My son, now 23, was diagnosed with ADHD at 3 years old. He slept, AT MOST, 4 hours out of 24.
Even when sleeping, he fidgeted, tossed and turned and was generally unable to get any real rest.
When he was awake, he was literally bouncing off the walls BUT had such a sunny, loving and upbeat
personality, it was hard for me, at first, to accept his diagnosis.
All I had ever heard up to that point about ADHD were bad and negative things.
His father had symptoms of Agent Orange from his service in Viet Nam.
At the time my son was diagnosed with ADHD, I was told that:
This could have caused or at least contributed to my son’s having ADHD.
Over 85% of children with ADHD are boys.
Over 50% of children with ADHD will out grow it by puberty.
I have a great ebook about ADHD here, which is one of the products from my
Health Biz Super Site collection.
ADHD is an illness that starts in childhood. A child with ADHD has trouble sitting still,
doesn’t finish things that he or she begins and usually acts without first thinking things
through. This is a real illness that can change the way your child acts, feels, or thinks.
There are many different treatments for ADHD, drugs being just one of them. In fact,
drugs should always be a last resort that is almost never used (when in fact,
quite the opposite is true today).
You will notice that a child with ADHD may fidget or wiggle a lot more than usual when expected to sit still. Some seem to be daydreaming. Both are signs that the child may be affected by ADHD. When these behaviors interfere with the child’s ability to concentrate in school, make public outings dangerous for the child or make making friends difficult, there is cause for alarm and the child should be tested for ADHD. Parents may have a difficult time figuring out what to do with the child or may not even have the slightest idea of what to do.
Parents may think that some of these behaviors are normal for any child and may be in denial about their child’s condition. The good news is that it is an illness that can be treated effectively and can make the child feel much better about him or herself. This is very important because increasing the child’s self esteem will be essential to treatment. The child may feel like a failure, when he or she definitely is not. A common childhood illness, ADHD can be controlled and the child may even grow out of it eventually, as he or she begins to mentally mature and the symptoms simply disappear.
The causes of the illness are not yet definitely known but it is known that it usually runs in families. (This may be accurate, as both of my son’s half brothers, with the same Father but a different Mother; both also had extreme cases of ADHD.) Some doctors believe that there is not one single factor but combinations of factors that may contribute to the illness. So, if you are worried about your child’s behavior, you should take your child for a simple evaluation. Your child will not be immediately diagnosed with ADHD but will be checked for all possible answers to the problem. The possibility does exist that the child may have other problems that cause him or her to behave the way that he or she does. Other conditions can be mistaken for ADHD easily. It may even just be a bad diet or a lack of sleep that is causing poor brain functioning.
If it is found that the child does not have any other problems, it may be diagnosed that the child does, in fact, have an attention deficit disorder that needs treatment. Behavior therapy may be recommended. This involves meeting with doctors to work with your child on skills to help improve the problem. Working on building relationships, rules, limits and choices. Medication may be prescribed as an accompanying aid to behavior treatments. The very best results are possible when these things are worked on together. So, it is extremely important that you take action, not be in denial, and realize that it is not your fault that your child has this problem. Treatments are necessary and help from a qualified physician should be sought as soon as possible.
Do you have or know a child with ADHD? Were YOU a child with ADHD?
I would love to see your comments – let me know what you think!
I invite you to visit my Digital Health Biz SuperStore.

May 15th, 2011
Jan Tallent
Posted in
Tags:
