ADHD: It Is Not Excess Energy — It Is Poor Channelisation of Energy

ADHD: It Is Not Excess Energy — It Is Poor Channelisation of Energy

Prof Dr Santosh Kondekar Autism Doctor Mumbai, Autism doctor India 9869405747

MD DNB DCH FCPS DNB FAIMER,fellowship Pediatric neurology & Epilepsy,

Diploma Developmenatl Neurology CDC Kerla ,prof Pediatrics T N Medical College Mumbai, Director AAKAAR CLINIC Byculla west Mumbai INDIA, mobile: 91-9869405747

Affiliation: Cognitive Neurosciences for Autism & ADHD, Website: www.autismdoctor.in, email: autismdrmumbai@gmail.com

Children with ADHD are often described as having “too much energy.”

However, Dr Kondekar says that most of these children do not actually have excess energy. The real difficulty lies in the brain’s inability to channelise available energy toward organised thinking and purposeful actions.

Because the brain struggles to organise attention and control impulses, the available energy often leaks out as excessive movements such as fidgeting, running, jumping, or constant body activity.

Thus, what appears as hyperactivity is often energy being wasted through movements rather than being used for thinking, listening, and learning.

What True “Excess Energy” Looks Like

Energy can be called truly excessive only when it is expressed through controlled, planned, structured, or choreographed actions.

Dr Kondekar insists that excess energy should be visible through organised performance, not random activity.

Examples include:

1. Sustained sports performance with team spirit

Playing sports where the child participates with a goal, follows rules, and coordinates with teammates, rather than simply running around alone without direction or purpose.

2. Disciplined physical training with hierarchical development

Physical activity should involve stepwise skill development, where one level leads to the next. It is not merely walking, running, or climbing randomly, but building organised physical abilities progressively.

3. Dance or coordinated movement with learning of new steps

True coordination involves learning and progressing to the next step each time. Impulsive children often struggle with this sequential progression, so their movements become random dancing that wastes time and energy without building coordination.

4. Structured play requiring sequencing and timing

Activities such as role-play or story-based play, where the child must follow a sequence to complete a story or task, help develop organised thinking, timing, and purposeful engagement.

In ADHD, however, the difficulty is different. Because of impatience and impulsivity, the brain struggles with sequential organisation and harmony of actions, and the available energy fails to get channelised into meaningful activity.

Why Exhausting the Body Does Not Improve Learning

Many people believe that hyperactive children should run more, play more, or exercise until they become tired.

Dr Kondekar warns that exhausting the body is not the same as improving attention or cognition.

When the body becomes tired, the brain also becomes tired.

When the body is fresh, the brain is also fresh and receptive.

Heavy physical exertion releases metabolic by-products that may cause fatigue or lethargy, but lethargy does not mean improved attention. A tired child may move less, but the brain is not necessarily more ready to learn or process information.

A Common Challenge in ADHD Management

It is often difficult to convince therapists and caregivers that exhausting energy is different from channelising energy.

Dr Kondekar says that just because a child likes to climb, jump, or run constantly, it does not mean the child has the potential to become an athlete.

In many ADHD children, these behaviours simply represent undirected and impulsive wastage of energy.

When impulsiveness settles and attention improves, the child begins to:

understand instructions

follow sequences

organise actions step by step

sustain effort toward a goal

Only then can the same physical energy transform into structured skill, and real potential for sports or coordinated performance may appear.

Random Activity vs Meaningful Development

Activities such as:

walking or running repeatedly

climbing structures in a room or garden

swimming without structured goals

skating without progressive learning

do not automatically channelise energy.

Dr Kondekar advises that physical activity becomes meaningful only when the child:

understands why the activity is being done

learns how to perform it properly

progresses hierarchically from one level to the next

Without this structure, the activity merely keeps the child occupied without developing attention or cognition.

The Arjuna Principle: Steady Body, Focused Mind

Focused cognition requires physical steadiness.

In the classic example of Arjuna aiming at the eye of the bird, the body was steady, the gaze was fixed, and the mind was focused on one target.

Constant movement interferes with:

stable eye focus

attentive listening

sustained cognitive processing

Dr Kondekar insists that when the body is constantly moving, the brain finds it difficult to maintain deep focus.

How ADHD Medicines Help

Medications used in ADHD help the brain organise and channelise energy more efficiently.

They work in two important ways:

1. Improve attention and cognitive processing

2. Reduce unnecessary hyperactive movements

Once impulsiveness settles, the child becomes capable of understanding instructions, maintaining eye focus, listening carefully, and learning structured concepts.

Engagement Is Not the Same as Development

A major mistake in many therapy programs is equating engagement with progress.

Keeping a child busy through unstructured therapies or physical classes just to keep the child engaged does not necessarily improve:

attention

cognition

learning ability

behavioural regulation

Dr Kondekar warns that engagement without structure often consumes time and energy without producing meaningful developmental change.

Core Principle

Dr Kondekar says:

Exhausting energy may reduce movements temporarily, but channelising energy improves thinking, learning, and self-control.

True developmental progress occurs when attention stabilises, movements become organised, and energy is directed toward purposeful learning.