You do have to learn how to drum in the first place, and it's not something that's unachievable. So I'd argue it's because you drum.
When I learned how to play in the first place, particularly with jazzy bands and all that, it honestly felt like the mental rigors of studying, since I was trying to incorporate rhythms, as well as breaking them, all while giving a steady heartbeat to the band playing with me. Learning different techniques, handling, sticking, getting to the point where hitting the drum head at the precise location for the precise sound needed was a lot of multitasking to keep in mind, while holding steady notes on a snare or a hi-hat.
And the point was to practice all of this until it became second nature, and you didn't have to keep any of it in mind as you played.
So it'd be more fair to say that drumming kinda rewrites the way you think and redirects certain aspects of your mental faculties.
When I learned how to play in the first place, particularly with jazzy bands and all that, it honestly felt like the mental rigors of studying, since I was trying to incorporate rhythms, as well as breaking them, all while giving a steady heartbeat to the band playing with me. Learning different techniques, handling, sticking, getting to the point where hitting the drum head at the precise location for the precise sound needed was a lot of multitasking to keep in mind, while holding steady notes on a snare or a hi-hat.
And the point was to practice all of this until it became second nature, and you didn't have to keep any of it in mind as you played.
So it'd be more fair to say that drumming kinda rewrites the way you think and redirects certain aspects of your mental faculties.