The Complex Neurological Picture behind ADD/ADHD
This ‘popularization’ of ADD/ADHD in North American culture helps no one. Not the people trying to rationalize their own behavior and certainly not those who are actually affected by the condition. Trivializing the condition can have some very significant negative outcomes including the following:
* Over and Misdiagnosis: We are fast approaching a point where the existence of any behavioral or attention problems will be automatically ascribed to ADD/ADHD unless proven otherwise! This is obviously a very unhealthy situation as it leads to people being unnecessarily medicated and also to potentially serious conditions being missed due to hasty and sloppy misdiagnoses.
* Increased rates of medication: Increasing rates of diagnosis will inevitably lead to more and more people being medicated in an attempt to combat the condition. This is not a hypothetical danger. The increased rate of prescription for ADD/ADHD drugs over the past few decades is nothing short of staggering. This would perhaps not be so much of a problem if the drugs were essentially benign and effective. I am convinced however that they are neither. They do not treat the root causes of the condition and they have some very dangerous side effects.
* Lack of help for true ADD/ADHD cases: The massive rates of ADD/ADHD overdiagnosis in our society are having profound negative effects on those who are actually suffering from the condition. This is because the media paints ADD/ADHD as a very simple problem with a very simple solution (i.e. medication!). This simplistic approach means that the condition is often not addressed properly as people buy the line that band-aid solutions would be sufficient to counter it.
One of the best ways out of the quagmire of ADD/ADHD misdiagnosis would be the application of much more stringent criteria before a conclusion is reached. After such a conclusion is reached care should also be taken to address the condition with a multi facetted and individualised approach. Thankfully it seems as if the day of accurate diagnoses (hopefully with a corresponding decrease in misdiagnoses) is drawing nearer.
Growing Awareness of the Potential Effectiveness of Drug-free treatments for ADD/ADHD
Most major drug companies would like us to believe that there is only one possible route that we can take after the diagnosis of ADD/ADHD. This route is the one that always ends in the prescription of powerful drugs with which to ‘manage’ the condition. There is, however, a growing realisation that these drugs are not the miracle cures that parents are so often promised.
Research is pointing to the following very troubling consequences of long term ADD/ADHD drug use:
• Stunted growth
• Loss of long term motivation
• Mood swings (Leading, in very extreme cases, to suicidal thoughts)
• Substantial risk of abuse and addiction
As if the above were not bad enough it is becoming clear that the effectiveness of these drugs decrease over time. They are therefore often not much more than temporary ‘band aids’ and do not make any difference to the underlying causes of the condition. These facts are causing more and more people to ask the question: “Is there not a better way!?†Here at ‘3 Steps ADD’ we have always answered the question with an enthusiastic ‘Yes’. This is, in fact, exactly what the three steps are about: A better, natural, way to cope with and triumph over ADD/ADHD.
Pharmaceutical companies tried very hard over the years to paint those who advocate natural responses to the condition as being part of a lunatic fringe. This is getting harder and harder to do as modern research is pointing to some real successes with natural approaches.
The fact that there are a number of treatment options that can produce positive outcomes points to the fact that every person is unique. Different techniques will therefore work for different people. It is also a confirmation of the emerging scientific consensus that ADD/ADHD is not a single unified condition but rather a range of conditions. It therefore makes perfect sense that different ‘ types’ of ADD/ADHD will have to be treated in different ways.
