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I’ve been a dentist for over 27 years and have pretty good
knowledge of how drugs work. I am also the parent of two
boys with ADHD. While my second son actually got a clinical
diagnosis of ADHD, he has a lot of the traits as my eldest
son as well as myself.
When
my
second son was diagnosed with ADHD, the first thing the
doctor wanted to do was to put him on medication to
“control” him. I disagreed and vowed to find a better way. I
feel the drugs are used to control children’s behavior so
that they can be more easily managed both at school and at
home. I had no desire to rob my son of his creative gifts.
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This was a
child who was able to build a computer on his own but who
struggled with English homework. While I wanted him to pass
English and go as far as he could academically, I did not
think that he should do it at the risk of his own health and
losing the personality traits that made him who he is.
I looked into herbal
remedies that are touted to allegedly “cure” ADHD
without drugs and found that they do not work at all.
While there is merit in vitamins and nutrients found in
certain foods to help alleviate the negative aspects of
this condition, your child needs more than just vitamins
if he is going to be able to turn this diagnosis from a
negative into a positive.
By working with my sons, I learned how a parent can use
a combination of methods to enable the child to focus
and calm himself. It is my firm belief that the child
need to learn how to focus and calm himself, not to rely
on drugs to artificially calm him down. I found that my
method of working with both of my sons was very
successful in helping a child cope with ADHD. I did not
like to see my children frustrated because of the
negative aspects of this condition.
We are all under the impression that the diagnosis of
ADHD is a bad thing because the child is not “like
everyone else.” But that’s just the point - children
should try to stretch the limits of their imagination so
that they are not “like everyone else.” Some of the most
innovative
and talented individuals have had ADHD. I wanted to
deal with my children’s individual personalities and
help them cope with the negative traits of ADHD while
accenting the positive.
Drugging children so that they can be calm at home and
at school and be more complaisant is not the answer to
anything. By doing this you are actually robbing them of
their unique talents. I don’t believe that the creative
drive of a child with ADHD should be “cured” to make
things easier for other people. I do believe that by
working with the diagnosis instead of against it,
ADHD
kids can achieve remarkable results.
I’ve received quite a bit of feedback
from my book.
Parents who have read my book have confirmed what I
already knew by dealing with my own two sons and that is
that you can help your children with ADHD without having
to resort to drugs.
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