Mental & Emotional Health

My oldest son is 5.  He is in kindergarten and within week two he had already found himself sitting at the back of the room alone.  He talks incessantly.  It just goes on forever.  I’m certain he is going to grow up to be a radio sportscaster because the kid doesn’t even breathe between sentences.

His teacher assures me that he is a good kid, follows directions, stays on task and is good to his classmates.  He got his first report card yesterday and it too tells the same story.

But…you knew that was coming, right?  We had him tested when he was three.  There were several reasons for it.  One, he wasn’t talking much.  He communicated fine, he just wouldn’t string words together.  Another reason was his intelligence level (although not in speaking) was out of this world.  And, finally, he had about as much attention as a gnat. 

Yes, the good doctor (and I do believe he was good for several reasons, I’ll mention those in a minute) believed that my son very well may have been on the edge of some ADHD issues.  The reason I believed in this doctor so much also comes in parts.  One, the doc agreed with us that we should tolerate as much of his antics at home as we could, choosing no medication for him until much later.  He agreed that once he started school and the teacher was calling me every day and he was making everyone in the room miserable, then we would talk about medication.  But, incessant talking does not ADHD make!

Anyway, this doctor also explained that our next source of problems would come as he got older and matured.  You see, at the ripe age of 3 years and 3 months, he tested out at 2nd grade 7th month.  That’s pretty self explanatory even for the non-education people I think.

Anyway, I refuse to medicate him until I see that he is out of control.  And, for now, his teacher seems fine with his ability to talk until everyone falls over in their chair and she seems to get a kick out of some of the stuff he can dream up. 

Do I still think he might have a edge for ADHD?  Absolutely.  Is it a problem?  Absolutely not.  Will we medicate?  NO way!  My husband has ADD and he was only diagnosed a few years ago.  He says he wished he had been given the opportunity to take medication as a child.  His grandparents figured a good spanking was the best cure.

Anyway, in my reading, researching and writing, I have found numerous sites to be helpful.  We recognized before my 5 year old was ever born that he had an aversion to anything grape.  Yes, I was pregnant and drinking good ol’ sugar-high grape kool-aid.  After about 5 trips to labor and delivery, we figured it out. 

He still can even drink grape juice, 100% grape juice.  It sends him way over the edge.  And, he doesn’t tolerate sugar well where my 3 year old seems to be unaffected by its effects. 

I recently received an email from Jane Faus regarding this very issue.  I thought I’d share some of her thoughts here as well .  They are in the comment section but this just makes it easier.

"take a look at the research that has shown omega-3 essential fatty acids to be very helpful for both depression and ADD.  One benefit is that they do not have negative side effects, including depression — which is sometimes a side effect of ADD drugs."

"Another trigger for many of our modern ailments is the enormous amount of synthetic chemicals being added to our food"

Although I am OCD in many ways, I don’t get so close to the ADD or ADHD spectrum as my husband and son, but, read this…this is me,

"My husband used to get horrible 3 and 4 day migraine headaches from the dyes and a few other synthetic additives."

"You can read all of part one of my book "Why Can’t My Child Behave?" on our web site www.ADHDdiet.org; it will give you quite a lot of information on the diet/behavior/learning link."

Anyway, for anyone who thinks that they have ADD or ADHD or that their child has problems, you should definitely go read some  of the information on Feingold before you take any action by the way of drugs.  There’s so much to learn there, I can’t imagine trying to work it all in, but we are modifying as needed until we can get a bit calmer version of my wonderful little boy.  (My husband is trying some diet modifications as well.)

If you have any questions, shoot them my way and we will see what we can come up with!!

This is a personal story.  I asked if I could share and my husband’s comment was "you are going to do it anyway, so why does it matter what I think".  That’s not entirely true, I would have at least kept the person in question anonymous.  But, since he said he didn’t care, here goes.

My husband was diagnosed with ADD several years ago.  It took a few months to get his medication regulated but he takes adderall.  It works for him.  He quickly began to focus (although he still jumps from one task to another sometimes) and he can get much more work accomplished in a period of time than ever before.

Several months ago I urged him to talk to our doctor about his mood.  He didn’t.  I did finally.  He had me go to the doctor with him and explain it to the good doc.  He was put on medication at a tiny dose and he perked up rather quickly. 

So, he now takes something for the ADD and something for depression.  I don’t mind, he doesn’t mind and as I’ve said before, the good Lord didn’t surround us with people who are capable of finding ways to help us if he didn’t intend for us to their skills.  However, many people simply do not like to take medications.  And, for some, the side affects of medications for ADD include insomnia and a feeling that is described as "just not right". 

It is important to note that people with ADD are treated with psychostimulants so as to improve their ability to focus and relieve hyperactivity and impulsivity.  Medication is no cure, but if the right medication is used, at the right dose, then without a doubt, it is worth a try, just ask my husband.

So, you know way more about me than a lot of people I know in real life.  But, as one would guess, you are probably wondering if I am just a clown that has had many mental and emotional issues and I’m going to try to urge you to go get medicated.  That is simply not the case.  I do believe that medication has its place and we will explore that more in depth later, but for now, I’m just going to give you a few credentials.

My personal thoughts on  my own mental and emotional health are that without the interventions of modern medication and later some therapy, I would not have been able to accomplish much.  So, with that, I’m sure you are wondering just what it is that I’ve done that makes me think I can write a blog here and help anyone.

For starters, did you read the two part introduction.  That alone should tell you that I’ve been the mental and emotional health genre for half of my life.  I was 19 when my father died and that depressive cycle began.  I will be 40 in a couple of weeks.  But, if you read those, you know, I suffered well before the age of 19, it was just then it became apparent to everyone because they could see the issues on the outside.

So, what did I do with myself?  I did what my father always dreamed of, I graduated with a Bachelors degree.  That was in 1991, in physical education.  I used that to teach physical education two and a half years.  My dad tried to tell me not to be a teacher.  I don’t think he knew that I was simply not going to be good at it, (which I wasn’t), he just wanted me to choose a career that wasn’t so difficult to endure (and it is very difficult). 

Either way, I graduated.  I also had a minor in chemistry so I was able to teach Earth and Life Science on year and again, it was awful and I wasn’t very good at it.   Later I taught Pre-K and…again, it was a horrible experience and I wasn’t very good at it in the first place. 

I let my certificate expire and thus was unable to teach after 2001.  In 2005, I decided I should try teaching again, I was older, my temperament was different and maybe…just maybe…

That’s when I realized my certificate had expired.  So, that meant I had to return to school.  So, why  not get my Masters in something that I could use outside the school system or inside if I chose.  I taught Biology while I was in school and just as before, I hated it and I was not good at it either. 

I got my Masters in Counseling last winter while I was busy running my own daycare.  It came in handy and even though it is not my nature to brag, I was able to pick employees strong points as far as what age they would be best working with.  At first they would balk on me, but later, people came to realize that I had a little education and I was good at reading people.

Personalities come easy for me it seems.  I can talk to someone for a short time and tell you way more about them than most of them know themselves.  No, I’m not psychic, I learned a little when I pursued that last degree and it is paying off for me now.

I knew my husband had ADD (attention deficit disorder).  It was very apparent to me.  He had suffered his entire life but didn’t grow up in a home with educated parents who knew what to look for.  I got him an appointment, they did the intake, they gave him a couple of written tests and then the doctor spent about 45 minutes with him.  Diagnosis?  ADD.  I knew it, I’d lived with him too long not to know it.  I knew the symptoms and with my husband, they were terribly obvious.

In recent months I came to realize that my husband was depressed.  Again, he didn’t see what I saw.  I had the education (and I don’t mean that in a smart-alec way, I mean, I read the books, I listened to my professors and I learned so much from them) and I knew that he was depressed.  I encouraged him to tell our psychiatrist that treats his ADD.  He didn’t.  I mentioned it at one of my visits but only briefly and only in the manner in which it was affecting our marriage.  I asked my husband the next month if he would please tell the doctor how he felt.  He said yes, but he didn’t do it.  The next month he suggested I come with him.  I did but the doctor talked to him alone.  My husband managed to pull off the ol’ "it’s just the stress of this one project at work and when it is over, I’ll be fine.).

Not only was I mad at this point, I was ready to do something drastic.  His behavior was affecting our marriage and especially affected his parenting skills.  So, at my next appointment with the doc, I asked if we could come together.  He said if it was ok with my husband, then of course it was ok with him.  We went together.  They gave him a depression test. 

I don’t know much about the depression test because I didn’t see it so I don’t know which test they gave him. However, after the doctor looked at it, he said, "you definitely appear to be depressed, a score of anything above 8 on this test would mean you might benefit from medication and therapy and you (meaning my husband) scored a 24"

Ok, see, I’ve been around the block.  I’ve had the emotional problems, I’ve had the mental fatigue, I’ve dealt with the problems and I’ve been trained to recognize them. 

So, with that, I give you my credentials.  Do you trust me yet?

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I watched an interesting film today on Pbs.org about ADHD and medicating kids. It attempted to address why two or three kids in every U.S. classroom are diagnosed with ADHD.

Part of the reason is because some doctors who specialize in ADHD also receive money from drug companies for promoting ADHD awareness. Some of the drug companies create presentations and lectures that include incentives and prizes.

They boost their sales through these promotional events since advertising psychiatric drugs or stimulants directly to consumers is prohibited by the DEA.

Since teachers see children every day, they are frequently in the position of making the suggestion for medication as well. They’re not qualified to give the diagnosis so should they be suggesting medication?

Who is qualified to make the diagnosis? If drug companies are paying off doctors who specialize in ADHD, how do you know which doctors diagnosis to trust?

• Noelle and Alex are two of the children on the film that seem happier on the medication than off. They say they feel better and their concentration improves.

• Robin stopped taking the medication saying it made him jittery and didn’t help. He was put on several medications until he finally refused any more and was angry with his mother for trying to force it on him.

• Nicholas was only three when his parents were told he had ADHD and medication was suggested. They refused and decided to take him out of preschool and spend more time with him instead.

Medication such as Ritalin and Aderol has helped some people. I think ADHD is being over diagnosed, which means some children are on medications that don’t need it.

If you haven’t seen the film Medicating Kids, it expands on the issue. It’s about an hour long and is broken into five parts.

ADHD Kids’ Brains Mature More Slowly
To summarize this article, researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute (McGill University, Canada), with funding from the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute of Health have found that parts of ADHD diagnosed children “develop slower� than those of other children. The part of the brain that controls inappropriate actions and thoughts, the attention focusing ability, the moment-to-moment activity memory, the work-for-reward and the movement control areas of the brain may be lagging behind in development by as much as three years. (So now, when you your mother in an exasperated telephone call that you can’t get your seven-year-old to act her age, there may be a biological component as to why.)

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