Can you treat ADD or ADHD without medication?!
Question: I'm wondering if you can treat ADD and/or ADHD without medication or if it requires medication (or therapy)?
Answers: I'm wondering if you can treat ADD and/or ADHD without medication or if it requires medication (or therapy)?
Everyone is different. For some kids and some families the medications may be the best thing to do. They really help. They aren't on them all the time, just school days. My nephew is taking ritalin this way and it really has been remarkable. He's a bright, creative kid and his mind just goes off to odd places when he needs to concentrate at school. Outside of school it's not a problem but he wasn't learning before and now he is doing great. It hasn't changed him otherwise. But for some kids it might not work that way.
If you don't use them, then you probably cannot expect your kid to do well in a traditional school setting. Now, if you are willing and able to homeschool and give the child individual attention appropriate to their way of learning or if you can afford to send you child to some kind of alternative school that takes individual approach to each child, you may not need the drugs.
But not many people can do that.
If you are facing that situation, I'd talk to as many different people about it as possible. You can always change your mind if you don't think it is working or if there are other effects you don't think are good.
EDIT: a lot of the other comments about sugar and caffeine are good ones. No kid should be eating a lot of sugar or ANY caffeine, IMO, because of many health effects. But this is not be the problem in every situation.
Really depends on the person, I had to go on medication the begiggning of my highschool year, i've been struggling ever since i first started school, the medicine only helps a little for me not a whole lot, but i notice a big difference, when i am not on it. Once and a while i will get nervous about the meds, from what you see on the news and the internet.
haha...NO.
the reason why i laugh is because i tried to be okay with out medication for three damn years. MY LIFE CAME CRASHING BECAUSE OF NOT BEING ON MEDS. my grades were hit hard...like...very hard. freshman year i went from a 2.5 1st sem to a 1.0GPA second semester. that's like...what, a d- average? i never slept. i never ate because i was so hyper. always got yelled at because i never shut up. many functions were just on overdrive and i just couldn't take it anymore. i've been back on medicine [adderall xr] for a year now and i'm back to my regular happy self like i was in 7th grade.
if you're talking about a kid, you're setting them up for failure.
actually, if you're talking about yourself..you're setting yourself up too.
my ex's step dad has ADD. at 42, he was put on medicine..which was not too long ago. he finally decided to do it because it was wrecking the marriage...and many other things.
it's just...when you have ADD/ADHD you have a chemical imbalance in your brain. the only way to fix that so you can function like everyone else is to be on stimulants. don't deprive yourself or your kids medicine. if someone has ADD/ADHD...it's not a dangerous thing. but if someone who doesn't have either takes it, they get high because it's wrecking their chemical balance. but trust me, i've been on 3 diff meds within the last 11 years and i am as healthy as can be.
you don't need therapy for this though.
diets,exercise and supplements don't work.
stimulants are the way to go if you want to function.
Stop eating sugar, caffeine and processed foods
Sounds simple but it's true.
Sugar messes up your brain's glycogen.
http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/...
If you have a "chemical imbalance" in the brain, you need to correct it. The brain chemicals come from amino acids and amino acids come from protein and protein comes from food.
yes i think it depends on the person i think yall just need attention thats all everybodys hype in their own way so dont think you need medication try it out first if you dont like waht happens then take ya medication