ADHD Natural Treatment
Posted By Vic on October 3, 2010
There are two reasons why I personally am against stimulant drugs, except as a last resort in extreme cases.
- I am a chemist and I do not believe we should mess with our brains’ biochemical balance in an artificial way.
- I have lived with ADD all my life, and only was diagnosed after my retirement. I learned coping skills by myself, as ADD had not yet been invented back then, so I know coping skills do work. I made some mistakes and bad decisions because of my ADD nature. Had I known about the effects of ADD I would have had a better self-insight and been able to control my impulsivity and make decisions based on understanding my impatience and frustrations. I would also have understood why I am different from most people and been able to relax more in concentrating on my strengths.
The Chemical Balance of the Brain
The chemicals we often hear about associated with ADHD, anxiety and depression are dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine.
When I read information on these chemicals in the context of ADHD, anxiety and depression, I shake my head in disbelief at how falsely the information is presented. Even most doctors do not understand. They have studied and have knowledge of the individual subjects, but are unable to connect the puzzle pieces and see the whole picture. They believe the sales spiel of the pharmaceutical industry. In fact many doctors get their knowledge of the drugs on the market from the pharmaceutical companies.
These are not individual chemicals acting independently in the brain, as is so frequently presented. Each one of these chemicals is a system of chemicals. Each system interacts with other organs in the whole body, not only within the brain. The systems also interact and are in harmony and balance with each other, or are thrown out of balance when one part of the harmony is disrupted. Only 5% (five) of Serotonin is in the brain, and the medicine affects the other 95% as well; which is the reason for side effects like weight gain, weight loss, nausea, stomach problems, etc.
Taking an antidepressant, or an ADHD stimulant drug, affects the reuptake of serotonin or dopamine. This means that you are artificially modifying one specific part of one of the system. This also means that that system is put out of balance. You may feel better, i.e. less depressed, but the side effects are the result of the system forced out of balance.
When one system is out of balance then the other systems are also affected. Taking a stimulant drug artificially helps you to focus, but your overall health is affected.
ADHD Natural Treatment
Supplements:
We who have ADHD do have certain stress factors in our lives and our individual metabolisms need more of certain nutrients than average folk do. Supplements are a good solution.
There are special formulations designed for Attention Deficit and hyperactivity. One such product, which has been shown in tests to be equal to stimulant medication such as Adderall and Ritalin, is Attend for attention and focus.
ADHD Coping Strategies
Coping strategies helping us to gain insight into the nature of our emotions and ways to proactively help us in this complex modern world are another natural remedy. There are ADD coaches to help guide us here. Many of them have ADD or ADHD themselves, and after being helped by ADHD coaching studied the subjet to become coaches themselves.