By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Focus Tip – Use Headphones for ADD ADHD

[spoiler] Hi, Jon Bennett here with 3 Steps to Conquering ADD‑ADHD. And often I get the question, why are you against ADD drugs? And, some people would get upset because we teach natural methods and they feel like that we’re anti‑ADD drug. Well, it’s not necessarily that simple. Number one, we don’t condemn anybody that takes ADD drugs, that’s their choice.

In my case, when I was growing up, when I was younger, my brother was diagnosed with ADD. My parents didn’t have a choice, really. There was no, nobody out there talking about how ADD could be eliminated with natural methods.

For 10 years now, I’ve been teaching people how to do just that. And it’s not stuff that I made up, this is scientific evidence out there that I just collected. It’s been extremely effective.

So, there’s a lot of negative consequences of taking ADD drugs, and I experienced that personally. That’s why I feel so strongly about this, is that, there are side effects, serious side effects, not only physically, but emotionally. And, that just go along with the ADD drugs.

Pressures from peers to sell them the drugs, there’s abuse that goes with them. Physical side effects, just, I mean, there’s a litany of reasons why I feel, bottom line is that we’re not against it, but we want people to understand that there really is another way.

There’s some other things you can try before you just jump in with both feet into ADD drugs. And what’s sad is that, when you go to the doctor, if you don’t do much research on your own, if you’re just the type to kind of go to the doctor, and just assume, you’re going to find yourself taking ADD drugs right away, because that is the only way that our medical community knows how to deal with this condition.

And what’s interesting, too, is that it’s a self‑fulfilling prophecy, because it’s a very vague diagnosis, it’s all based on characteristics. And it’s typically a test that you take that, they ask you some questions. And on any given day, every single person in America could be considered ADD‑ADHD if you look at the criteria.

So, that’s really the reason why our kids these days are being over medicated, in terms of this condition.

And what we teach at 3 Steps to Conquering ADD is that there’s scientific evidence showing that a lot of the reason why we cannot focus at times is because we lack good nutrition. And there’s a lot of reasons why we lack good nutrition, it goes into our modern diets, and how we get our foods these days. And I go into great detail into all of these things I’m talking about in my book, “3 Steps to Conquering ADD.”

But, bottom line of it is really this that we tend to lack certain vitamins and nutrients, everybody does. And, because of this lack of vitamins and nutrients, it makes it difficult for us to focus at times.

In my book, “The 17 Secret ADD Vitamins” I go through 17 different vitamins that, and minerals and nutrients that have been proven to help you focus. And that, if you lack them, it makes it very difficult to focus.

So, basically, I wanted to address this issue that, you know, why are you so anti‑drug? It’s not anti‑drug, if you decide that you want and need to take the ADD drugs, that’s fine. But, what we’re here to do is to show people, “Hey, that’s not your only choice. That’s not your only choice. There’s other things you can do.” It doesn’t make you a bad person if you’re taking ADD drugs, I don’t think that. I have friends that are on ADD drugs. It’s not like that at all.

But what it is, is “Hey, you know, let’s not put a bandaid on the real problem here.” There is underlying causes of this state. You can address it, it may take a little bit of effort, but when you’re talking about getting these vitamins and nutrients, they’re supplementation. I mean, take you two minutes a day to take a high quality absorbable vitamin and cover your bases. And then making some smart healthy choices in terms of what you eat will go a long way.

And it’s very simple, it’s very common sense, but it’s not very common common sense, because you’re not going to hear it unless you go looking for it. And, you know, it’s, we’ve been working very hard over the past 10 years to build this awareness about natural ADD solutions. And, it’s still hard to find.

Other countries are catching on much more quickly. If you look at Australia, they’ve even put laws into place against medication of ADD, ADHD.

But I hope this has addressed that question, why are you so anti‑ADD drug, and I’m not. There’s just a lot that goes with it, that the person that doesn’t do their full researches is not understanding, so buyer beware.

And, hope this was helpful, I’ve got a ton of free resources on our website at 3stepsadd.com. Hope you check it out, and I’ll see you around. Thank you. [/spoiler]

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here 3 Steps NOT Anti ADD ADHD Drug but Pro-Natural

In past articles we have been looking at the way in which a Low GI diet can counteract some of the effects of ADD-ADHD by releasing energy into the bloodstream in a controlled and consistent way. With this week’s article we are going to take a step back in order to emphasize why doing your best to ‘power up your brain’ in the most effective way is so vitally important. In a nutshell this comes down to the fact that nutrition has a direct effect on brain function. Simply put: What you eat plays a key role in how well you think!

There has always been anecdotal and pre-scientific evidence of the role that nutrition plays in keeping our thought processes up and running. People of all generations knew that you feel contented and ‘at peace’ after a good meal and frazzled and irritable when you are hungry. Exploration of the human brain over the past few decades meant that we can now begin to understand exactly why this is the case.

The first thing that is very important to note is that the brain is by far the most energy dependant part of the human body. It accounts for just 2% of average body mass but it is typically responsible for about 20% of all energy use. This means that the changes or deficiencies in nutrition are bound to affect the brain, as the prime energy user of the body, in some way. However the link between the brain and nutrition not only revolves around quantity (although getting enough energy to the brain is of vital importance) but also around quality. The energy and nutritional substances that eventually reach the brain should ideally correspond with the brain’s very specific needs. This is especially important when it comes to the role of neurotransmitters.

Neurotransmitters are chemicals whose primary function is to transmit, strengthen and control the transmission of signals (also known as impulses) between neurons (nerve cells). This means that neurotransmitters play their primary role within the brain itself, since they represent the core component of both the brain and the spinal cord. As such their proper functioning (or not) can influence things as diverse as mood, sleeping patterns and cognitive processes.
Since neurotransmitters are made up out of complex chemicals the body needs the right chemical ‘building blocks’ (e.g. vitamins and minerals) to construct them with. The amount of food we eat, and what it contains, is therefore of prime importance. Consider the following:

• Deficiencies in certain basic nutritional building blocks (through an unbalanced diet or through not eating enough) can cause the body to make use of substandard neurotransmitters. Leading eventually to sub optimal brain function.

• Excess amounts of certain chemicals (e.g. through the presence of toxins derived from pesticides) can severely interfere with the production and functioning of certain neurotransmitters.

The bottom line is that it is possible for our diets to have a significant impact on the way our nervous systems operate. This even to the point where deficiencies and/or excesses of certain chemical and vitamins can lead to nerve damage, loss of memory, limiting of cognitive function and problem solving capabilities, and impairment of the brain’s behavior control centers. When you consider this fact next to the obvious needs of the brain for a reliable and consistent energy supply it becomes clear why proper nutrition is of such vital importance in addressing the effects of ADD-ADHD.

Many of the symptoms of the ADD-ADHD can be traced back directly to impaired brain function. It makes perfect sense therefore to try to get to the bottom of why the brain is not functioning as it should in a person with ADD-ADHD. There could obviously be serious neurological reasons for this but this should perhaps not be the first place where we need to go looking. It would instead be prudent to first ask whether the impulsive behavior and lack of focus so often associated with ADD-ADHD cannot perhaps be traced back to the neurons inside the brain not getting everything they need to fire properly (both in terms of quantity and quality).

Over the next few weeks we will delve a little deeper into the link between nutrition and proper brain function. Attention will also continually be called to the implications of what is being discussed for dealing with ADD-ADHD. Some of the specific things that we will be looking at are: the effects of different food types on brain function, the sources of the best ‘brain foods’, and (returning to the overall Low GI theme) how understanding the Glycemic Index can help you to ‘do the best for your brain’!

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Powering up the Nerve Centre: Nutrition and the Brain

One of the first mistakes people make with ADD-ADHD is to assume that it is a disease or a condition like diabetes.

This leads you down a very scary path.

Before you make this assumption consider this.There at least 50 other conditions that mimic ADD-ADHD symptoms.

You may be displaying ADD-ADHD symptoms because of something you lack in your diet.

OR

More likely you may be displaying ADD-ADHD symptoms because you are not getting enough of a certain vitamin or mineral.

What if you tend to burn off more of the needed vitamin/mineral than the average person?

Think of yourself as a Sport Utility Vehicle…. a Yellow Hummer

Now imagine that most other people are blue ford sedans.

Do you require more gas to go the same distance as the ford sedan?

Of course you do!!!

Does this make you inferior?

Absolutely NOT!

Imagine now that you require high grade gas to run optimally.

What if you put the cheaper 87 grade gas in your tank?

That’s right you will sputter and jerk around, but you will still run.

With “3 Steps To Conquering ADD-ADHD” you can at least rest easy knowing that you are giving your body the right building blocks to function optimally.

If you give your brain and body the right “stuff” your ADD-ADHD symptoms will likely just “go away”

This has worked for thousands of people all over the world.

I am sure it can work for you too.

Jon Bennett

Author, “3 Steps To Conquering ADD-ADHD”

http://3StepsADD.com

ps- ADD drugs only mask the true problem. they are a destructive band-aid that should be avoided at all costs and used
ONLY after all other techniques have been exhausted.

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Avoid Bad Gas For Your Tank [ADD Brain]

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

There’s hardly a person out there who hasn’t used caffeine, and who from time to time, has had too much of it.  The result?  Often people report feeling jittery, nervous, and hyperactive when they have used too much.  That’s because caffeine acts just like an amphetamine!  For others who use too much, they report feeling energized and focused.  So if caffeine can act just like an amphetamine, can it be taken to treat ADHD symptoms?  The answers are mixed.

A number of studies have been conducted to answer this question and the results are not conclusive in one direction or the other.  Some studies argue that the intake of caffeine caused ADHDers to be less impulsive, agressive, more focused, and to have increased hand-to-eye coordination.  When parents and teachers were polled, they believed caffeine was just as effective as taking Ritalin.  Still other studies have proven that the combination of Ritalin and caffeine gave the best benefit.

So, you might be thinking these results don’t seem all that bad.  But consider this.  No one reacts to caffeine in the exact manner as the next person.  You can’t predict who may benefit and who may be harmed by giving caffeine.  In fact, many researchers average the scores of ADHD kids on tests that look at concentration and hyperactivity.  When these scores get averaged, it makes the overall benefits look nonexistent or minimal.  But it doesn’t take into consideration the kids who are severely effected.

The amount of caffeine ingested when you have ADHD will make a difference in how you react, and it appears that the more you take, the worse you become!  Let’s also remember that the amount of caffeine you use is also related to insomina and addiction to caffeine!  This can’t be a good thing!

A low does of caffeine is thought to be about 158-160 milligrams.  Look at the following list and see how quickly you can reach that level.

- Coke has 23 mgs. in 8 ounces

- Diet Coke has 31 mgs. in 8 ounces

- Brewed tea has 20-35 mgs. while instant tea has 10-30 mgs. in 8 ounces

- Chocolate milk has 5 mgs in 8 ounces

- Semi-sweet chocolate (think chocolate chip cookies) has 5-35 mgs. in 1 ounce

If you are a normal adult, you probably drink several caffeinated beverages a day, so it doesn’t take long before you have overdone it.  For children that threshold is even lower.  No one is saying you must give caffeine up.  But if you or your child suffer from ADHD, you cannot ignore that caffeine may have profound effects on your symptoms.  Just because you believe it actually minimizes the bad symptoms, and maximizes the good, the balance of how much caffeine is the perfect dose will change from day to day.  So don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking caffeine is a safe alternative to treat ADHD symptoms.

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Does Caffeine REALLY Affect ADHD?

Spikes, rushes, controlled release… These are all terms that are associated with the release of sugars into the bloodstream following the digestion of different kinds of foods. For some people a discussion of these effects may be mildly interesting but for those who are faced with ADD/ADHD it is of vital importance.

This is why studying Glycemic Index and the way that it can influence moods, behavior and general wellbeing should be a top priority for those who are investigating ways of overcoming ADD/ADHD.

Last week we had an introductory look at how knowing the GI values of different foods can help us to lose weight, and can also improve our general and emotional health.

This week we will focus on how GI values are determined and measured. This information will clearly show that a) The Glycemic Index is not just some kind of faddish concept like so many ‘miracle diets’ out there but that it is built on solid scientific facts and testing, and b) That it is possible to control, to a great degree, the release of sugars into the blood stream by paying careful attention to what you eat.

Interestingly enough GI values cannot be determined by simply looking at the composition of certain foodstuffs. The main reason for this that the human digestive system is very complex and often respond in different ways to seemingly similar foods. This means that GI values can only be accurately determined in trials using live human guinea pigs! The most common way in which this is done is the following:

• 10 Volunteers are asked to eat a portion of food containing 50 grams of carbohydrates that are readily digestible (also known as ‘available carbohydrates’). This means that the portions that they will be asked to eat can vary from relatively small for food with lots of carbohydrates (like pasta), to very large for foods with low amounts of carbohydrates (like carrots).

• The participants in the study will then be asked to submit to a finger-prick every 15 minutes over a two hour period (Don’t feel too sorry for them, they are normally very well compensated for their troubles!) and the sugar content in the blood that is drawn will then be analyzed.

*The data gained from the blood analysis will then be used to construct a ‘glucose response curve’ for every person over the two hour period. This curve will reflect the level of glucose in that person’s blood over that time.
*The same ten people will be asked to come back on another occasion where they will take part in the ‘control leg’ of the test by consuming a portion of pure glucose sugar (the ‘control food’ used as a reference point for determining GI values) with the same amount of carbohydrates as the food that is being evaluated. Blood sugar samples will again be taken and a glucose response curve drawn up for each person.

*As a last step the scientists will then average out the sugar response curves for all ten people in both tests. The GI value for the test food will then be determined by contrasting the average blood sugar response to the test food to the average response to pure glucose. The value is normally plotted on a sliding scale from 1 – 100.

The remainder of this module is available inside the “3 Steps To Conquering ADD” Member’s Only Area.

For more information visit http://3StepsADD.com

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here How Glycemic Index Values are Measured [ADD ADHD]

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

This video will help you understand how important it is for you to keep your brain from starving.

ADD drugs like Adderall, Vyvance, Concerta, and Ritalin (and many others) artificially manipulate these chemicals.

This acts as a band-aid to the true “cause” of the ADD ADHD symptoms.

Check it out and please leave me your comments

Jon Bennett

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here 5 Brain Chemicals ADD ADHD People Lack

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.

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

Understanding the Shifts in Human Nutrition – The Role of Chemicals (Part 1)

With last week’s article I began to touch on the subject of how our perceptions of food changed over the past few decades. I did this by pointing out how food was viewed in the past.

When asked to describe food as a category past generations would very likely have used the following words:

Scarce

Seasonal

Natural

Fresh

Hard work

It does not take a genius to work out that the words used above are a world away from how most of us would describe food today.

Our relationship with what we put in our mouths has been so radically altered that our forebears would probably have shaken their heads in amazement at our strange beliefs and habits.

The problem is that the changes in our perception had some pretty spectacular negative fallouts, the magnitude of which we are only now beginning to understand.

Yet understand them we must, because I firmly believe that many of our modern ailments, including many ADD/ADHD cases, can be traced back to poor food choices.

Over the next few weeks we will examine the impact of some of these choices by focussing on our modern ‘answers’ to perceptions about food listed above. This week we take a look at the wholesale abandoning of the belief that food should be natural.

It is very difficult to put something in your mouth these days without also taking in quite a few chemicals that were certainly not part of the original composition of your food source. There are several drivers behind this phenomenon. They include:

*‘Protection’ of food sources: Humankind has always tried to protect our food sources, this is evidenced in the fact that scarecrows date back millennia!

Modern man has taken this quest for protection much further by developing a vast array of powerful pesticides to protect food sources. Good crops resulted but at what price?

*The quest for ‘perfection’: Our forebears knew that the shape of a tomato makes no difference to its taste or nutritional value. Apparently we are not that smart! The quest towards ‘perfect’ products not only lead to massive wastage as tons of ‘less than perfect’ food are thrown away every year, it also lead to the application of many chemically based methods to produce uniform food products.

• The hunt for profit: One of the easiest ways that a farmer can increaseprofits is through increased yield i.e. the more grain that you can harvest

  from a field, or the more meat you can cut from an animal, the more

  money you make. It is only a short step from this basic principle of

  economics to the use of tools like chemicals and/or growth hormones to

  make increased yield possible.

The result of all of this is that most of the food that we eat could hardly be described as ‘natural’ by any stretch of the imagination. Most people are not too fazed by this fact since they realize that they are only taking in a tiny amount of a given chemical or pesticide.

The problem is, however, that they are not taking into account the cumulative effect of such products. Most of the chemicals in our diet are completely unnatural and our bodies are therefore very ill equipped to deal with them. This could result in a build up of those chemicals in our system. Bottom line: A few bites of food with minute amounts of harmful chemicals will probably not do too much harm. Thousands of bites over an extended period is another matter however!

The damage that the chemicals in our food wreak does not stop at the plate. We might be getting infinitesimal amounts but the environment isn’t. Many scientists believe that the true extent of the pollution to soil and water sources caused by pesticides will affect human health for generations to come.

It is a sad irony that our society’s blind rush to an endless supply of perfect looking foods have yielded such, if you will pardon the pun, bitter fruits!

Our obsessions with wholesome looking food may have created visually appealing shop aisles but at what price?

Our grandparents used to say: “You are what you eat!” If this is the case then most modern people need to take a long hard look at the chemical composition of what is on their plates. This is especially relevant in the case of people dealing with the effects of ADD/ADHD.

When you consider that many cases of ADD/ADHD can be traced back to defective neurotransmitter activity and that neurotransmitters are extraordinarily sensitive to the influence of ‘foreign’ chemicals it just makes sense to carefully monitor the possible sources of such chemicals. With next week article I will try to help you to step up that monitoring as we take a look at some specific examples of harmful chemicals that enter our systems through mass produced food.

I will also make some suggestions on taking back control over the chemical content of your meals.

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here ADHD and Chemicals in Our Food

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

In this video I share “How to start each day right”

Although many of these tips are very basic and common sense, they can make a huge difference.

Please try them and let me know how this helps eliminate your ADD ADHD symptoms naturally!

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here How to Start Each Day Right [Video]

It’s time for us to start rejecting the labels that
our medical industry has invented for the sole
purpose of profit.

When someone labels you, they are trying to
put you in a box that they can understand and
“treat”

I am quite certain our creator has made each of us
wonderful and unique…

Each with a profound capacity for greatness.

please share this video

Have a great day!

Jon Bennett

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Let Them Choose their own Labels!

Problems with American Education System for ADD ADHD Children

The education system is not designed to allow for ADD ADHD children to flourish. They are often mislabeled and pressured into taking ADD ADHD drugs.

Dr. Mate explains why standardized testing penalizes the best teachers.

Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Gabor Maté, there’s a whole debate about education in the United States right now. How does this fit in?

DR. GABOR MATÈ: Well, you have to ask, “How do children learn?” And learning is an attachment dynamic as well. You learn when you want to be like somebody. So you copy them, you learn from them. You learn when you’re curious, and you learn when you’re willing to try something. And if it doesn’t work, you try something else.

Now, here’s what happens: caring about something, and being curious about something, and recognizing that something doesn’t work, you have to have a certain degree of emotional security. You have to be able to be open and vulnerable. Children who become peer-oriented —because the peer world is so dangerous and so fraught with bullying and ostracization, and “dissing,” and exclusion and negative talk- how does a child protect himself or herself from all of that negativity in the peer world? Because children are not committed to each others’ unconditional, loving acceptance. Even adults have a hard time giving that. Children can’t do it. Those children become very insecure, and emotionally, to protect themselves, they shut down. They become hardened, so they become “cool.” Nothing matters, “cool” is the ethic.

You see that in the rock videos: it’s all about cool. It’s all about aggression and cool and no real emotion. Now, when that happens, curiosity goes because curiosity is vulnerable. Because you care about something and you’re admitting that you don’t know. You won’t try anything because if you fail, again, your vulnerability is exposed. So, you’re not willing to have trial and error. And, in terms of who you’re learning from, as long as kids are attaching to adults, they are looking to the adults to be modeling themselves on, to learn from, and to get their cues from.

Now, kids are still learning from the people they’re attached to, but now it’s other kids. So you have whole generations of kids who are looking to other kids now to be their main cue-givers. So teachers have an almost impossible problem on their hands. And unfortunately, in North America again, education is seen as a question of academic pedagogy. Hence these terrible standardized tests. And the very teachers who work with the most difficult kids are the most penalized.

AMY GOODMAN: Because if they don’t have good standardized test scores in their class, they could be fired. They are seen as bad teachers, which means that they’re going to want to kick out any the difficult kids.

GABOR MATÉ: Yes. That’s exactly it. The difficult kids are kicked out and teachers will be afraid to go into neighborhoods because of troubled family relationships- that kids are having difficulties, that kids are peer oriented, that kids are not looking to the teachers. And this is seen as a reflection. So actually, teachers are being slammed right now because of the failure of the American society to produce the right environment for child development.

AMY GOODMAN: Because of the destruction of American childhood.

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

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Problems with American Education System for ADD ADHD Children

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 explains how stress can cause ADD ADHD.

Stress changes the brain chemistry and lowers important neurotransmitter levels.

“3 Steps To Conquering ADD” teaches you how to restore these levels in a healthy naturally way, thereby eliminating ADD ADHD symptoms naturally.

AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned you suffered from ADD- attention deficit disorder- yourself and were drugged for it. Explain your own story.

DR. GABOR MATÈ: Well, I was in my early fifties and I was working in palliative care at the time- I was a coordinator palliative care unit at a large Canadian hospital- and a social worker in the unit who had just been diagnosed as an adult told me about her story.

AMY GOODMAN: Just diagnosed as an… an addict?

DR. GABOR MATÈ: An adult. This social worker was diagnosed at age 38.

AMY GOODMAN: Oh, as an adult she suffered with ADD.

DR. GABOR MATÈ: Right, as an adult. And as a physician, I was like most physicians who know nothing about ADD. Most physicians really don’t know anything about the condition. But when she told me her story, I realized that was me. And subsequently, I was diagnosed.

AMY GOODMAN: What was that story? What did you realize was you?

DR. GABOR MATÈ: Oh, uh, poor impulse control for a lot of my life. Impulsive behaviors, disorganization, tendency to tune out a lot, be absent minded, and physical restlessness- I had a lot of trouble sitting still. All the traits that I saw in the literature on ADD, I recognized and myself. It was kind of an epiphany, in a sense, because you get to understand- or, at least you get a sense of why you’re behaving the way you’re behaving. What never made sense to me from the beginning, thought, is the idea of ADD as a genetic disease. Not even after a couple of my kids were diagnosed with it, I still didn’t buy the idea that it’s genetic, because it isn’t. Again, it has to do with- in my case- very stressed circumstances as an infant, which I talked about on a previous program. In the case of my children, it’s because their father was a workaholic doctor who wasn’t emotionally available to them. Under those circumstances, children are stressed. I mean, if children are stressed when their brains are developing, one way to deal with stress is to tune out.

AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned that you described this in a previous interview, but described it now. Describe your youth.

DR. GABOR MATÈ: I was a baby in Budapest, Hungary, in 1945. Born in January- two months before the Germans occupied Hungary. Jewish parents- my father was away in forced labor, my grandparents were killed in Auschwitz. My mother was a very stressed and depressed woman who could barely assure my own survival. And at a certain point, I was separated from her for a few weeks, at eleven months of age. She obviously could not give me a sense of comfort and ease and attuned communication. Her life itself was in danger- and mine- so her focus was simply on survival. Under circumstances like that, the child’s brain just doesn’t get the kind of emotional input that the circuits need for their healthy development.

But it doesn’t have to be as dramatic as that, you see? All you need is people who are very stressed in their lives- as under the current economic crisis, for example. In Windsor, Ontario- which is a twin city of Detroit, and therefore an auto making town in Canada- in 2009, the number of visits for childhood mental health disorders went up 50%. So what happens is the parents are stressed because of their economic status and the uncertainty, and the children are diagnosed with mental health disorders.

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

Please Comment Below!

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Dr. Mate explains how stress causes ADD ADHD

“If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original…”

In this video you will hear from Sir Ken Robinson.

I am mid-way through his book “The Element” and I am astonished that I have not read this sooner.

This is a MUST read…

Trust Me It is relevant to ALL of us, but I believe it hits a special chord with us ADDers.

I thought it was very fitting to share this on the heels of my new “ADHD Teacher’s Guide”

I wanted to thank all of you for making it a huge success.

It has gone viral.

My hope is that the information in the guide makes classrooms all over the world just a little better.

If you have not downloaded it or shared it with a teacher…

Get it Here

http://3stepsadd.com/ADHDTips/?p=232

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Do Schools Kill Creativity?

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

In this Video, Dr. Mate explains the importance of healthy brain development and debunks the idea that ADD ADHD is a genetic disorder.

DR. GABOR MATÈ: The fundamental thing that I want to get across here is that- and I made the point in my book about addiction, as well- the human brain does not develop on its own. It does not develop according to the genetic program. It depends very much on the environment. The essential condition for the physiological development of these brain circuits that regulate human behavior, that give is empathy, that give us a social sense, that give as connection with other people, that gives a connection with ourselves, that allows us to mature- the essential condition for those circuits, for those physiological development is the presence of emotionally available, consistently available, non-stressed, attuned, parenting, caregivers. Now, what do you have in a country where the average maternity leave is six weeks? These kids don’t have emotional caregivers available to them. What do you have in a country where poor women- nearly 50% of them- suffer from postpartum depression? When a woman has postpartum depression, she can’t be attuned to the child.

AMY GOODMAN: What about fathers?

DR. GABOR MATÈ: The situation with fathers is that increasingly now, there was study recently that showed increasing numbers of men are having postpartum depression as well. And the main role of the father, of course, would be to support the mother. But when people are stressed emotionally… The cause of postpartum depression in the mother it is not intrinsic to the mother. Not intrinsic to the mother. What we have to understand here is that human beings are not discrete, individual entities, contrary to the ‘free enterprise’ myth- that people are competitive, individualistic, private entities. What people actually are are social creatures very much dependent on one another, and very much programed to cooperate with one another when the circumstances are right. If that’s not available- if the support is not available for women- that’s when they get depressed. When the fathers are stressed they’re not supporting women in that really important, crucial bonding role in the beginning. In fact, they get stressed and depressed themselves. The child’s brain development depends on the presence of non-stress, emotionally available parents. In this country, that’s less and less available. Hence, you’ve got burgeoning rates of autism in this country. It’s gone up like twenty or thirty fold in the last thirty or forty years.

AMY GOODMAN: Say what you mean by autism.

DR. GABOR MATÈ: Autism is a whole spectrum of disorders, but the essential quality of it is emotional disconnect. These children are living in a mind of their own. They don’t respond appropriately to emotional ques. They withdraw, they act out in aggressive, and sometimes just unpredictable fashion. They don’t know how to, um, there’s no sense of emotional connection and just peace inside them.

And there are many, many more kids in this country- a several fold increase, twenty-fold increase in the last 30 years- the rates of anxiety amongst children is increasing. The number of kids on the anti-depressant medications has increased tremendously. The number of kids being diagnosed with bipolar disorder has gone up. And then, not to mention all the behavioral issues- the bullying that we mentioned, the precocious sexuality, the teenage pregnancies. There is now a program- a so-called ‘reality show’–that just focuses on teenage mothers. In other words…

See, it never used to be that children grew up and stressed, nuclear family- that wasn’t a normal basis for child development. The normal basis for child development has always been the clan, the tribe, the community, the neighborhood, the extended family. Essentially, post-industrial capitalism has completely destroyed those conditions. People no longer live in the communities which are still connected to one another. People don’t work where they live, they don’t shop where they live. The kids don’t go to school, necessarily, where they live. The parents are away most of the day. For the first time in history, children are not spending most of their time around the nurturing adults in their lives. They’re spending their lives away from the nurturing adults, which is what they need for healthy brain development.

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

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here ADD ADHD NOT a Genetic Disorder

In this video we see how the “executive center” of the brain is literally asleep.

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here ADD-ADHD Brains are literally “Asleep”

Dr. Gabor Mate explains ” the destruction of American Childhood” and how it is contributing to ADD ADHD symptoms.

Transcription…

AMY GOODMAN: In a little bit, I want to ask you about how taking all this medication- being so heavily medicated, especially for young person- affects their development. But I want to go to the point you just raised about the destruction of American childhood. What do you mean by that?

DR. GABOR MATÈ: The conditions in which children develop have been so corrupted and troubled over the last several decades that the template for normal brain development is no longer present for many, many kids. And Dr. Bessel Vanderkolk- who is a Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University in Boston- he actually says that the neglect or abuse of children is the number one public health concerning the United States. A recent study coming out of Notre Dame by a psychologist there has shown that the conditions for child development that hunter-gatherer societies provided for their children- which are the optimal conditions for development- and are no longer present for our kids. She said, actually, that the way we raise our children today in this country is increasingly depriving them of practices that lead to well-being in the moral sense. What is really going on here now is that the development of conditions for healthy childhood- psychological and brain development- are less and less available. So that the issue of ADD is only small part of the general issue: children are no longer having the support for the way they need to develop.

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

What do you think?

Please Comment Below

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Destruction of Child Development to Blame for ADD ADHD

Hi fellow ADDers. Below is a recent interview with Dr. Gabor Mate. He has some wonderful views on how we can better address ADD ADHD Issues.

Transcript…

[spoiler]

AMY GOODMAN: New figures show the number of U.S. children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder–ADHD–has grown 22% since 2003. Earlier this month, the Center for Disease Control reported that one in ten children now have ADHD, an increase of one million since 2003. The spike in diagnoses of ADHD and other mental disorders has fueled an unprecedented reliance on pharmaceutical medications to treat children, with long-term effects that remain unknown. The conventional response has also emphasized coercive methods with parents and schools encouraged to focus on regulating children’s behavior.

Well, the Canadian physician and bestselling author Dr. Gabor Maté argues that these responses are treating surface symptoms as causes while ignoring deeper roots. Whether it’s in mental disorders like ADHD or in rampant instances of bullying Dr. Maté says, “Children are, in fact, reacting to the broader collapse of the nurturing conditions needed for their healthy development.” Instead of focusing on regulating children’s behavior, Dr. Mate argues that we should be look at how those nurturing conditions can be improved. Dr. Gabor Maté the author of four books including Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What You Can Do About It and, with Dr. Gordon Neufeld, Hold On To Your Kids: Why Parents Need To Matter More Than Peers. Earlier this year, he appeared on Democracy Now! to discuss his work on drug addiction, as well as on the mind-body connection, the role of emotions and stresses in the development of chronic illnesses. Dr. Maté recently returned to our studio to talk about ADHD, parenting, bullying, the education system, and how a litany of stresses on the family environment is impacting American children.

DR. GABOR MATÈ : In the United States right now there are three million children receiving stimulant drugs for ADHD.

AMY GOODMAN: And ADHD means?

DR. GABOR MATÈ : Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. There are about half a million kids in this country receiving heavy duty anti-psychotic medications. Medications such as those are usually given to adult schizophrenics to regulate their hallucinations. But in this case, children are getting it to control their behavior. So what we have is a massive social experiment of the chemical control of kids’ behavior with no idea of the long-term consequences of these heavy duty anti-psychotics on kids.

I know that Canadians statistics just last week showed that within last five years, 43% increase in the rate of dispensing stimulant prescriptions for ADD or ADHD, and most are going to boys. In other words, what we are seeing is an unprecedented burgeoning of the diagnosis. I should say, really I’m talking about- more broadly speaking- what I would call the destruction of American childhood, because ADD is the template, or just an example of what’s going on. In fact, according to a recent study published in the States, nearly half of American adolescents now meet some criteria for mental-health disorders. So we’re talking about a massive impact on our children of something in our culture not been recognized.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain exactly what attention deficit disorder is, and what attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is.

DR. GABOR MATÈ: Specifically ADD is a compound of three categories called, um, a set of symptoms. One has to do with poor impulse control. So, these children have difficulty controlling their impulses. When their brains tells them to do something, from the lower brain centers, there is nothing up here in the cortex- which is where the executive functions are, which is where the functions are that are supposed to tell us what to do and what not to do. Those circuits just don’t work. So there is poor impulse control- they act out, they behave aggressively, they speak out of turn, they say the wrong thing. Adults with ADD with shop compulsively – or impulsively, I should say. And again, behave in an impulsive fashion. So: poor impulse control.

But again, please notice that the impulse control problem is general amongst kids these days. In other words, it’s not just the kids diagnosed with ADD, but a lot of kids. And there are a whole lot of new diagnoses now. And children are being diagnosed with a lot of things- ADD is just one example. There is a new diagnosed called Oppositional Defiant Disorder which again has to do with behaviors and poor impulse control. So that impulse control has become a problem now amongst children in general, not just the specifically diagnosed with ADD. The second criteria for ADD is physical hyperactivity. So the part of the brain, again, that is supposed to regulate physical activity and keep you still just, again, does not work. And then finally, the third criteria is poor attention skills. Tuning out, not paying attention, mind being somewhere else, absent mindedness, and not being able to focus. Beginning to work on something and five minutes later the mind goes somewhere else. Kind of a mental restlessness, a lack of being still, lack of being focused, and a lack of being present. These are the three major criteria of ADD.

[/spoiler]

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

Please tell us what you think! – Comment Below!!

By Jon Bennett Original post can be found here Dr. Gabor Mate “What is ADD ADHD?”