An Epidemic of ADHD
| Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is being
diagnosed in epidemic proportions. When we wrote Ritalin-Free
Kids four years ago, at least two million children in the United States
were currently taking
amphetamine medications (including Ritalin, Dexedrine and Cylert- it was before Adderall) for ADHD. That was more than one in every thirty children ages five to eighteen. As far back as 1988, half a million children were being prescribed stimulants for ADD. The number quadrupled over the next eight years. Doctors in the United States were prescribing five times the quantity of stimulants for children as the rest of the countries of the world combined. In the U.S., these drugs are regulated by the Drug Enforcement Association (DEA). In 1990, 750,000 children were diagnosed with ADD. By 1996 the figure topped three million. |
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Now, in the year 2000, from 4 percent to 12 percent of school-age children in the U.S. alone have been diagnosed with ADHD. In our experience in treating over 1500 children with behavioral and learning problems from the U.S. and abroad, we find children as young as two years old being diagnosed with, even medicated for, ADHD. Now, four years since the release of our book, as we wrote a revised edition, public awareness has finally caught up to the magnitude of the crisis of overdiagnosis and overmedication. There has been such a loud public outcry over the use of drugs to alter youngsters’ behavior (especially preschoolers) particularly Ritalin and Prozac, that the White House has stepped in. The government has pledged $5 million to study children taking Ritalin for ADHD and to redouble efforts to research labeling and dosage of psychiatric drugs for youngsters.
Imagine the following scenario:
your eight-year-old Trevor has just entered second grade.
His teacher, Mrs. Thompson, quickly notices that Trevor wriggles around
in his seat and cannot keep his hands off of the children around him. He
has a tendency to ask lots questions of questions in class, which Mrs.
Thompson considers disruptive to the rest of the class. When she
tries to reprimand Trevor, he crawls under his desk and refuses to come
out. P aying attention to the teacher's instructions is beyond Trevor,
and he cannot seem to follow through on completing his homework and turning
in assignments.
His handwriting is a disaster. Within a matter of weeks,
you start receiving notes about Trevor’s problem behaviors. Within two
months, the teacher asks to have a conference with you. "Have you heard
of ADHD?", she inquires. "I recommend that you have him evaluated and put
on Ritalin or Adderal." You exit filled with an array of emotions ranging
from frustration with your child, anger at Mrs. Thompson for suggesting
that Trevor needs drugs, concerns about your parenting, and confusion about
what to do next..
Many of these parents end up in the office of their family physician, a psychologist or a psychiatrist seeking prescriptions for amphetamines for their children. Other parents initially refuse to consider giving drugs to their children, then change their minds out of fear that they will ruin their children's opportunities to learn and mature normally. Once children like Trevor begin taking stimulants, they often need to continue the medication for five to ten years, sometimes for life.
We Have a Better
Answer for ADHD
But there is another group of parents: the ones we see
and talk to every day in our office. These parents either already have
tried drugs for their children and are seeking a different option or refuse
to do so from the beginning. We offer these parents a type of treatment
that we feel is even more effective than stimulant drugs, as well as safe
and natural: homeopathic medicine. Many of these parents have read Ritalin-Free
Kids and have had no prior exposure to homeopathy. In fact, they may have
never even heard the
term. They read the cases is our book, appreciate what
they read, are inspired and filled with hope, and call us. Since there
is a limited, though growing, number of experienced homeopathic practitioners
in the U.S., we treat many of these kids by telephone.
Homeopathy is a 200-year-old medical art and science that
was founded by a German physician, Samuel Hahnemann, in the late
1700s, however its roots go back thousands of years. By 1900, it was practiced
by one out of every six medical doctors in the U.S. , and is widely practiced
in Europe, India, and South America. There are a number of factors that
make homeopathy unique and
desirable to parents of kids with ADHD:
The medicines come from nature and are free of worrisome
side effects. Ritalin, on the other hand, can produce sleeplessness, anxiety,
appetite loss, growth retardation, tics, and other symptoms.
Homeopathy treats the whole child. Not only will her
attention and behavior improve, often dramatically, with the correct homeopathic
medicine, but so will any physical problems such as allergies, asthma,
headaches and stomach aches.
Each child is considered as a unique human being rather than lumped into a category. The initial interview takes one to one and a half hours and subsequent interviews last half an hour. A homeopath spends lots of time understanding the thinking and feeling of the child.
There are over 2000 different homeopathic medicines. It is up to the homeopath to choose the one that best matches the child’s state. Medicines are given very infrequently. A single dose of the right homeopathic medicine can last months, or even a year. The medicine is not repeated unless there is a relapse.
A Typical
Case from Our Practice
Grace brought in her son Jeff to see us when he was eight.
Under evaluation for ADHD at the local children's hospital because of his
inability to sit still and pay attention in the classroom, kindergarten
had been a nightmare for Jeff. His teacher couldn't control his behavior.
His attitude was terrible. Staying in his seat was impossible. Jeff jumped
up every few minutes to sharpen pencils or chatter with his friends. Anything
and everything distracted him. His mind drifted constantly. "He can even
hear the grass grow," his mother explained. Jeff simply could not hang
onto directions. He talked out in class on a regular basis. His teachers
lost patience with Jeff because of his interruptions and inability to focus.
Jeff was quite a storyteller. He also conveniently forget to tell his mother
when
he got into trouble at school. Academic abilities were
a real problem and Jeff was held back in the first grade because he couldn't
read. When we first saw this child, he had just started the second grade
and was writing his numbers and letters backwards.
Jeff suffered huge mood swings. He could be "happy as a lark or mad as a hornet"- crying, screaming, swearing, slamming doors, and alternately telling his mother that he loved and hated her.
Life was a scary place for Jeff. He was afraid to look out of the windows at night, slept in bed with his brother until recently because he was afraid to be alone, and held his mom’s hand during scary movies until he was seven. He didn't like the dark and slept with a night light. Jeff complained of diarrhea, stomach aches, and a constant runny nose and became wound up and wild after eating sugar.
We prescribed Lycopodium (club moss) for Jeff because
it fit his symptoms quite well. Two months after he was given the
medicine, Jeff got his highest marks in school ever. The dyslexia was improving,
he was able to sit sill, raise his hand, and pay attention in class. Over
the next eighteen months, Jeff's behavior steadily improved. He was able
to make new friends more easily, the other children started to look up
to Jeff because he was so agile in physical education. Jeff acted less
impulsively and his teachers reported
that he was extremely well behaved. He accomplished two
years of math in six months and, for the first time, the teachers recognized
that Jeff was very bright. They removed him from special education classes
where had been placed due to his unruly behavior. Now, three years after
beginning homeopathy, he continues to do very well in a regular classroom.
Not Only Kids,
Not Only ADHD
Everything you have read here about homeopathic treatment
of kids applies to adults as well. If you are an adult with ADHD, you
may or may not be driven and wired, but your problems with concentration
and follow through are likely to haunt you for life, preventing you from
attaining the happiness and sense of accomplishment that you seek and deserve.
We have had many cases of adults whose lives have turned
around dramatically after homeopathic treatment. The same is true for children
with many other behavioral and learning problems ranging from learning
disabilities,Asperger’s disorder and autism, oppositional-defiant disorder,
depression, anxiety, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and others.
We expect at least a 70 percent improvement across the board in most cases
if parents stick with treatment for at least a year. The positive changes
begin to be evident within four to six weeks after taking the correct homeopathic
medicine.
Not a Self-Treatment
There are many conditions that respond beautifully
to homeopathic self-care. This is NOT true of any chronic condition such
as ADHD and other behavioral and learning problems. It takes years
of training to know which medicine to give a child, what to expect, when
to wait and when to change the prescription, and how to achieve a dynamic
transformation in the child. It is find to trust yourself to treat a cold
or a flu, but find a qualified and experienced homeopath to treat your
precious child. If none is available locally, we treat adults and children
by phone
Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman and Robert Ullman are licensed naturopathic physicians board certified in homeopathy. They are the authors of six books on homeopathy including:
Rage-Free Kids, Homeopathic Medicine for Defiant, Aggressive, and Violent Children |
Ritalin-Free Kids, Safe and Effective Homeopathic Medicine for Add and Other Behavioral |
Prozac-Free Homeopathic Medicine for Depression, Anxiety, and Other Mental and Emotional Problems |
Homeopathic Self-Care: The Quick and Easy Guide for the Whole Family |
as well as the upcoming
Whole Woman Homeopathy: The Comprehensive Guide to Homeopathic Treatments for PMS, Menopause, Cystitis, and Other Problems |
