Besides Accepting Yourself with your ADHD or ADD what can you do?

The clip below describes what living in a family with an attention deficit child might be like. What do you do for your child? How does that affect the rest of your family and most iportantly, your child?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1hoNU02iXk&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Let’s assume for the moment that you accept yourself. Let’s assume that if your child has ADHD or ADD that you have communicated enough love and acceptance that he loves himself, then what do you do about ADHD?

The critical issue is are there interventions which are effective at addressing the core symptoms of inattention or hyperactivity?

For example, medication addresses the core symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity, but when the meds wear off the brain is the same, the problem behavior comes back.

Additionally, there’s a problem with ADHD drug abuse or stimulant abuse in high schools. The state of Indiana recently released research that showed that high school kids are increasing their abuse of stimulant medications, ADHD meds. They are selling them to other kids who are not diagnosed with ADHD or ADD and use them to cram for tests. This abuse is a problem and yes there is a risk of dependence. Yet, ADHD medications do work. Research has found this consistently in that it improves behavior.

Also, the side effects caused by these medications are problem. Concerted side effects Adderall side effects, Ritalin side effects, Strattera side effects, all these meds have side effects. I call the process the “side effects shuffle.” I’ve discussed this before. It means you try one med until you don’t like those side effects. You try another until, you guessed it, you don’t like the side effects. Then you try another and so on. The process can take weeks or years or decades. Yet, rarely is it totally avoidable.

This is why I sought out treatments for ADHD that did not include medication. Often parents investigate nutrition and its impact on ADHD symptoms. Some even make bold claims. Watch closely, those who make bold claims are not scientists, they are not scientist-practitioners, they are not researchers. We are much more circumspect in our use of language due to the constraints of empirical research. However, when I reviewed the research on the impact of nutrition upon ADHD or ADD there’s just not enough research to be conclusive from an empirical point of view (from a researcher’s mindset – I am trained as a ‘scientist-practitioner’ so this empirical point of view is where my mind is grounded). So the results with using nutrition from my point of view are not well-substantiated.

Other people have tried different natural remedies for ADHD or ADD and again, most of these are not well supported. One area which has some support but there’s controversy about it is EEG biofeedback. I have used this approach myself with clients. I have had success. However, I do not believe the results generally found in the research literature on EEG biofeedback applied to ADHD are as compelling as the research that I’ve seen on training working memory.

Learning to manage your ADHD has some positive impact on your functioning, but it does not change the core symptoms of inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity. However, interventions which actually increase your working memory which results in a better ability to maintain your attention affects the core symptom of inattention. So, although people want to feel good about themselves and don’t want to be diagnosed and stigmatized. You should accept yourself. You should accept your child, of course. However you also ought to include investigating whether a relatively novel approach like training working memory has substance to it and realize the constraints on scientists, researchers, and scientist-practitioners is dramatically different than those who purport unregulated supplements or other such products.

To simply say embrace ADHD or ADD is in ineffective and unsatisfying answer. Come up with a plan to do something about it. Part of that plan may be to not say negative things to yourself which is certainly a good thing to learn to do. However to simply pretend that there is not an issue seems silly. Investigating whether training working memory has research backing it and substance to its effectiveness is a much more satisfying, healthy and ultimately functional response.

Charles Shinaver, Ph.D.

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