I have know the story of Matthew Smith for over 5 years
now, and every time I hear the story I am motivated
to continue to do my best to help ADD ADHD families.

There are too many people blindly following the advice
their well-intentioned Doctors and taking these
dangerous medications.

If you are taking medication for ADD ADHD like Adderall,
Ritalin, Concerta, Strattera, or the new Vyvanse, please
reconsider and explore your options.

It has been scientifically proven that natural methods not
only work, they are more effective and actually treat the
cause of the ADD-ADHD.

Drugs only act as a band-aid to the true problem.

Visit http://3stepsadd.com to learn more about how
to eliminate your ADD ADHD naturally.

Have a Blessed Day!
Jon Bennett
ps – Mr. Smith metioned the product neu-be-calm.  More
information can be found @ http://neu-be-calm.com

http://3stepsadd.com

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here The Matthew Smith Story

Shocking New Research

We are all familiar with the so-called ‘placebo effect’. This is where someone begins to feel significantly better after receiving ‘fake’ medication (usually a sugar pill or a tablet with no active pharmacological ingredients). The existence of the placebo effect amply demonstrates that the belief that a condition is being treated can sometimes be as powerful as the treatment itself.

Significant new research (published in the Journal of Development & Behavioral Pediatrics) points to the widespread occurrence of the placebo effect when it comes to ADD/ADHD medication.

This should perhaps be expected as the effect has been shown to occur with just about any kind of medication imaginable. What makes the findings surprising however is that the placebo effect did not occur in the ADD/ADHD patients themselves but in their caregivers!

In other words, the belief that a child is being medicated was sometimes enough for parents or teachers to significantly modify their attitudes to, and expectations of, that child.

The study was conducted by pediatric psychologists from the University of Buffalo and found that, when caregivers believed that children were receiving ADD/ADHD medication (e.g. Ritalin and Adderall) they would view them more favorably and treat them more positively – whether medication was actually involved or not!

The lead author of the review Dr. Daniel A Waschbusch summarized their rather alarming findings as follows: “”The act of administering medication, or thinking a child has received medication, may induce positive expectancies in parents and teachers about the effects of that medication, which may, in turn, influence how parents and teachers evaluate and behave toward children with ADHD.

We speculate that the perception that a child is receiving ADHD medication may bring about a shift in attitude in a teacher or caregiver.

They may have a more positive view of the child, which could create a better relationship. They may praise the child more, which may induce better behavior.”

The findings of this research project is a damning indictment of the well documented ‘rush to medicate’ whenever there is the slightest suspicion that ADD/ADHD might be involved.

The pressure to do so often comes from teachers who explicitly and implicitly signal that little Johnny will have a much tougher time in class if Ritalin is not added to the mix as soon as possible. Parents are often so intimidated by this stance that they meekly accept the ‘recommendation’ to go and see a medical professional that can be relied on to supply the ‘correct’ diagnosis and treatment. This is the exact path that thousands of young people take every year: A path that leads to unnecessary exposure to very dangerous chemicals and an accompanying label classifying the child as ‘difficult’.

The suggestion, implicit in the research quoted above, that positive outcomes can be achieved by some focused attention and high expectations is a rare and welcome nod in the direction of plain old fashioned common sense.

As a society we need to be reminded that it is a fallacy to believe that every problem can be solved by medicating it away.

It is my belief that parents should educate and equip themselves to deal with the pressure to ‘diagnose and medicate’ that they will perhaps have to deal with. This preparation should focus at being ready with answers and arguments on both the side effects and the effectiveness of ADD/ADHD medication.

Side Effects: The evidence that ADD/ADHD medication can have some pretty nasty unintended consequences is mounting by the day. Medicines like Ritalin, Strattera and Adderall have been implicated in everything from suicidal thoughts to increased susceptibility to addiction.

The fact is that you are dealing with powerful mind-altering chemicals: A fact that should not be obscured by comforting advertising copy and the glib reassurances of those who benefit financially (or otherwise) from their distribution.

Effectiveness: The research quoted above is another nail in the coffin of the ‘defense’ that the perceived dangers of the products are obscured by the fact that they are so effective in improving attention. This is a very difficult assertion to prove when it comes to long term use of products like Ritalin.

Could it, further, be the case that all that is really needed are some lifestyle modifications (as suggested in the ‘3 Steps ADD’ Program) and a more positive engagement with the child?

If the answer to this question is ‘yes’ (as I believe it is) it would perhaps leave pharmaceutical companies with radically reduced profit margins.

This is, however, a negligible price to pay for giving our kids back the privilege of living their lives without unnecessary ‘chemical crutches’!

• The full article, entitled, Are There Placebo Effects in the Medication Treatment of Children With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder? Can be found on the website of the Journal of Development & Behavioral Pediatrics
• A shorter discussion of be accessed on Science Daily.

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here ADD ADHD Drugs and the Placebo Effect

Fraudulent Over-promotion of the diagnosis of ADD-ADHD… in Collusion to boost drug sales

This is a very interesting article that pretty much sums up many of the problems with ADD-ADHD in the USA.

It seems that big drug companies will go to any length to score big profits.
Creating “ADD Support Groups” like CHADD to shamelessly promote their deadly drugs in the form of “education”.

Interesting… huh?

Ritalin is old news now… now the drug of choice is Adderall, and it is even worse than ritalin!

Nestor Sosa spent three years and $40,000 fighting to get his son off Ritalin.
Ritalin, an amphetamine-like drug used to treat ADD, or attention deficit disorder, is prescribed to an estimated 4 million American schoolchildren each year.

But Sosa thought his son shouldn’t be among them. The boys mother and school both felt Ritalin, which helps some kids to concentrate, would assist the youngster in overcoming some of his learning difficulties.

Sosa, of Chatsworth, Calif., believes his son, now 14, never had ADD. He thinks the boy was a victim of a trend in this country to diagnose normal juvenile behavior as a disease.

ADD is like a catchall, says Sosa, who took his ex-wife to court over their sons Ritalin use.

Nobody could give me a straight answer and nobody could define ADD. Sosas conflict with well-meaning doctors and educators reflects a growing controversy about whether ADD and its variant, attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder, are being over-diagnosed causing children to be drugged for no reason.

Conspiracy to Over-Diagnose?

In fact, a class-action lawsuit against Ritalin manufacturer Novartis, the American Psychiatric Association and the parents group Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder alleges the company fraudulently overpromoted the diagnosis of ADD/ADHD in collusion with the two organizations to boost drug sales.

The action, filed in a state court in Brownsville, Texas, in May, seeks unspecified damages against Novartis, charging, among other things, that the Basel, Switzerland-based company failed to adequately warn the public of Ritalins impact on childrens cardio-vascular and nervous systems.

Several hundred Texas parents have signed on as plaintiffs, but are not discussing the case with the press.

Sosa is not involved in the lawsuit.

The suit alleges that the American Psychiatric Association has expanded the definition of ADD/ADHD in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV, the handbook of psychiatric diseases, over time so that more and more children would fall into this category.

Additionally, it claims the drug company encourages the diagnosis of ADD/ADHD and its treatment with Ritalin by economically supporting both CHADD and the psychiatric association…..

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Fraudulent Over-promotion of ADD ADHD

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here I am Just a Child

Transcript: [spoiler]back at 7:43. this morning on “today investigates” the potentially dangerous drug being abused by college students. “today” correspondent amy robach is here with a hidden camera investigation.

we warn our children about the dangers of drugs and drinking, especially as they go to college but a different kind of drug is an epidemic on campuses and we found students were taking it not to get high but to get better grades. we are inside the library at one of america’s top universities where right here in the stacks –
how much?

a drug deal is about to go down.

i can sell four today.

the drug for sale, one of the most popular with college kids nationwide. the attention deficit pill adderall .

it’s highly addictive. when you play with addictive substances you get burned.
for years it’s been prescribed as the go-to drug for kids with adhd, increasing attention span and focus by boosting dopamine levels in the brain. our investigation found many college students are abusinging adderall buying and taking it illegally without a prescription.

when i’m an adderall and i’m looking at the textbook. i forget everything else around me.

it’s given me the boost to work nonstop for ten hours a day.
jenny and mike, not their real names, are college students at the top of their class, thanks, they say, to adderall , better known as campus as the smart drug or study buddies. one university found over half of the seniors took it to increase their grades.

baseball players take steroids to be the best. students take adderall .
it’s an academic steroid?

steroids for school.

and students say it is a necessity to handle the load of papers, exams and cram sessions.

if everyone else is doing it, why shouldn’t i get the advantage?

of all your friends, no one has expressed feared like, yikes, this isn’t my prescription, maybe i shouldn’t take it?

no. they want to do well in school.

getting it without a prescription is a felony. we found scoring a stash is as easy as a trip to the school library . we sent a “today” show intern to the library.
do you know anyone that’s here that has adderall ?

it took her less than 30 seconds to find a student selling it.
how much?

$5.

watch as he takes us to show her the pills. we said we were out of cash so she gave us a free tutorial on how to get our own prescription.

i guarantee you with half the symptoms you can google. it’s in their interest to prescribe it to you because you have to go back once a month, check in and give them money.

i went to a doctor and told them i couldn’t focus. by the end i walked out with a prescription.

it was that easy?

incredibly easy, yeah.

experts say getting good grades with adderall may not be as easy as they think.
does it make kids smarter?

no.

dr. walcott is from the national institute on drug abuse . she said it stimulates areas of the brain to help focus and stay awake.

in some instances this type of drug can hurt you. for example, when people want to do creative or i imaginative thinking.

creative writing , essays, painting could be negatively impacted by taking it?
this is correct.

in some kids adderall can have a dark side . it’s a schedule ii narcotic as dangerous as cocaine or meth.

for all intents and purposes it’s speed. you are putting something in your brain to make you think you’re okay when you’re not. next thing you know you’ll be spinning out of control.

that’s what happened to ali , a college freshman , an honor student struggling to keep up with school. a friend gave her am adderall .

you become dependent. you use it one night to study for a test like i did. next thing you know you’re using it every night to study.

within weeks ali was addicted, buying and taking several pills a day with devastating side effects . mood swings, insomnia, panic attacks and depression. soon her grades began to slip.

it snuck up on me. i went from being on an academic scholarship to being on academic probation within six months to being asked to withdraw from the university after a year because of adderall .

now in recovery, ali said her family had no idea. experts worry parents may look the other way, as long as their kids do well in school.

it’s like a don’t ask, don’t tell thing. they don’t want to know. they’re paying for the report card.

if they get the desired results, don’t tell me how you did it.

don’t tell me how you did it.

experts say 1 in 10 kid wills become addicted and side effects include psychosis, stroke and even death. never take it unless it is prescribed by a doctor. the risks aren’t worth it.

and kids that learned how to fake the symptoms and get the prescription is a wake-up call for doctors as well. at least reputable ones.

drug experts say the drug has been overprescribed and that’s contributing to the epidemic and the fact that students feel they are taking a vitamin. they think it’s safe. parents need to get involved and say this is dangerous, don’t do it.
amy, thank you so much.

At colleges across America, students are becoming addicted to a popular prescription drug — not because they’re trying to get high, but because they hope to get smarter. The drug, Adderall, is normally prescribed for kids with attention deficit disorder. But some college kids are taking the medication because it helps them focus and pull all-nighters.
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One ‘A’ student at one of the nation’s top tier colleges explained the appeal of the pills kids call “study buddies.”
“When I’m on Adderall and I’m looking at the textbook I can forget about everything else around me,” she told NBC News’ Amy Robach, in a report aired on TODAY. “I figured if everyone else is doing it, why shouldn’t I get the advantage?”
Another student, “Mike,” who asked that his real name be withheld, elaborated. “It’s given me the boost to work non-stop for 10 hours a day,” he explained. “Baseball players take steroids to be the best and students take Adderall to be the best. It’s steroids for school.”
Related: Statement from Shire regarding Adderall abuse
Parents accustomed to warning their kids about the dangers of alcohol and stimulants like cocaine may have been caught off guard by the growing prevalence of prescription medication use among college students trying score good grades. While Adderall is considered safe when taken as prescribed by a doctor, experts say it can be very addictive.
“It’s a highly addictive substance and when you play with addictive substances, you ultimately get burned,” Stephen Odom, a drug abuse counselor at Sober Living by the Sea, told Robach. “For all intents and purposes, Adderall is speed. You’re putting something in your body that’s gonna make you think you’re OK when you’re not. And the next thing you know, you’re gonna be spinning out of control.”
That’s what happened to a freshman honor student named Aly. Struggling to keep up with her schoolwork, she gratefully took the “smart pill” offered by a friend. Within weeks she became addicted, buying several pills a day.
“You become dependent on it, because you’ll use it one night to study for a test like I did and the next thing you know, you’re using it every night to study for a test,” she told Robach.
Soon Aly was suffering all sorts of unexpected effects: mood swings, insomnia, panic attacks, depression. Her grades spiraled down. It all took a toll on her.
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“It snuck up on me,” she told Robach. “I went from being on an academic scholarship at a great university to being on academic probation within six months, to being asked to withdraw from that university after a year. All because of Adderall.”
Addiction isn’t the only possible fallout from “smart pills.” While they can help students focus for hours on end, they can get in the way of other cognitive skills.
“In some instances these types of drugs can hurt you,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “For example, when people want to do creative or imaginative things.”
The same drugs that can improve focus can inhibit flights of imagination, which may make it more difficult to write creatively, Volkow explained to Robach.
So, just how big of a problem is this?
As part of a hidden camera investigation, a TODAY intern visited the library at one of the nation’s top colleges, and it didn’t take long to score some pills.
Just 30 seconds after walking into the library, the intern hit pay dirt with one of the students.
“Do you know anyone here that I could get Adderall from?” the intern asked.
“Yeah, me,” the student replied.
“How much for a pill?” the intern asked.

The intern said she didn’t have that much cash on hand and the student suggested an alternative method for scoring Adderall: feign symptoms and get a legitimate – and legal – prescription.
“I guarantee you have half the symptoms,” the student said. “Google ADD specialists. It’s in their interest to prescribe it to you because you have to go back to them once a month and check in and give them some money.”
That’s exactly what “Mike” did.
“I went to a doctor and told them I couldn’t focus,” he told Robach. “And by the end, I walked out with a prescription. It was incredibly easy.”
Robach wondered how his parents felt about his getting a prescription to boost his grades.
“It’s like a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ kind of thing,” he said. “They don’t wanna know. They’re paying for that report card.” [/spoiler]

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here ADD ADHD Smart Drug Epidemic

This video explains the potency and addictive nature of ADD ADHD drugs like Adderall, Vyvanse, and Ritalin.

This video is an excerpt from “The Marketing of Madness” from CCHR.org

Transcript…

Man 1: Psychiatrists, drug companies, and even government agencies are entrusted with the safety of the drugs they put on the marketplace. And while they will reluctantly admit to most side effects of psychotropics, there is one more that they almost never mention.

Woman 1: Every single one of these drugs are addictive–psychologically and/or physically addictive.

Woman 2: They change your body’s makeup. They change your body, how it reacts to things. And so, even though people, their psychological state, they may be over their depression, they physically will need that drug still, and so that becomes the complication of getting them off.

Man 2: I have people come to me on a weekend, they run out of refills, and they say to me, “If I don’t take this drug, I’m going to get sick.” “If I don’t take this drug, I’m going to get sick.” We don’t talk about psychologically. We don’t talk about depression. We don’t talk about anxiety. “I am going to get sick if I don’t take this drug this weekend.” It has nothing to do with psychology.

Man 1: But listen to what some psychiatrists, questions at a recent APA conference, had to say about addiction.

Woman 3: How addictive are psychiatric drugs?

Woman 4: They aren’t. Only benzodiazepines.

Man 3: They’re not addictive at all.

Man 4: Antidepressants are not generally considered addictive.

Man 5: SSRIs are not addictive.

Man 6: Anti-psychotics, they don’t cause addiction.

Man 7: Major tranquilizers are all safe as far as addiction.

Man 8: The drugs that most of us are using in neuropsychiatry are not addictive at all.

Man 1: So who’s right? To find out, we need look no further than former patients with firsthand experience.

Man 9: The psychologists and psychiatrists, I went to both. They never told me that they would be addictive, they would cause me to have these thoughts.

Man 10: For sure, the psychiatric drugs I was on was addicting.

Man 11: Within six months to nine months, I was hooked.

Woman 5: Boy, Xanax, it had a hold of me. I was going through a bottle of pills every three or four days.

Man 12: I lost my job over it, over a prescription drug that’s not supposed to be addictive? Lost my job.

Man 13: The reality is that it is addicting. It will wreck a person’s life.

Man 1: This conflict on addiction all comes down to a definition of words. Most people think of addiction as an uncontrollable psychological or physical need for a certain substance. But not psychiatrists. They define addiction as the craving of a higher and higher dose of the same drug, while the uncontrollable need to keep taking the drug is categorized only as dependence. This is why psychiatrists will not admit that their drugs are addictive.

Man 14: In their definition, a very small percentage of people become addicted. The reality is a large percentage of people can’t get off these drugs. And they call that dependence. It’s all a matter of how they term it.

Man 15: When you look at addiction, it could be that their tolerance increases and their needs and wants to use the medications increase, or it could be simply, once they start on the medication, they’re not able to come off of it without help. They try to, and as soon as they try to come off the medications, they start to have symptoms that are unwanted and, obviously, keep them wanting to take the medications again.

Woman 6: When you explain to them how addictive it is, they are surprised, because they’re like, “Well, it’s a prescription.” So I do believe that a lot of people don’t really know harmful these meds are. They don’t view them as as dangerous as some of the street drugs.

Man 1: But many psychotropics have become street drugs, especially the class of drugs given to children diagnosed as having inattention or hyperactivity. Stimulants such as Ritalin, Adderall, and Concerta are so habit-forming that they are listed by the US Drug Enforcement Administration as Schedule II drugs, highly addictive substances, on the same list as morphine and cocaine.

Man 16: Biochemistry and pharmacology of Ritalin is exactly the same as that of cocaine, except for the speed of onset.

Man 1: The similarity between Ritalin and Cocaine becomes obvious when considering the major problem of stimulant abuse in our schools, where tablets and Ritalin and its chemical cousin, Adderall, are taken recreationally by kids in schoolyards.

Child: Some of my friends took Ritalin and Adderall just to get high, that I’ve known throughout the years. Kids will chop that stuff up with a razor blade. It’s pure, man, pure drug. That’s why kids like it. They’d chop it up with a razor blade and snort it.

Man 17: My cousin Sammy had this Ritalin and we’d eat it, and we’d be able to stay up all night [laughs] and play video games. Pupils would dilate. It was just outrageous.

Man 18: Matter of fact, in eighth grade I got kicked out of school three days before we let out, for selling Ritalin and actually snorting lines in the back of the classroom. So yes, sir, it definitely caused me some problems there, and I definitely had people buying them from me, yes.

Man 1: This is no small problem. In 2006, researchers discovered that more than seven million Americans had misused stimulants, with 75, 000 American teenagers and young adults becoming addicted every year. Beyond just addicting its users, stimulants are also well-known as gateway drugs that lead to further addiction, to such street drugs as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine.

Woman 7: When you provide drugs in a manner which most of our children are being provided drugs, at an early age in life, only prepares that child to be on more drugs as they get older.

Man 1: And yet, in several recent publications, psychiatrists actually encourage children, labeled ADHD, to take stimulants to reduce future dependencies on cocaine and other street drugs. But evidence shows that not only is this theory unfounded, but the reverse is true.

Man 19: When I’ve spoken to people who are methamphetamine addicts, they said that the drug that they started taking, almost consistently, was Ritalin.

Man 20: The longer a child is on Ritalin, the more the likelihood that they may become addicted, whether it’s Ritalin or Concerta or Adderall, OK, or a number of other drugs.

Man 1: Stimulants aren’t the only psychotropic drugs carrying a high potential for addiction. Benzodiazepines, for example, are tranquilizers that can become addictive within 14 days. Take, for example, the benzodiazepine Xanax, which, after only five years on the market, was producing 1.5 million addicts every year. And getting off can be very difficult. Symptoms of Xanax withdrawal include shakiness, loss of appetite, muscle cramps, memory and concentration problems, insomnia, agitation, panic, and anxiety.

Man 21: Some of the psych medicines, particularly the benzodiazepines, are some of the most addictive drugs there are in terms of the persistent withdrawal anxiety that these drugs cause.

Woman 8: I have been in the position of having to withdraw a number of people from benzodiazepines, that I didn’t put on them, obviously. And it’s difficult. It’s really difficult.

Woman 9: Prescription benzodiazepines, I think, are much more dangerous and much harder to come off of for the patients than the street drugs are.

Man 1: But survivors will tell you that benzodiazepines are not the only class of psychotropic drug that is extremely hard to with draw from.

Woman 10: I had about a 10 year time-frame in my life where I abused both street drugs and prescription drugs. The drugs that were the hardest to come off of, in my opinion, were the psychiatric medications. I mean worst to come off than a drug like heroin.

Man 22: Withdrawal symptoms from the psychiatric drugs just made my mind go crazy. I couldn’t think I couldn’t form coherent thoughts whatsoever.

Woman 10: Was racing, I had highs and lows, ups and downs, and hot and cold sweats.

Man 23: I went through seizures. I was sweating with night sweats so bad I was wetting my bed just from sweat.

Woman 11: I had tremors really bad. I joked but I looked like I had the end-stages of Parkinson’s Disease. But, you couldn’t even hold me still when I was going through withdrawals. My legs would shake, I couldn’t sleep.

Woman 12: No one in the world should have to go through what I went through in my opinion and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

Man 1: Even newborns born to women taking psychotropic’s while pregnant can undergo withdrawal. These infants could experience irritability, hyperactivity, abnormal sleep patterns, vomiting, diarrhea, and failure to gain weight.

But, it is the amplification of certain side effects caused by withdrawal from psychotropic’s that can have a disastrous affect on the individual.

Woman 13: Now, the person stops taking the drug and the affects of the withdrawal or the affects of stop taking the drug are increased and amplified symptoms like the depression or suicide ideas or et cetera.

Man 24: They have tremendous mood swings. They invariably get violent and they cannot control their emotions.

Man 25: You’re very depressed, you’re suicidal, you’re hallucinating, you’re psychotic, and you’re crazy, any/or. You’re manic when you stop taking your medication.

Man 1: This is why improper withdrawal from SSRI antidepressants, in particular, has been shown to trigger mood swings and uncontrollable anger which have been implicated in many recent killing sprees.

In May 1998, for example, 15 year-old Kip Kinkel had just stopped taking Prozac when he shot and killed both his parents. Then, went on a shooting rampage at his Oregon High School where he murdered two more and wounded 25.

In November 2007, Peka-Eric Auvinen shot and killed eight at his school north of Helsinki, Finland. Earlier that fall, he had either reduced or stopped using the antidepressant he was prescribed for social anxiety.

Valentines Day 2008, Northern Illinois University, Steven Kazmierczak walked into a crowded lecture hall and opened fire; killing five and wounding 18. A few weeks earlier, he too had abruptly stopped taking his antidepressant.

But, rather than acknowledging that tragedies such as these are the result of withdrawal of highly psychotropic drugs, the customary response of psychiatrists is to blame the lack of the drug for what they claim is the return of the mental illness.

Woman 14: When a psychiatrist says that well, the reason way they’re feeling that way when they get off the drugs is because, “See, that shows you how bad they really need the drug.” Here’s the deal, there’s no way that that’s true.

Man 26: The reality is when they stop the drug they get depressed or they have withdrawal effects of various types. The reason they’re having those affects is because it’s a withdrawal effect from the drug.

Man 27: All you need to do is you need to sit down and listen to anyone who’s been on these medications and wants to come off them. You listen to their story, and you listen to what they’re going through, why they want to come off them and that’s it. The conversation stops, the debate ends.

Robin: My name is Robin and currently I am withdrawing from lorazepam and I am at the 0.4 mg dose. Today I was totally exhausted. I’ve had four nights, two and that two nights of insomnia and then a good nights sleep and then two nights of insomnia.

I was just hoping I can sleep better tonight, didn’t sleep good last night. As you can see, today I don’t care. I did not get ready and my wave went down. I’m down in the valley today.

One of the side affects are withdrawal symptoms for lorazepam can be night sweats or hot flashes, a little light-headed, kind of dizzy, anxiety, sore throat, weepy, very, very tired, grouchy, just overwhelmed, distraught, and distressed.

I began to experience suicidal thoughts. I think I’ve said a little bit to my husband but he was already worried enough. This is really the first time I’m saying something about it. I feel like I could have a nervous break-down.

There’s just times I hit a brick wall and I just can’t do it any more. It’s going to take another, what, maybe 18, 19, or 20 weeks to get off of it. That is very overwhelming to me. I’m weary today and this is how I used to be for many weeks with lorazepam.

That’s the hardest thing; you are trapped into living it out the way you have to live it out in order to be safe. So, that’s frustrating, I just want my life back. That’s where I am today.

Man 1: It took months for Robin to wean herself off just one of her psychiatric drugs and addiction specialists agree that slowly withdrawing is the only safe way.

Woman 15: You just can’t just cut people off from these drugs. Sometimes it can take up to a year or more depending on the person and how long they’ve been on the drug and how we wean them off.

Woman 16: You can’t stop these drugs cold turkey. No, I would never advise anybody to just stop them. They need to be under the care of a medical practitioner.

Man 28: When some of my patients come in and they talk to me about getting off psychiatric medications, I really caution them not to just stop their drugs cold turkey because that can really send them into a tail-spin.

Woman 17: The data is right there. It’s going to cause the symptoms that it causes, it’s going to have withdrawal effects and they know it. There’s not a psychiatrist that doesn’t know it.

Man 1: Yet, psychiatrists tell us that psychotropic drugs are the only way to keep people from insanity and alleviate mental distress. But, is this really the case or are there other choices effective, inexpensive, and drug-free that could accomplish all the empty promises left broken and unfulfilled by psychiatry?

Transcript END.

Tell Us what You Think! Leave Us a Comment Below

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here ADD ADHD Drugs Dangerous and Addicting

This video is an except from the video created by CCHR.org entitled, “The Marketing of Madness”

Although “3 Steps To Conquering ADD” takes a natural approach, we do not condemn those who decide that medication is the best choice for their family.

It is our goal to simply give you the facts and equip you to make the best choice for your family.

My parents were led to believe that my brother had a medical disease called Attention Deficit Disorder that requires a medication called Ritalin.

We have come to learn that this can be a false assumption that led to great heartache.

Over the past 10 years we have been showing people how to eliminate their ADD naturally.

“The Marketing of Madness” is created by the CCHR.org and takes a very harsh stance against psychology and medications.

“3 Steps To Conquering ADD” does not necessarily agree with all of the content of these videos.

There are some eye-opening facts that anyone considering taking medication for ADD ADHD should STRONGLY consider.

Transcript: [spoiler]

Man 1: Psychiatrists, drug companies, and even government agencies are entrusted with the safety of the drugs they put on the marketplace. And while they will reluctantly admit to most side effects of psychotropics, there is one more that they almost never mention.

Woman 1: Every single one of these drugs are addictive–psychologically and/or physically addictive.

Woman 2: They change your body’s makeup. They change your body, how it reacts to things. And so, even though people, their psychological state, they may be over their depression, they physically will need that drug still, and so that becomes the complication of getting them off.

Man 2: I have people come to me on a weekend, they run out of refills, and they say to me, “If I don’t take this drug, I’m going to get sick.” “If I don’t take this drug, I’m going to get sick.” We don’t talk about psychologically. We don’t talk about depression. We don’t talk about anxiety. “I am going to get sick if I don’t take this drug this weekend.” It has nothing to do with psychology.

Man 1: But listen to what some psychiatrists, questions at a recent APA conference, had to say about addiction.

Woman 3: How addictive are psychiatric drugs?

Woman 4: They aren’t. Only benzodiazepines.

Man 3: They’re not addictive at all.

Man 4: Antidepressants are not generally considered addictive.

Man 5: SSRIs are not addictive.

Man 6: Anti-psychotics, they don’t cause addiction.

Man 7: Major tranquilizers are all safe as far as addiction.

Man 8: The drugs that most of us are using in neuropsychiatry are not addictive at all.

Man 1: So who’s right? To find out, we need look no further than former patients with firsthand experience.

Man 9: The psychologists and psychiatrists, I went to both. They never told me that they would be addictive, they would cause me to have these thoughts.

Man 10: For sure, the psychiatric drugs I was on was addicting.

Man 11: Within six months to nine months, I was hooked.

Woman 5: Boy, Xanax, it had a hold of me. I was going through a bottle of pills every three or four days.

Man 12: I lost my job over it, over a prescription drug that’s not supposed to be addictive? Lost my job.

Man 13: The reality is that it is addicting. It will wreck a person’s life.

Man 1: This conflict on addiction all comes down to a definition of words. Most people think of addiction as an uncontrollable psychological or physical need for a certain substance. But not psychiatrists. They define addiction as the craving of a higher and higher dose of the same drug, while the uncontrollable need to keep taking the drug is categorized only as dependence. This is why psychiatrists will not admit that their drugs are addictive.

Man 14: In their definition, a very small percentage of people become addicted. The reality is a large percentage of people can’t get off these drugs. And they call that dependence. It’s all a matter of how they term it.

Man 15: When you look at addiction, it could be that their tolerance increases and their needs and wants to use the medications increase, or it could be simply, once they start on the medication, they’re not able to come off of it without help. They try to, and as soon as they try to come off the medications, they start to have symptoms that are unwanted and, obviously, keep them wanting to take the medications again.

Woman 6: When you explain to them how addictive it is, they are surprised, because they’re like, “Well, it’s a prescription.” So I do believe that a lot of people don’t really know harmful these meds are. They don’t view them as as dangerous as some of the street drugs.

Man 1: But many psychotropics have become street drugs, especially the class of drugs given to children diagnosed as having inattention or hyperactivity. Stimulants such as Ritalin, Adderall, and Concerta are so habit-forming that they are listed by the US Drug Enforcement Administration as Schedule II drugs, highly addictive substances, on the same list as morphine and cocaine.

Man 16: Biochemistry and pharmacology of Ritalin is exactly the same as that of cocaine, except for the speed of onset.

Man 1: The similarity between Ritalin and Cocaine becomes obvious when considering the major problem of stimulant abuse in our schools, where tablets and Ritalin and its chemical cousin, Adderall, are taken recreationally by kids in schoolyards.

Child: Some of my friends took Ritalin and Adderall just to get high, that I’ve known throughout the years. Kids will chop that stuff up with a razor blade. It’s pure, man, pure drug. That’s why kids like it. They’d chop it up with a razor blade and snort it.

Man 17: My cousin Sammy had this Ritalin and we’d eat it, and we’d be able to stay up all night [laughs] and play video games. Pupils would dilate. It was just outrageous.

Man 18: Matter of fact, in eighth grade I got kicked out of school three days before we let out, for selling Ritalin and actually snorting lines in the back of the classroom. So yes, sir, it definitely caused me some problems there, and I definitely had people buying them from me, yes.

Man 1: This is no small problem. In 2006, researchers discovered that more than seven million Americans had misused stimulants, with 75, 000 American teenagers and young adults becoming addicted every year. Beyond just addicting its users, stimulants are also well-known as gateway drugs that lead to further addiction, to such street drugs as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine.

Woman 7: When you provide drugs in a manner which most of our children are being provided drugs, at an early age in life, only prepares that child to be on more drugs as they get older.

Man 1: And yet, in several recent publications, psychiatrists actually encourage children, labeled ADHD, to take stimulants to reduce future dependencies on cocaine and other street drugs. But evidence shows that not only is this theory unfounded, but the reverse is true.

Man 19: When I’ve spoken to people who are methamphetamine addicts, they said that the drug that they started taking, almost consistently, was Ritalin.

Man 20: The longer a child is on Ritalin, the more the likelihood that they may become addicted, whether it’s Ritalin or Concerta or Adderall, OK, or a number of other drugs.

Man 1: Stimulants aren’t the only psychotropic drugs carrying a high potential for addiction. Benzodiazepines, for example, are tranquilizers that can become addictive within 14 days. Take, for example, the benzodiazepine Xanax, which, after only five years on the market, was producing 1.5 million addicts every year. And getting off can be very difficult. Symptoms of Xanax withdrawal include shakiness, loss of appetite, muscle cramps, memory and concentration problems, insomnia, agitation, panic, and anxiety.

Man 21: Some of the psych medicines, particularly the benzodiazepines, are some of the most addictive drugs there are in terms of the persistent withdrawal anxiety that these drugs cause.

Woman 8: I have been in the position of having to withdraw a number of people from benzodiazepines, that I didn’t put on them, obviously. And it’s difficult. It’s really difficult.

Woman 9: Prescription benzodiazepines, I think, are much more dangerous and much harder to come off of for the patients than the street drugs are.

Man 1: But survivors will tell you that benzodiazepines are not the only class of psychotropic drug that is extremely hard to with draw from.

Woman 10: I had about a 10 year time-frame in my life where I abused both street drugs and prescription drugs. The drugs that were the hardest to come off of, in my opinion, were the psychiatric medications. I mean worst to come off than a drug like heroin.

Man 22: Withdrawal symptoms from the psychiatric drugs just made my mind go crazy. I couldn’t think I couldn’t form coherent thoughts whatsoever.

Woman 10: Was racing, I had highs and lows, ups and downs, and hot and cold sweats.

Man 23: I went through seizures. I was sweating with night sweats so bad I was wetting my bed just from sweat.

Woman 11: I had tremors really bad. I joked but I looked like I had the end-stages of Parkinson’s Disease. But, you couldn’t even hold me still when I was going through withdrawals. My legs would shake, I couldn’t sleep.

Woman 12: No one in the world should have to go through what I went through in my opinion and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

Man 1: Even newborns born to women taking psychotropic’s while pregnant can undergo withdrawal. These infants could experience irritability, hyperactivity, abnormal sleep patterns, vomiting, diarrhea, and failure to gain weight.

But, it is the amplification of certain side effects caused by withdrawal from psychotropic’s that can have a disastrous affect on the individual.

Woman 13: Now, the person stops taking the drug and the affects of the withdrawal or the affects of stop taking the drug are increased and amplified symptoms like the depression or suicide ideas or et cetera.

Man 24: They have tremendous mood swings. They invariably get violent and they cannot control their emotions.

Man 25: You’re very depressed, you’re suicidal, you’re hallucinating, you’re psychotic, and you’re crazy, any/or. You’re manic when you stop taking your medication.

Man 1: This is why improper withdrawal from SSRI antidepressants, in particular, has been shown to trigger mood swings and uncontrollable anger which have been implicated in many recent killing sprees.

In May 1998, for example, 15 year-old Kip Kinkel had just stopped taking Prozac when he shot and killed both his parents. Then, went on a shooting rampage at his Oregon High School where he murdered two more and wounded 25.

In November 2007, Peka-Eric Auvinen shot and killed eight at his school north of Helsinki, Finland. Earlier that fall, he had either reduced or stopped using the antidepressant he was prescribed for social anxiety.

Valentines Day 2008, Northern Illinois University, Steven Kazmierczak walked into a crowded lecture hall and opened fire; killing five and wounding 18. A few weeks earlier, he too had abruptly stopped taking his antidepressant.

But, rather than acknowledging that tragedies such as these are the result of withdrawal of highly psychotropic drugs, the customary response of psychiatrists is to blame the lack of the drug for what they claim is the return of the mental illness.

Woman 14: When a psychiatrist says that well, the reason way they’re feeling that way when they get off the drugs is because, “See, that shows you how bad they really need the drug.” Here’s the deal, there’s no way that that’s true.

Man 26: The reality is when they stop the drug they get depressed or they have withdrawal effects of various types. The reason they’re having those affects is because it’s a withdrawal effect from the drug.

Man 27: All you need to do is you need to sit down and listen to anyone who’s been on these medications and wants to come off them. You listen to their story, and you listen to what they’re going through, why they want to come off them and that’s it. The conversation stops, the debate ends.

Robin: My name is Robin and currently I am withdrawing from lorazepam and I am at the 0.4 mg dose. Today I was totally exhausted. I’ve had four nights, two and that two nights of insomnia and then a good nights sleep and then two nights of insomnia.

I was just hoping I can sleep better tonight, didn’t sleep good last night. As you can see, today I don’t care. I did not get ready and my wave went down. I’m down in the valley today.

One of the side affects are withdrawal symptoms for lorazepam can be night sweats or hot flashes, a little light-headed, kind of dizzy, anxiety, sore throat, weepy, very, very tired, grouchy, just overwhelmed, distraught, and distressed.

I began to experience suicidal thoughts. I think I’ve said a little bit to my husband but he was already worried enough. This is really the first time I’m saying something about it. I feel like I could have a nervous break-down.

There’s just times I hit a brick wall and I just can’t do it any more. It’s going to take another, what, maybe 18, 19, or 20 weeks to get off of it. That is very overwhelming to me. I’m weary today and this is how I used to be for many weeks with lorazepam.

That’s the hardest thing; you are trapped into living it out the way you have to live it out in order to be safe. So, that’s frustrating, I just want my life back. That’s where I am today.

Man 1: It took months for Robin to wean herself off just one of her psychiatric drugs and addiction specialists agree that slowly withdrawing is the only safe way.

Woman 15: You just can’t just cut people off from these drugs. Sometimes it can take up to a year or more depending on the person and how long they’ve been on the drug and how we wean them off.

Woman 16: You can’t stop these drugs cold turkey. No, I would never advise anybody to just stop them. They need to be under the care of a medical practitioner.

Man 28: When some of my patients come in and they talk to me about getting off psychiatric medications, I really caution them not to just stop their drugs cold turkey because that can really send them into a tail-spin.

Woman 17: The data is right there. It’s going to cause the symptoms that it causes, it’s going to have withdrawal effects and they know it. There’s not a psychiatrist that doesn’t know it.

Man 1: Yet, psychiatrists tell us that psychotropic drugs are the only way to keep people from insanity and alleviate mental distress. But, is this really the case or are there other choices effective, inexpensive, and drug-free that could accomplish all the empty promises left broken and unfulfilled by psychiatry?

[/spoiler]

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here The Marketing of Madness: Intro- No Basis for ADD ADHD Drugs – Part 1

Interview Audio Here –

[audio src="http://3stepsadd.s3.amazonaws.com/Content/Library/Interviews/Diana%20Vogel%20Interviews%20Jon%20Bennett.mp3"]

Audio Download - Click Here

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Interviewed by Diana Vogel

Dr. Mate discusses the role of dopamine and how ADD drugs work to increase dopamine levels.

“3 Steps To Conquering ADD” promotes natural methods for increasing low dopamine levels.

AMY GOODMAN: As we return to our conversation with Canadian physician and author Dr. Gabor Maté. His four books include Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What You can Do About It and Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers. Talk about how the drugs affect the development of the brain. When kids are saturated with these drugs to sit still in school so they’re not fidgeting at their desk, they can’t focus on reading or on the teacher or just plain old disruptive. What happens?

DR. GABOR MATÈ: There is a number of issues here. How the stimulant drugs work is that in ADD, there is an essential brain chemical necessary for incentive and motivation that seems to be lacking. That is called dopamine. Dopamine is simply an essential life chemical; without it, there is no life. Mice in a laboratory that have no dopamine will starve themselves to death because they have no incentive to eat. Even though they are hungry, even though their life is in danger they will not eat because there is no motivation or incentive. So partly, one way to look at ADD is as a massive problem of motivation because the dopamine is lacking in the brain. Now the stimulant medications elevate dopamine levels, and these kids are now more motivated. They can focus and pay attention.

However, the assumption underneath giving these kids medications is that what we’re dealing with is a genetic disorder, and the only way to deal with it is pharmacologically. And if you actually look at how the dopamine levels in the brain develop- if you look at infant monkeys and measure their dopamine levels, and they are normal when they are with their mothers, and you separate them from their mothers, the dopamine levels go down within two or three days.

In other words, what we’re doing is we’re correcting a massive social problem that has to do it disconnection in society and the loss of nurturing, non-stressed parenting and we are replacing that chemically. Now, the stimulant drugs do seem to work and a lot of kids are helped by it. The problem is not so much whether they should be used for not, the problem is that 80% of the time the kid is prescribed medication, that is all that happens. Nobody talks to the family about the family environment. The school makes no attempt to change the school environment. Nobody connects with these kids emotionally. In other words, it is seen simply as a medical or behavior problem but not a problem of development.

Original Article – http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2010/11/24/drgabormatonadhd_bullying

Please Comment Below

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Dr Mate on Dopamine and ADD Drugs

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here The History of Psychotropic Drugs 2a of 13

Many of the ideas expressed in “3 Steps To Conquering ADD” fly in the face of our current medical solution for ADD ADHD.

While many countries have become more progressive (like Australia) the USA is still very entrenched in the “drug only” approach to ADD ADHD.

Dr. Mary Ann Block is surely an Ally in the War against ADD ADHD misdiagnosis and mistreatment.

She sums up the situation nicely.

Enjoy  :-)

Jon

ps – please leave your comments below

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Dr. Mary Ann Block – Whatever it Takes!

In these interesting video we discover…

• How Big Drug Companies push their drugs
• Why you Doctor prescribes certain drugs
• Why you MUST do your homework and NOT blindly trust every medication

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here How Drug Companies Profit from ADD-ADHD

I am willing to bet your Doctor did not bring this up when he suggested that your child go on Adderall or Concerta….

If he did, he probably dismissed it saying that he has never had any problems!?

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here The Black Box Warning… Hello?

Dr. Thomas Szasz is Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus at the State University of New York Health Science Center, Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute and a Lifetime Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

He is perhaps the world’s leading social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, having authored more than 35 books on the subject, starting with

The Myth of Mental Illness, a book which rocked the world of psychiatry upon its release more than 50 years ago.

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Dr. Thomas Szasz – ADD ADHD is NOT a Disease

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here DSM-V Name a Disorder and Win a Prize

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Sean O’Carroll Interview – Boys and Cages [Video]

If you have been reading “3 Steps ADD” and/or the articles on this site you would have noticed that I place a great deal of emphasis on nutrition as a vitally important part of any strategy for dealing with the effects of ADD/ADHD.

You may also be aware that many people are quite critical of an ADD/ADHD strategy that majors on healthy eating supplemented by essential vitamins and oils. This may come as a surprise until you ask a few questions about the background and credentials of the critics.

It turns out that many of the people who have the most to say about the deficiencies of a nutrition based strategy have a vested interest in continuing the status quo (i.e. drugging people on a massive scale). I suppose that, on one level, you cannot blame them.

If you have successfully created a cash cow it is perhaps only natural that you will react with alarm when someone threatens its ability to inflate your profit statement.

We should note, however, that individuals and companies who perpetuate the wholesale profit driven medication of a significant part of an entire generation cannot be relied upon to provide the most accurate and objective information about how best to deal with ADD/ADHD.

I invite you, in light of the above, to ignore the naysayers and consider the very real benefits that a nutrition based strategy can deliver:

Nutrition based strategies allow you to experiment with less radical solutions. Doctors do not treat a slight pain in the arm by immediately opting for amputation. In the vast majority of cases they will arrive at an effective diagnosis and treatment without making use of radical measures.

It seems, however, that conventional wisdom is thrown out of the window when it comes to the treatment of ADD/ADHD. Here the ‘accepted’ method is to follow diagnosis with the most radical treatment possible: Huge doses of psycho-stimulant drugs.

Our approach is the exact opposite.

We recognize that ADD/ADHD is a multifaceted condition and that there are many different ways to address it. Starting off with a strategy based on sound nutritional principles is perhaps the least invasive way to address the issue and is often a large part of the solution.

Nutrition based strategies recognize the crucial links between the things we eat and brain function. ADD/ADHD can, in most cases, be traced directly to issues with brain function.

These problems are very often due to the absence of the building blocks needed to construct neurotransmitters (the chemicals that allow different parts of the nervous system to ‘talk to each other). Adding nutrients rich in these building blocks (e.g. essential oils, vitamins etc.) can make a huge difference in improving the symptoms of ADD/ADHD.

Managing the energy available to the brain is a key to combatting ADD/ADHD. The brain uses a disproportionate amount of energy when compared to other parts of the body (it makes up about 3% of body weight but uses about 20% of the energy!). Nutritional strategies, especially those centered on Low-GI foods, can ensure that the brain is sufficiently ‘powered up’ to fulfill its vital functions.

Nutrition based strategies are much less risky than the alternatives. Perhaps the single most important benefit of a nutrition based strategy is the fact that you address the symptoms of ADD/ADHD in a natural way.

Medicating ADD/ADHD with stimulants comes with all kinds of strings attached. It is well documented that ADHD drugs can lead to addiction, affect motivation, stunt growth and lead to long term behavioral issues and even suicides.

All of these unwelcome side effects will obviously not happen to every person in every case, but the fact that their occurrence are associated with these drugs should, at the very least, prompt a long hard look at the need for them if they are prescribed.

Nutrition based strategies can help you to avoid the ‘medicalization’ of ADD/ADHD. An ADD/ADHD diagnosis is often viewed as a one-way ticket into the world of professional medicine. It will, in the vast majority of cases, be followed up by prescriptions, consultations and further examinations. In this way the ‘patient’ (as he/she will invariably be called) is subjected to a tiresome and unsettling merry-go-round presented as ‘treatment’.

The ironic outcome of all of this is that it places so much focus on the condition that it can lead the ‘patient’ to obsess about ADD/ADHD rather than getting on with the job of managing it and alleviating the symptoms. Following a nutrition based strategy avoids this merry-go-round (not to mention the massive costs associated with it) by providing ways in which the condition can be managed in natural and home-based ways.

It should be noted that something more than a strategy centered on good nutrition (and appropriate supplements) may be needed in some ADD/ADHD cases.

*It is my firm belief, however, that this will be a minority and that the “3 Steps” approach should first be tried before going for the ‘nuclear option’! *

I am also convinced that there are many other approaches (not involving medication) that can follow on from a nutrition based strategy. Bottom line: We need to get the basics right first and nutrition can play a crucial role in helping us to do just that!

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here The Case for Nutrition Based Treatment of ADD ADHD

Transcript: [spoiler]

Newswoman: The first ever prescription depressant hit the shelves today. Approved by the FDA last month, Despondex is intended as a treatment for the approximately 20 million Americans who are insufferably cheery.

Tests prove the drug is effective at reducing a range of symptoms from squealing loudly when a friend calls to use of the phrase “cool beans” and excessive hugging. Dr. Alban Way calls the drug a huge step forward in the battle against exuberance.

Alban Way: If you’re in a good mood every so often, well, that’s fine. That’s normal. This is for those that have a persistent positive outlook on life.

Newswoman: Eva Hendry of New Haven, Connecticut, began participating in a clinical trial of Despondex six weeks ago.

Eva Hendry: I was always telling people how cute their outfits were and bringing them little gifts. I’d beam at anyone who made eye contact with me. I didn’t realize life didn’t have to be like that.

Newswoman: Eva said she never knew how her annoyingly chipper attitude was affecting those around her.

Eva: Over and over again, I’d ask Jeff to ride his bike down to the botanical garden with me, no matter how many times he said no.

Jeff Hendry: And she was always smiling…

Eva: Mm-hm.

Jeff: …But, I didn’t know what to do to help her.

Eva: I used to think, why am I the only one trying to set up single friends with each other. Now I realize I was sick. I needed treatment.

Newswoman: Eva says the drug may have saved their marriage.

Eva: Now Jeff and I can just waste a night sitting on the couch watching a TV show neither of us enjoys…

Jeff: Mm.

Eva: …Like a regular couple.

Newswoman: Not everyone is convinced that Despondex is the cure-all for perkiness, however; In this week’s “Time Magazine”, Michael Michael Pielocik of UCLA argues that many patients get similar results from natural remedies, something as simple as a diet of corn syrup and white bread and a total lack of exercise. But Dr. Way disagrees.

Alban: We have to erase the stigma attached with getting chirpy people help, real medical help. I mean, do you know what it’s like to be around these people? It’s pretty fucking annoying.

Newswoman: Doctors estimate the new drug could reduce the number of costume or theme parties in the U.S. by up to 40%.

[/spoiler]

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here FDA Approves Anti-Happy Drug [Funny Video]

Most major drug companies would like us to believe that there is only one possible route that we can take after the diagnosis of ADD/ADHD. This route is the one that always ends in the prescription of powerful drugs with which to ‘manage’ the condition. There is, however, a growing realisation that these drugs are not the miracle cures that parents are so often promised.

Research is pointing to the following very troubling consequences of long term ADD/ADHD drug use:
•    Stunted growth
•    Loss of long term motivation
•    Mood swings (Leading, in very extreme cases, to suicidal thoughts)
•    Substantial risk of abuse and addiction

As if the above were not bad enough it is becoming clear that the effectiveness of these drugs decrease over time.  They are therefore often not much more than temporary ‘band aids’ and do not make any difference to the underlying causes of the condition.  These facts are causing more and more people to ask the question: “Is there not a better way!?” Here at ‘3 Steps ADD’ we have always answered the question with an enthusiastic ‘Yes’. This is, in fact, exactly what the three steps are about: A better, natural, way to cope with and triumph over ADD/ADHD.
Pharmaceutical companies tried very hard over the years to paint those who advocate natural responses to the condition as being part of a lunatic fringe.  This is getting harder and harder to do as modern research is pointing to some real successes with natural approaches. 

The fact that there are a number of treatment options that can produce positive outcomes points to the fact that every person is unique. Different techniques will therefore work for different people. It is also a confirmation of the emerging scientific consensus that ADD/ADHD is not a single unified condition but rather a range of conditions.  It therefore makes perfect sense that different ‘ types’ of ADD/ADHD will have to be treated in different ways.

A major article in a recent issue of US News and World report provides an excellent overview of the different drug-free methods that have proven successful in the management and treatment of ADD/ADHD. This article confirms the philosophy that we have been teaching here at ‘3 Steps ADD’. Many of the methods that are detailed in the article are discussed at length in ‘3 Steps to Conquering ADD-ADHD’ and on this website. They include:

Positive Parenting: ADD/ADHD is a recognised neurological condition. This does not mean, however, that positive behavioural techniques and parental guidance cannot make a difference in addressing the condition. Tried and tested parenting techniques (e.g. setting routines, providing a stimulating and nurturing environment and adapting your interactions with your children according to their personalities) can go some way towards alleviating many of the more challenging aspects of the condition.

Nutrition: I firmly believe that nutrition is one of the most important keys to addressing the growing epidemic of ADD/ADHD. Many are the effects of the condition can be traced back to neurotransmitters in the brain not functioning as they should. Very often this is due to the building blocks needed for these transmitters (i.e. fats, vitamins, minerals etc) not being present in the body. This situation can often be very effectively remedied by following a balanced and carefully worked out anti ADD/ADHD diet.

Sufficient sleep: I have already pointed out in an earlier article that many instances of ADHD misdiagnosis can be traced back to a lack of sleep. Ensuring that a child gets the right amount of sleep appropriate to his/ her developmental stage can therefore be one of the most important things that a parent can do to improve attention.

Exercise: There is growing evidence that aerobic exercise can have a marked positive effect on children’s ability to pay attention. Many people would say that you certainly do not need academic studies to tell you this! Earlier generations were very aware of the positive benefits of physical activity and reaped the benefits in the form of better physical and mental health. In our day and age it is perhaps a bit more difficult to make exercise part of your daily routine but it is a discipline that is certainly well worth pursuing.

Exposure to the natural environment: One of the most interesting and most effective approaches to dealing with ADD/ADHD is to make sure that children are regularly exposed to the natural environment. More research is needed on why this is the case. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the natural environment is so effective in stimulating the whole range of our senses. The bottom line is perhaps that we all need to realise that time spent outside should be seen as an essential part of growing up.

The approaches listed above should make it clear that there are many options available for the treatment of ADD/ADHD. These options may perhaps not have the endorsement of ‘Big Pharma’ but that is perhaps exactly the point. None of them involve pumping your kids full of dangerous drugs! I am convinced that natural approaches can work, otherwise I would not have invested so much time and energy into ‘3 Steps ADD’. It is for this reason that I am delighted with the growing willingness to challenge the accepted orthodoxy on how the condition is to be managed.

(Please check back next week when I will discuss some of the other natural methods that was mentioned in the US News and World Report Article)

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Growing Awareness of the Potential Effectiveness of Drug-free treatments for ADD/ADHD

Most parents believe that they have a very good idea of what to look out for when it comes to substance abuse.  Unexplained absences, regular visits to the ‘shady side’ of town and the development of undesirable friendships all feature high on the list of common warning signs. There is no doubt that it is important to pay attention to these obvious areas of concern. A recent study is showing, however, that parents will have to widen their gaze to include things as seemingly innocuous as the family medicine cabinet or the school gate.

The study conducted by the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (and published in the September issue of the journal Pediatrics) analysed calls by 13- to 19-year-olds to poison control centers between 1998 and 2005. Its findings make for sobering reading to say the least. During the period under review, calls related to teenage ADHD medication increased by 76%. This figure is roughly in line with the staggering increase in prescription rates for these kinds of drugs.  This fact underlines one of the basic problems with the industrial scale medication of a significant proportion of an entire generation.

The basic laws of economics teach us that an increase in the supply of a given product almost inevitably leads to a corresponding increase in demand.  This principle acquires an especially vicious edge when it comes to the abuse of illicit drugs.  Drug dealers create artificial conditions of abundant supply (by supplying free samples) only to then create conditions of scarcity once the addictive properties of the drugs hooked the client. With psycho-stimulant drugs that can be legally bought (at least if you have a prescription) the dynamic is slightly different.  Abundant supply is created by over-prescription which means that increasing numbers of young people who are curious about the effects of narcotics, or who perhaps had previous experience with drug use, will make use of the opportunity to get a ‘legal’ high. At least some of them will be keen to use ADD/ADHD drugs on a regular basis as their drug of choice.  The fact that these drugs can be more or less legally acquired makes them all the more appealing as they are a) easier to get hold of b) cheaper and c) more socially acceptable.

It is a sad situation when something that is supposedly designed to help struggling young people creates the perfect conditions for exposing large numbers of them to dangerous habit forming drugs. The study referenced above confirms that this is not merely a hypothetical danger but that many teenagers are in fact being harmed on a daily basis.  What is even more troubling is that misuse of the most dangerous ADHD/ADD drugs (i.e. those based on amphetamines) are far outstripping rises in prescription rates. This is especially true in the case of Aderall. Anecdotal evidence for the growth in demand for Aderall as one of the drugs of choice on school and college campuses has long been dismissed as hearsay by drug companies. This report shows that these dismissals were nothing more than PR exercises.

Can we really afford to believe the bland reassurances that ADD/ADHD drugs are the best solution for dealing with attention problems in our society?  I believe that simply taking this on good faith is a dangerous position.  We need an honest debate in our society about the effects of drugging so many people over such a long time with such dangerous chemicals.  During this debate close attention will need to be paid to the role of the big drug companies and especially to the huge profits that they are making from their flagship ADD/ADHD products.

No one expects large pharmaceutical companies to be in the business for purely philanthropic reasons.  We all understand that these companies are businesses first and foremost and that they have shareholders to keep happy.  However, most of us would also expect these companies to refrain from chasing after profits at any cost. Especially if this means promoting products that can actively harm some of the most vulnerable members of society. I believe that many companies have crossed this line.

The issues surrounding addiction are but the tip of the iceberg of what I believe to be the harmful societal impact of ADD/ADHD drugs. I will use next week’s article to discuss the reasons why I believe this to be the case.  In the meantime I urge you to tread carefully by refusing to accept the soothing reassurances about the safety and efficacy of these drugs at face value.  Instead, ask probing questions and do some research.  Your findings will surprise and shock you. See you next week!

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here More and More Teens Abusing ADD/ADHD Drugs

Over the past few weeks we looked at the impact of the major food groups (carbohydrates, protein and fats) on brain function. This week we turn our attention to the last major nutritional category namely vitamins and minerals. The body, and the brain, needs a wide variety of vitamins and mineral to grow and to thrive. Deficiencies in certain minerals can therefore be potentially disastrous in the sense that the body cannot properly fulfil a particular function.

The human brain relies on certain vitamins and minerals in order to do its job of being the nerve centre of the body. These cannot be manufactured by our bodies and should therefore be derived from our diets. It is however quite difficult to design a diet that consistently provides adequate levels of all the basic vitamins and minerals. This is the reason why many people opt for a vitamin supplement in addition to eating a healthy diet. In designing a diet and/or choosing a supplement it is very important to include sufficient quantities of the most important vitamins and minerals and not just the latest ‘fad vitamin’! This is especially important when you consider the link between impaired brain function and the symptoms of ADD/ADHD. We should therefore all do our best to design our vitamin and mineral intake with the eye firmly on optimum brain performance.

As far as brain function is concerned the most important vitamins and minerals are the following:

Vitamin E

Study after study has shown that Vitamin E can play a significant role in delaying, or blocking, the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. This is due to the fact that Vitamin E can significantly reduce oxidative stress in the brain. This anti-oxidative effect of Vitamin E means that it plays a vital role in combating the natural brain cell ‘damage’ that comes with time. There are several kinds of food that are rich in Vitamin E. They include: almonds, leafy vegetables, most vegetable oils and whole-grain flour. If you choose a supplement containing Vitamin E make sure that it contains ‘mixed topocherols’. This simply means that you will get the two most important Vitamin E components. (Alpha topocherol and gamma topecherol if you are interested)

B Vitamins

B Vitamins are perhaps the most important set of ‘brain vitamins’ that there is. This is because they play such a vital role in assisting the formation of brain messengers like dopamine, epinephrine and serotonin. The most important B Vitamins are:

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Nutrition and the Brain: The Role of Vitamins and Minerals

You may have heard of Wellbutrin, a common drug used to treat depression and sometimes, back pain.  However, it has been used on people with ADD/ADHD.  It seems to act as a stimulant and its drug manufacturer says that their research shows it is just as effective as Ritalin.  Many physicians prescribe Wellbutrin if a patient is unable to tolerate other stimulant medications.

Wellbutrin has a chemical structure that is different from all other antidepressant medication.  While other antidepressants target the brain chemical called serotonin, Wellbutrin does not.  Some physicians think this drug is ideal for treating ADHD because they think it may act on the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine.

If your doctor mentions the use of Wellbutrin, you cannot combine it with Strattera.  Other drug interactions include Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs), anticonvulsant medications such as Dilantin and Tegretol, and ulcer medications such as Tagamet.

Not everyone with ADHD will want to try this drug.  If you have a history of anorexia or bulimia, seizures or brain damage, you should avoid it.  Twenty eight percent of people who take Wellbutrin experience a significant weight loss.

Wellbutrin can be used for ADHD, with caution, if you have bipolar disorder, have weight loss associated with depression, kidney disease, liver disease, and are over the age of 60 years.  In addition, you can use this drug even if you are addicted to diet pills, narcotics, stimulants, cocaine, or over-the-counter stimulants.

What about the side effects?

• restlessness
• agitation
• anxiety
• excessive sweating
• weight loss, decreased appetite
• insomnia
• headache
• ringing in the ears
• dry mouth
• dizziness
• constipation
• nausea
• vomiting
• diarrhea
• tremors
• seizures
• decreased white blood cell count

Wellbutrin has also been associated with a rapid heart beat, mental confusion, and menstrual complaints.  It’s effects during pregnancy are not well understood, so it is best to steer clear.  And if you are breast feeding, you must know that Wellbutrin does pass into breast milk and can cause a serious reaction in your baby.

Some rare side effects that have been reported include a change in hair color, painful erections, no erections, and unusual ejaculations.  Also, the side effects of Wellbutrin in kids under the age of 18 are not known, so this is not an appropriate treatment for them.

In addition to all of the lovely side effects you have just read about, if that’s not enough to cause you concern, consider the issue of withdrawal from Wellbutrin.  Withdrawal from this drug must be done slowly and under the supervision of a physician.  Suddenly stopping Welbutrin can cause unpleasant and potentially serious side effects.

As I write this, I have to wonder why anyone would turn to medication as a first choice of treatment for ADD/ADHD?  Some drug companies will stress that they must list every side effect possible, but that many hardly ever occur.  That may or may not be true.  Pharmaceutical companies prefer to downplay a drug’s side effects, because of course, they want to sell their drugs!  For example, the makers of Wellbutrin have had numerous lawsuits filed against them by patients and their families who suffered from seizures after taking Wellbutrin.  So just how many of the above side effects are you willing to tolerate?  It ultimately becomes a matter of choosing your ADD/ADHD symptoms or to have other symptoms that can prove to be every bit as disruptive!

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here ADD/ADHD Drug Guide – Part 6

This week, we need to take a look at a non-stimulant drug used to treat ADD/ADHD.  It’s brand name is Atomoxetine, but you may recognize it as Strattera.  Despite its very hefty price tag, it is becoming widely used for adults and children.

Strattera is known as a selective norepinephrenine reuptake inhibitor.  This means that it strengthens the chemical signal between the nerves that use norepinephrine to send messages.  It does not seem to affect the dopamine systems as directly as stimulants drugs do, but it does cause a secondary increase in dopamine levels in the brain area located behind your eyes.   This is the area that is associated with the ability to mentally rehearse responses and inhibit impulsivity.  It’s also associated with your working memory.  It is not thought to be at such a high risk for abuse because it is not a Schedule II drug (known for significant potential for addiction) like the stimulants.

While professionals still prefer to try stimulants first, this drug has a gradual and subtle onset.  It takes a few days to reach a maximum effect, and some report they’ve had to take it for as long as 3 weeks before seeing any effects.  It is taken once or twice a day, and that makes it preferable for children as they don’t have to remember a dose at school.

Now that you know how it works, what about side effects, conflicting conditions, etc?  Before beginning Strattera, you should let your doctor know if you have:

• current or past depression, psychosis, or other mental conditions
• substance abuse
• heart disease
• high blood pressure
• epilepsy or another seizure disorder
• liver disease
• kidney disease
• pregnancy, nursing, or plans to become pregnant

Common side effects include the following:

• problems sleeping/insomnia
• dry mouth
• decrease in appetite
• weight loss
• upset stomach
• constipation
• nausea and/or vomiting
• dizziness
• fatigue
• mood swings
• ear infections
• influenza
• irritability

In adults, there can be sexual side effects including a decreased libido, ejaculatory problems, impotence, urination problems, and painful menstrual periods.

Of course, the drug company that makes Strattera, Lilly Pharmaceuticals, says this is a safe drug overall.  They report conducting 6 placebo-controlled studies in children, adolescents, and adults to submit the results to the FDA.  Early studies indicated that the potential for abuse is lower and the side effects milder than those reported when using stimulant medications.

Two of the trials said its effects were as good as those produced by stimulant medications.  The researchers did, however, say they wanted to conduct larger studies to check out this claim.

The short term studies showed that Straterra increased the heart rates and bloodpressures in children.  The long-term effects of increased heart rate and blood pressure are still not known.  Children also fell below their height and weight growth curves during a more long-term study.  The long-term effects are unknown as to whether Strattera use will effect adult height.

The studies also showed side effects in sexual functioning.  Also of concern is the question of how this drug will affect kids whose sexual organs are still developing.

So there you have it – the good, the bad, and the ugly – about taking the non-stimulant Strattera.  I am still of the opinion that if you want to try a “pill” for your ADD/ADHD symptoms, wouldn’t you prefer a more natural route?

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here ADD/ADHD Drug GUide – Part 5

This week, I am going to give you a summary of the side effects for the class of stimulants known as Dextroamphetamines (Dextrostat, Dexedrine, and Dexedrine Spansule) and Mixed Amphetamines (Adderall).  You may see that some of the side effects are the same as those for taking Methylphenidates (Ritalin, Focalin, Concerta, Metadate, and Methlyn), but some are different, so read carefully so you won’t miss anything.

Your treating physician needs to know if any of the following conditions apply to you:

• Glaucoma
• Hardening or blocking of the arteries or heart blood vessels
• Heart disease or defect
• High blood pressure
• History of substance abuse or current use
• Psychotic illness, depressed mood, or suicidal thoughts
• Recent weight loss
• Seizures
• Have taken an MAOI like Carbex, Eldepryl, Marplan, Nardil, or Parnate in the  last 14 days
• Thyroid disease
• Tourette’s Syndrome
• An unusual or allergic reaction to dextroamphetamines, other amphetamines, other medicines, foods, dyes, or preservatives
• Pregnant or trying to become pregnant
• Breast-feeding

The list of medications that can interact with these stimulants is pretty vast and long:

• Alcohol
• Certain migraine medications such as Almotriptan, Eletriptan, Frovatripan, Naratriptan, Rizatriptan, Sumatriptan, and Zolmitriptan
• Lithium
• MAOIs such as Carbex, Eldepryl, Marplan, Nardil, and Parnate
• Melatonin (herbal supplement)
• Meperdine
• Other stimulant medications for ADD/ADHD, weight loss, or to stay awake
• Pimozide
• Procarbazine
• Acetazolamide
• Ammonium Chloride
• Ascorbic Acid
• Glutamic Acid
• Medicines for blood pressure, heart disease, irregular heart beat
• Medicines for colds, sinus, and breathing difficulties
• Meds for depression, anxiety, or psychotic disturbances
• Meds for seizures like Carbamazepine, Phenobarbital, and Phenytoin
• Methanamine
• Norepinephrine
• Propoxyphene
• Sodium Acid Phosphate
• Sodium Bicarbonate

Like the other group of stimulants, the drug company recommends that you tell your physician about ANY prescription of non-prescriptions drugs that you take.  Do not assume something is safe to use with these drugs simply because it isn’t listed!

Now we are back to the side effects you might notice.  Again, you will recognize some of these already, but there are also some side effects that are different as well.

• Allergic reactions like skin rash, itching or hives, swelling of the face, lips, or tongue
• Intense anger, anxiety, or mania
• Chest pain
• Fast, irregular heartbeats
• Fever, or hot, dry skin
• Hallucinations
• High blood pressure
• Muscle twitching
• Uncontrollable head, mouth, neck, arm, or leg movements
• Dizziness
• Headaches
• Loss of appetite
• Nausea, vomiting
• Nervousness, restlessness
• Stomach cramps
• Weight loss
• Trouble sleeping

Jill W. recounted to me her experience with taking Adderall.  She had enough problematic symptoms of ADD that she went to her physician where, predictably, he suggested medication as the first line of treatment.   Like many of us, she said that she’d trusted her doctor and his recommendations.  “After all,” she said, “he’s the doctor.”  He even gave her some samples of Adderall so she could keep her costs down (Hmmm – wonder where he got those???).  She was not told about side effects nor was she asked about any existing medical conditions.

The first thing she noticed was that she had no appetite.  However, Jill said she wasn’t about to report that because she wanted to lose some weight anyway and this seemed like a great “extra.”  She wasn’t sleeping very well, but chalked it up to stress, not the medicine.  She did find herself, in her words, “ready to kick anyone’s a*$ that crossed me,” but still didn’t find these problems to be enough to report to her doctor.

What finally scared her were the chest pains and fast heart beat she began to have for several days in a row.  Convinced she was having a heart attack, she went to the ER where she was sent home with a diagnosis of “panic attack.”  The symptoms persisted until one day, she looked on the insert that came with her Adderall.  There it was in black and white.  Her symptoms matched some of those listed as side effects.

Even though she reported this to her physician, his first recommendation was that he would adjust her dose.  But Jill wasn’t convinced.  She stopped the medication altogether.

Next week, we will explore the class of drugs known as Atomoxetine and Buproprion.

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here ADD/ADHD Drug Guide – Part 4

In the first two articles of the series, we explored the drug class known as stimulants and their role in the treatment of ADD/ADHD.  While the drugs each have unique and differing properties, they also have many side effects.  These range from mildly bothersome to intolerable.  Listen up, people – these drugs are dangerous!  The drug companies don’t want you to know that, and they typically play down what stimulants can do to your body.  They use statements such as, “The benefits far outweigh the problems.”  This is their attempt to alleviate any concerns you might have so that you will buy their medications and use them regularly on a long-term basis!

So what are the side effects we are talking about here?  I am going to discuss them below.  But I want to be perfectly clear – I am NOT trying to scare the dickens out of you about side effects.  You must determine for yourself if this is a path you want to try.  But if you do, please be fully aware of the side effects so that you be be on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary.  Let’s start today with the group of Methylphenidates (Ritalin, Metadate, Methyln, Focalin, or Concerta).

If you are planning on taking Ritalin, Metadate, or Concerta, be sure your physician knows about any of the following conditions you might have:

• difficulties swallowing or a history of blockages of the stomach or intestines
• family history of suicide
• glaucoma
• heart condition or a recent heart attack
• high blood pressure
• history of substance abuse
• liver disease
• mental illnesses including schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, or bipolar disorder
• motor tics, family history, or diagnosis of Tourette’s Syndrome
• overactive thyroid
• seizures
• have taken an MAOI like Carbex, Eldepryl, Marplan, Nardil, or Parnate in last 14 days
• an unusual or allergic reaction to Methylphenidate, other medicines, foods, dyes, or preservatives
• pregnant or trying to become pregnant
• breast-feeding

If you are taking certain medications along with one of these drugs, you need to know that the interactions can be very harmful.  DO NOT take these stimulants if you are taking any of the following medications:

• Atomoxetine
• Lithium
• MAO Inhibitors such as Nardil, Parnate, Marplan, Eldypryl
• Other stimulant medicines such as amphetamines, dextroamphetamine, dexmethylphenidate, modafinil
• Procarbazine

Other medications that MIGHT interact are:

• Medicines for high blood pressure
• Caffeine
• Clonidine
• Drugs used to decrease appetite or cause weight loss
• Medications for depression, anxiety, or psychotic disturbances
• Medicines used to treat seizures
• Warfarin

Interestingly, the drug company mentions that this is not an all inclusive list of possible interactions with medications, so they suggest you give your treating physician a list of everything you take.  This includes non-prescription drugs such as vitamins, herbal supplements, weight loss drugs, etc.

If you aren’t a bit unnerved yet, check out these side effects:

• You may experience an allergic reaction like a skin rash, itching or hives, swelling of the face, lips, or tongue.
• You might feel unusually nervous or anxious.
• You may have chest pain.
• You may notice that you are experiencing a fast and irregular heartbeat.
• You may have a fever or hot, dry skin.
• Your head, mouth, neck, arms, or legs may move uncontrollably.
• You may notice unusual bleeding or bruising.
• Side effects such as weight loss, headaches, and stomach upset may also occur.

Due to its dangerous nature, the government requires that you get a new prescription for these drugs every time you need a refill.  And here’s an interesting caveat:  “These medicines may affect your concentration.”  You mean the very medication you want to take to improve your concentration might actually inhibit it?  Hmmmm.

My point here remains the same.  You cannot afford to be too careful if you decide that medication is your choice of treatment.  But given what you’ve just learned about this first group of stimulants, don’t you think you owe it to yourself or to your child to try other avenues for treatment first?

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here ADD/ADHD Drug Guide – part 3