Can ADHD be Cured without Drugs?

Now that the school year has ended, many parents will be getting their children tested for learning disabilities, especially Attention Deficit Disorder. And a good percentage of those parents will be talked into putting their children on Adderall or another equally powerful psychoactive drug.

Why drug companies want psychoactive drugs to be one of the first responses to a diagnosis of ADHD is obvious. The more people that use their drugs, the more money they make. What is less obvious is why so many parents are duped into believing that they have to so quickly turn to such extreme measures.

This article explains a few ways that any parent can help their child permanently overcome their ADHD. Not just manage it with long term drug use, but actually cure it

1. First, the obvious that everyone overlooks: if a child is having trouble with his attention span, then the first step is to stop doing things that actively reduce attention span. For example, it is no secret that TV reduces attention span. That data has been out for decades, but here are a few current links about it:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-04-05-tv-bottomstrip_x.htmhttp://www.turnoffyourtv.com/healtheducation/tv_adhd/tv_adhdmain.html

The same applies to video games:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-03-30-kids-attention_x.htm

http://www.time-scout.com/register/index.php?act=tv_adhd

So how does this apply when your child has ADD or ADHD? Are you ready to do what you need to do to help him build his attention span? Then get rid of the things that are actively reducing his attention span. Get rid of the video games, and get rid of the TV.

Yes, yes, I know that sounds really extreme to some parents. But is it anywhere near as extreme a measure as giving a child psychoactive drugs?

2. Not everyone knows about this, but did you know that nutrition can affect ADHD? http://www.mental-health-matters.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=236

Drug companies are not the only ones who know how to lie to and manipulate parents. So do junk food companies. Now I won’t belabor the obvious; you probably already know that candy, ice cream, and coke have no nutritional value, that they can cause hyperactivity among other health problems. You probably already know the kind of short term and long term damage fast food can cause, and know that pop-tarts are not really the smartest thing to be giving your child for breakfast.

But what you might not have noticed is the junk food masquerading as health food. Vitamin Water is about as healthy as Pepsi:

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE50E54L20090115

http://ezinearticles.com/?Vitamin-Water---A-Health-Drink-That-Enhances-the-Benefits-of-Drinking-Water-or-Silly-Sales-Gimmick?&id=707282

Or, to look at popular solid food. Nutri-grain bars are not exactly nutritious, but are instead packed with high-fructose corn syrup, regular corn syrup, and sugar.

When it comes to choosing healthy food for your child, just be careful who you trust. One thing you can do is read the ingredients. Stay away from anything with high-fructose corn syrup or sugar added. Be careful: “sucrose” and “evaporated cane juice” are just other words for sugar. Evaporated fruit juices are also essentially sugar, but a different type (monosaccharide instead of disaccharide. Stay away from both.)

Remember, you can turn the problem around. Junk food might reduce attention span, but actually healthy food can help improve it. Almonds, grilled or baked fish, real yogurt (for example, Greek Yogurt), fresh fruit (without sugar added), and salad can help your child’s physical and mental fitness.

Again, this might sound extreme to some people. But is it as extreme as giving your child a powerful psychoactive drug?

3. If an athlete has week leg muscles, what does he do? Does he say that he has Leg Muscle Defecit Disorder, and then give up? Or does he work to gradually build his leg strength?

A lot of people believe that attention, concentration, and focus are inborn abilities that you cannot work to develop. The drug companies do whatever they can to encourage this myth, since it encourages people to turn to psychoactive drugs, and fund the multi-billion dollar situation. But in reality, concentration, attention, and focus can be developed progressively.

Have the child work for 10 minutes on math, reading, etc. After a week, increase that number to 15 minutes. After another week, move up to 20 minutes. Then 25. Then 30. After a year of this kind of progressive training, your child will have a longer attention span than 99% of his peers.

Of course, there may be an issue of compliance. How can you make your child do this? What if he doesn’t want to?

Remember what is at stake. Your child’s health. Your child’s future. Use any means necessary. I’m not really a fan of physical violence, but even that is better than giving a child a psychoactive drug like Adderall. Remember, you control everything. You control whether he ever gets to play with his friends, or to eat anything that tastes good, or ever enjoys a single second of his childhood. You hold all the cards, and everything is at stake.

Now I’m not advocating abuse, and I don’t at all think it is necessary to make your child miserable. I certainly don’t try to make my students miserable, but still have a pretty solid success rate with my ADHD students.

But it is important to remember just how much power you have. You have absolute and total power over your child. Use it for his best interests, and use it responsibly. Sometimes you might have to use extreme methods, but remember that grounding a child for a year is still a lot less extreme than giving that child powerful psychoactive drugs.

For more information, please visit http://www.ArvinVohra.com, or http://www.EquationforExcellence.com.