Treating ADHD Without Stimulants

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Hi, thanks for the great information.

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Great info. Thanks!

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A great resource - many thanks!

choice to not medicate interferes with son getting ieps in oho school

My senior student cant get the extra help he needs because the teachers at one dublin ohio school believe he isnt LD with out being on meds to quote help correct his problem. Why isnt it his choice how bad he feels each day? Dublin city school needs to read up on kids with LD rights. If he cant get into college then what?

Experienced ADHD Teenager

I was diagnosed in fifth grade im 17 now and i was instantly put onto the meds the meds are horrible, ive gone through ritalyn, adderall, and concerta. all high doses i hate em. i feel like a zombie. dont let ur kids take the meds. get em an ADHD coach like i got, she helped me immensely, look up Sally Curran somewhere shes amazing. I went from my gpa average of 1.4 all the way up to 2.5 and now i can go to a UC. ADHD coaches help you cope with social, family, school, organizational, hw problems, etc, etc. AMAzing

ADHD in Children & Teens

There are excellent manuals for parents on behavior management for children five thru 12. As a clinical psychologist I strongly recomment behavior management study (self-sudy) or training (from behavioral psychologists) for parents of young children before beginning meds. Unfortunately the article didn't mention resources for parents.

I have found that many parents accidentally reinforce ADHD type behavior in their children and don't realize it. And they often fail to reinforce on-task adaptive behavior. The task of the behavioral psychologist is to teach and demonstrate the basic behavior management rules as well as the four basic errors of behavior management. Then consider referring the child for meds.

Help ADHD children when they are young. It is easier to help children when they are young that when they are teens! A clinical psychologist

Why drug children?

How many here know that the checklist for AD(H)D and the checklist for giftedness are very much alike?

I'm sure that during my math classes in school any teacher would have branded me as ADD because I didn't pay attention. I was BORED! (I was also in accelerated classes.)

Lots of times hyperactivity can be attributed to age and/or gender. Under 7, it's normal to have ants in the pants--especially if you're a boy. How many have seen the boys/girls ratio in special ed classes? They're mostly BOYS!

How many cases of AD(H)D can simply be attributed to normal boy behavior?

How Do I Save My Child?

I have a beautiful 21 yr. old daughter (youngest of 7) who has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, ADHD, Tourette's Syndrome, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and BiPolar. She has been prescribed at least 20 different medications to treat some or all of her illnesses. If a medication works well for OCD, it increases problems with bipolar and on and on and on. She was once 4th in the U.S. in gymnastics and a competitive ballet dancer. She is no a SSI recipient who has had over 40 jobs in the past few years. She takes geodone, luvox and was recently prescribed 300 mg. of Adderall per day. SHe had an extremely violent mania episode which resulted in the breaking of a window. She faces charges of criminal damaging, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and assault of a police officer. Prior to this situation, she did not have a criminal history. Her first diagnosis was ADHD. The others have been added over the years. I am so sad for all the parents trying to help their children. It seems this area of medicine is "hit or miss".

ADD

Hi-

I am a 30 year old with ADD. I too found this article lacking in depth and insight.

People with ADD often have tremendous gifts, but because we are not normal and can't do a lot of normal things (like sit in class and take notes), we often fail at things other kids can do easily.

So here is the key: find out what your child's GIFTS are. Celebrate those. Nurture and develop those.

The key to a good life with ADD is developing strengths. Of course, working on weaknesses is important too (like organizational skills).

Michael Phelps (7-time gold medal winner at 2004 Olympics), David Neeleman (FOunder of JetBlue Airlines), and Paul Orfalea (CEO of Kinko's) are just three out of thousands of successful ADD adults who have accomplished great things.

Find those gifts and celebrate them....

Where does ADHD come from?

I believe that society of today is the creator of the ADHD epidemic.

We have heard the stories; teaching children at an early age will enhance and play an important part in their brain development. From the beginning, a child is like a sponge, absorbing, learning, growing and developing their brain in response to their surrounding environment. So why do we have so many more cases now than ever before?

I feel that the development of child’s brain in the early years is being modified by too much non interactive visual stimulation. Since the 60’s, society as created non-thinking, visual addiction and we adults have been programmed to continue this downward spiral. We will actually use the TV as a babysitter/entertainment to occupy our kids and feed our own addiction.

Just watch a child looking at a tv or video game. They are inattentive to their surroundings and their energy level is not being used, creating the hyperactive effect we see in kids. This along with the antiquated teaching process that the schools use, by wanting kids to sit all day, behave and stay quiet, plus our adult world of moving faster and faster and us adults being exausted, is making our children be diagnosed with ADHD. After all if it does not fit the mold, then something must be wrong with it.

This is what is creating the health demise of our generation, with obesity, depression, and yes lack of attention(ADD). We use to only have this in our homes, and only at night. Now we see it 24 HRS a day, all around us, in the car with HD tv, video games, computers, internet, and on us with ipod, MP3 players and cell phones.

Corporate society in the attempts to make a buck is actually hurting the human body. But in the end it's us, with our addiction, that is the problem. Life around us is boring, we need to have more excitement, more speed, more of everything because if we don't we become depressed. Gee, it sounds almost like the symptoms of an addict when they can’t get their fix.