that we're gonna discuss. And then I'll probably have to do another episode if I decide to on how it ties in with all the like diagnoses and stuff like that. Um, so the one dopamine gene that you may have heard about or everyone kind of talks about is the I think they call it the COM T, which is C O M T, and it's responsible for breaking down dopamine in the brain. So with my results for this, it was called val slash met, and honestly don't know what that means, but what Chat GPT told me was that it basically means my dopamine breaks down or my dopamine breakdown speed is right in the middle. Um, so it doesn't, it's not super fast and it's not super slow. And the way I think of it is that some people's brain clear dopamine like really quickly, so they constant constantly feel like they're chasing stimulation, and other people hold on to dopamine a little bit longer and their brain stays stimulated longer, which mine sits somewhere in the middle, which makes sense when I think about like if I try to put my genetic testing to real life um possibilities, because I can go from being extremely productive and focused, especially like at work, like I'm very driven at work, to staring at a wall, wondering why why my brain suddenly stopped cooperating. And that's usually when I get home. Like if I'm at work and I'm super motivated for, you know, eight hours of the day, I'll be thinking like when I get up in the morning, I'm like, okay, awesome. I'm gonna go to work, I'm gonna come home, I'm gonna do laundry, I'm gonna clean the house, I'm gonna meal prep, I'm gonna do all these things that I wanted to do. I'm gonna sit down and read some more about a nutrition book that I'm interested in. And then I get home and I'm like, no, I'm good. And I've always thought, well, maybe I'm just being lazy today or something's going on. But now that I have this genetic report, I'm like, okay, well, it makes sense why if I'm focusing on something for eight hours, I've probably burned through the dopamine that I have because I'm just that intermediate metabolizer. And then we have um the drug transporter gene, which is ABC B1, and it's just apparently known as the drug transporter gene. And mine showed a T slash T variant. So this gene helps regulate how substances cross the blood-brain barrier. So what that means is that it can affect how strongly certain medications impact your brain. So people with this variant may experience stronger effects from certain psychiatric medications or drugs that act on the brain. And that doesn't mean that anything is wrong with you. Obviously, it's your genetics. We can't control that. It just means that our brains are responding differently, and sometimes adjustments have to be made. So, like, and again, on this report, it kind of shows you which drugs that they feel, you know, are gonna interact with these genes that I'm talking about, so that you can either lower the dose or maybe not take that certain medication altogether. And then we have the dopamine receptor gene, which is DRD2, and this gene codes for dopamine receptors. Mine came back with a normal expression, which means that my brain has a typical number of dopamine receptors, which, yay, good. We wouldn't want lower dopamine receptors because, you know, dopamine is very important, and then dopamine problems can come from when you don't have enough receptors because if you're not making enough dopamine, or maybe you're breaking it down too fast, or you have too few receptors, those things can cause, you know, a breakdown in dopamine, and you may experience um some ADHD, ADD, possibly depression, low motivation symptoms. So my results were pretty typical because it was right in the middle. And then there was another one, which was the BDNF, and this one controls something called brain-derived neurotropic factor. I hope I'm saying all these words right, guys. I don't know, your guess is as good as mine. But this basically helps your brain grow new neural connections. And so mine was a vowel slash vowel, which is again a typical version. And this gene is associated with learning, memory, and neuroplasticity, which I don't know if y'all have been on the tick of the talk lately. I have not, I'm still off of it. Um, but neuroplasticity is like a huge buzzword. I think I've heard it in so many of the medical shows I watch and heard it, and maybe it's just because, you know, your phone listens to us and it just changes your algorithm. I don't know, maybe. So if you're someone who loves learning new things or diving into into interesting topics, this one may be um the gene that's working for you. So you may have a very BD and F gene, which um tracks for me a little bit because once something truly engages my interest, I will go research it until I understand it completely. And I've mentioned on the podcast before like my passion with nutrition and thyroid health. So this just makes complete sense because I struggled with both of those things in my 20s. And I went out there and tried to grab every diet book, nutrition book, you know, thyroid book, listen to thyroid podcast, and I still do because it still interests me, and it will completely grab my attention just because I suffer with those things. And so it makes sense why I can sit there and read it for hours and it doesn't bore me, and I can do it for years, obviously, and I'm good with it. And then the other gene that probably you've heard of, and if you haven't, then go you. But it's the MTHFR gene. Um, it's the internet's favorite gene that they love to talk about. Um, they blame everything on this gene, it seems like, but for me, it came back completely normal, which is amazing because your MTHFR gene is your methylation pathway, which is apparently one of the body's most important biochemical processes. Um, so basically, methylation is the switch that turns things on and off in the body. It can help you regulate gene expressions, it can make and break down neurotransmitters, it can detoxify certain chemicals, processes hormones like estrogen, repairs your DNA, produces energy, it converts folate into active folate. So it does a lot of things, things, and it's very important for your body. And then how it directly is involved in producing and regulating neurotransmitters like the dopamine, serotonin, noroepinephrine is if your meth methylation is impaired, people may experience things like low dopamine, depression, anxiety, brain fog, and fatigue. And so this is where I'm just gonna read this straight from the research that I found because this is super nerdy and I don't know anything about it. But the key methylation gene that's your MTHFR, um, helps convert that folate into the active form, which is 5 MTHF. Um, that active folate is needed to create what's called, it's spelt SAME, but it's capital S A M, lowercase E, which is the body's main methyl donor. So SAME is used to produce um neurotransmitters. So basically how it goes is folate, MTHFR, methylation neurotransmitter. So if you can't convert this, that would be a problem because you wouldn't be able to get to the neurotransmitters, which is the dopamine, serotonin, um, and noroepinephrine. So going back, mine apparently is completely normal. So that's unfortunate for me and a little disappointing because it would have been convenient to be able to blame everything on the MTHFR gene. I could be like, oh, it's just that gene. I can't methylate. I'm just kidding, I'm glad I have a normal gene. Um, so basically, from all of this, like when we all take a step back and look at all of these results together, like symptoms, genetics, how you respond, the the big takeaway in all of this is just that brain chemistry is pretty normal in many ways, but genetics are only one piece of that puzzle. Um, because we all know by now, if you don't know, dopamine is also affected by a lot of things like sleep, hormones, thyroid function, stress, diet, inflammation, lifestyle, all the things that we really should be working on. And if you've ever listened to my podcast before, then you know that I've dealt with hypothyroidism and thyroid hormone plays a huge role in brain chemistry. So low thyroid can absolutely affect your dopamine signaling, which means symptoms that look like the ADHD might actually be something completely different. It may just be that your my thyroid's not optimized or going back to that low dopamine response. But what's funny about it all is that you still present the same way. So what's the what's the solution? Is it an ADHD medication? Is it raising your dopamine or is it optimizing your thyroid? I've also mentioned on this podcast before that I'm a terrible sleeper. I've been a terrible sleeper since I was born. Um I've always woken up multiple times a night, but it's recently over the past year, almost a year now, has gotten worse. And we're digging a little bit more into that on is it my hormones? Am I entering perimenopause? So I have another test I'll probably go over with y'all later. I did a um ZRT hormone cycle map, which you have to test your hormones every other day for a complete cycle to kind of know if they're, you know, rising and falling the way they should throughout the month, versus just a single blood test that's on one day of, you know, of your entire month. Um, but regardless of all that, like the funny realization while reading this report gave me a moment of self-reflection and it made me realize that my brain doesn't really struggle with focus, which I I knew that. And I even told my doctor that when my therapist brought up like possibly having ADHD, um, because I experience other symptoms with it. My brain struggles more if something is boring to me and not interesting to me. So if something is truly interesting or intriguing to me, I will focus on it for hours. And if it's not, then well, you know, my brain's just gonna be like, nope, cut that off. You've lost Wi-Fi, no signaling, exit the group chat. So if dopamine plays a role in motivation, how do we support it? And that's some of the biggest dopamine um boosters that we have to talk about are actually very simple. And that is, you know, exercising, getting out in direct sunlight. And I know we talk a lot in today's culture about like stay avoid the sun, and I still agree with that because skin cancer is real and sun damage is real, but there's a lot to be said about going out in the morning, like grounding, if you will, um, putting your feet on the ground, you know, barefoot, looking up at the um sun, not with your eyes open, guys. Please don't go blind, but just letting some sunlight directly hit you to kind of reset that cortisol melatonin pathway. And then high protein diet. So sometimes like in not to get off on a tangent, but like we don't need extremely amounts of high protein. Um, maybe I'll do a nutrition podcast. I haven't done one in a while. Um, but like you don't have to go ridiculously with the protein, but there are some people that just eat very low protein, a lot of women, because when we're just predicting what we eat, we think we're eating a little bit more than we are, and sometimes we're not. Um, adding some novelty and learning to your life. So, you know, trying to get those spikes by getting something that interests you that's new in your life, sleep, which I'm working on that, guys. I am working on that. If I ever find a solution, I will let you know. And another one is social connection. So I know I like to be an introvert a lot of times. I like to just stay home and do my own thing, but I also know it's really good to get out and socialize with your friends, maybe make some new friends, which I hate doing because social anxiety. Um, and then they, you know, research has said like cold exposure, um, intense workouts like HIP cardio can stimulate dopamine release. I personally, for me, don't love the idea of cold exposure. And I've just listened to some podcasts um that talk about women and cold exposure affecting them differently than it does men. And if you have thyroid issues, there's a whole thing on that, which we won't kind of get into too much because we've already been a little nerdy on this podcast today. Um, but that makes sense why people say after they cold plunge or they went, you know, for a really hard workout that they feel better afterwards because your brain is rewarding you for giving them that dopamine hit. But I truly think the biggest lesson from all of this is something that we talked about in last week's episode, and that's how we are very quick to label ourselves, whether that be, you know, lazy, unmotivated, distracted, we have ADHD. Um, but sometimes I think it's just our brain chemistry just works a little differently than other people's. And the more we realize that, like, I think we forget in society how truly different we are as humans because we all sometimes try to be the same. And I'm not saying like be the same, like whether that be creatively or anything like that, but like maybe like we're trying to be the same, like looks-wise, and we're we're trying to do things that we think society will approve of. But really, we all are unique, even down to our brain chemistry. Obviously, our genetics, no one's genetics are exactly alike unless you're twins. Um, but I think once we understand that about the human experience, then we can try to work with it instead of against it. But yeah, if your brain feels chaotic, unmotivated, or like it needs constant stimulation, it might not be that you're broken. You might just have a brain that processes dopamine a little differently. Um, but anywho, if you listened to last week's episode and thought, wow, this sounds like me, then you're not alone. Our brains are incredibly complex and we're still learning how genetics, hormones, environment, and lifestyle all interact with this. But the more we understand about how our brain works, the more compassion we can have for ourselves and others. But honestly, I think having the compassion and realizing that we all have our own human experience and we are all our all are unique in our own ways, that is probably the most important part. So it doesn't matter if you're diagnosed with ADHD or low dopamine or whatever other diagnosis you have. I say just dive into it, research it, learn it. Maybe if you can get a genetic test and have a doctor explain it to you so that you can kind of understand yourself just a little bit better. And that way you can maybe also look at it and go, oh, that's why I do what I do because of my genetics and my brain chemistry. And it just makes us who we are. Now it doesn't excuse it, so I want to just put that little caveat out there. Um, if you're being mean or irritable or angry and you're like, oh, well, that's fine because my brain chemistry is wired that way. It doesn't excuse certain behaviors, but it can also it can definitely explain it. And I sometimes for me, like just having an explanation, I've told y'all before, I'm a very inquisitive person. I ask why a lot. It can come across as rudely. But once I understand a why behind something, I'm like, oh, that makes complete sense. And then I can kind of just take it from there. But anyways, guys, if you've come in there for this entire podcast, I really appreciate you. So until next time. Bye.