In our look, over the past few weeks, at the problem of ADD/ADHD misdiagnosis we came across some possible causes that seemed very straightforward and logical when you stop to think about them. I suppose most intelligent people would be able to come up with the hypothesis that giftedness or lack of sleep could cause symptoms akin to those of ADD/ADHD if they analyze the issue for a while. There are however some possible causes for ADD/ADHD misdiagnosis that are so ‘strange’ and unexpected that they remain undetected for years or even decades.
Take a look at the following, real life, scenario for example: A young boy’s behavior changes so radically that his parents are almost stunned by what they are seeing. He turns from being a laid back, easy to get along with, boy to being almost uncontrollable in a matter of weeks. The parents struggle to understand why their normally compliant and obedient son now responds to them with fits of rage and erratic and impulsive behavior. They do what any concerned parent would do by seeking professional help. The diagnosis of the medical professionals is depressingly predictable and familiar: ADD/ADHD. The parents make the decision to medicate their son and for a time things seem to go a bit better. They continue to struggle with some nagging doubts however. Why was the onset of the ‘symptoms’ so sudden? Why did they have to keep ‘upping’ the medication to the stage where their son got dizzy from it? Why did they not see some of the classic predictors of ADD/ADHD during earlier developmental stages? These questions keep them on a quest to find out if something else could perhaps be going on.
The answer that they come up with astounds them and shows that all the ‘experts’ who so confidently diagnosed ADD/ADHD were in fact dead wrong. The story above describes the experience of Jenny Miner and her son Kenny and it has implications for just about anyone struggling with the ‘symptoms’ of ADD/ADHD. It turns out that Kenny’s problem was not neurological or behavioral but bacterial!
There are two very specific types of bacteria bartonella and babesia that congregate around blood cells and cause exactly the symptoms traditionally associated with ADD/ADHD. Both babesia and bartonella are transmitted by tick bites and are carried by ticks all over North America. This means that they could be the ‘hidden driver’ behind many erroneous ADD/ADHD diagnoses.
