Medication Is Not the Long-term Answer

The ADD Answer: How to Help Your Child Now
by Frank Lawlis, Ph.D.

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You Are Not Alone, and There Is Hope

The first fact parents of ADD children should know is that they are not alone. There are an estimated 17 million children diagnosed with ADD in the United States, and the number increases every day. Generally, this is not a condition that can be outgrown. Nor can it be prevented by vaccination or cured simply by making lifestyle adjustments.

The second helpful fact parents should know is that while there's no treatment approach that works for all children, there are strategies that do work and that can be combined to create an effective program for their child. ADD is a grab-bag, catchall term for a series of troublesome problems, just as the common cold is really the name we have given to a series of symptoms that include a runny nose, stuffed sinuses, sneezing, coughing, and body ache. And just as one person's surefire cold remedy may have no effect on another person's symptoms, I've discovered that there is no one remedy for ADD. But there are treatment methods that work in specific cases. The good news is that although ADD raises many questions, this book has many answers. My promise to you is that if you dedicate yourself to meeting this challenge, I will give you all the tools available. Together, we will find the solution for your child.

Medication Is Not the Long-term Answer

Americans are living longer and in better health than ever before. So why is ADD on the rise? I suspect that one day we will find some environmental pollutant responsible for most of the symptoms. But right now, I am more concerned with the dangers inherent in the way we treat those symptoms.

Far too many children are being drugged as a solution to the symptoms of ADD. Medications may be necessary for short-term goals, but I believe they are dangerous. I do not advocate the use of drugs as the fix for ADD because of the very real possibility that they will lead to severe complications, toxicity, and even death. We are a society addicted to quick fixes and magic pills.

It's one thing to do that to ourselves, but now we seem to be doing it to our children too. Sales of prescription drugs such as Ritalin and other medicines for childhood neurological and psychological disorders are huge. Ritalin sales alone increased by 122 percent, and depression medications for children increased 5 percent, in one year alone (2000-2001).

In 2003 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that Americans spend more on medications for their children than for the elderly. Are we using drugs to control our children's behavior instead of being responsible parents? When we teach our children at a young age to rely on medications, I fear that we are in danger of creating a generation of pill poppers as a result. Do we want our young people to rely on the magic of chemistry to regulate their behavior, or do we want them to naturally develop the discipline and focus necessary for them to contribute to society?

Most responsible school counselors and pediatricians feel that drugs for ADD should be used only as a last resort, and they recognize that even if they do work in younger children, their effectiveness will be minimized by the teenage years. In other words, drugs are not the total answer. They cannot remedy negative environmental factors, family conflicts, or educational failures.

The risks of poor treatment are real. If your child has ADD, it is certainly a personal problem for you. And it is a crisis for your child's future. Without effective treatment, the risks associated with ADD are very great. Children with ADD can fall out of the mainstream of positive social, educational, and emotional life with their peers and family members. ADD is also a problem for society as a whole. The challenges associated with this affliction have enormous implications. The following numbers are taken from the Attention Deficit Disorder Association and from material provided by Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD):

• 35 percent of students with ADD never finish high school.
• Individuals with ADD have significantly more hospital visits than those without it.
• Parents of ADD children divorce three times more often than the general population.
• 50 to 75 percent of incarcerated inmates in prisons have some form of ADD.
• 52 percent of ADD sufferers abuse drugs at some time in their lives.
• 43 percent of male ADD students are arrested for a felony before the age of sixteen.

The costs of ADD and ADHD are reflected in the entire family medical profile. According to a study published in 2003 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, "Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Increased Costs for Patients and Their Families," families who had a child diagnosed with ADHD had the following results:

• Family members (not counting the patient with ADHD) had 60 percent more medical claims, and twice as many were treated for some type of psychiatric disorder.

• Direct annual medical care costs per family member were twice as high ($2,060 vs. $1,026).

• Indirect costs for disability and absenteeism in ADHD families were 61 percent higher.

• Patients with the diagnosis had 2.6 times more medical claims than non-ADHD patients.

The statistics are staggering, but you and your child can avoid being included in these numbers.

The Plan

I've created a step-by-step plan for dealing with your child's ADD. It is based on three approaches: audit, action, and assessment. Each chapter introduces a new step on the path, and each includes an audit, to help you clarify potential sources of your child's behavior; action, or activities that offer specific strategies of change that can be implemented immediately; and assessments, to help you evaluate whether the plan is working.

The chapters are organized so that important pathways can be charted and easily reviewed. Since every child is unique, any treatment plan needs to be specially fitted to the individual. In my experience most children benefit from the use of more than one approach. In the following chapters I will introduce you to the theories and practices found useful through clinical research and over thirty-five years of actual practice.

This book combines the best of what traditional and alternative medicine have to offer at this time. I am a scientist in my heart - a curious one admittedly, but I have made a serious effort to evaluate the efficacy of these approaches. I also take my responsibilities very seriously (Hippocrates: "First, do no harm") when I recommend the approaches that might be best for a child. I'll offer my advice and suggestions on methods that include drugs and medications, counseling and biofeedback, electromagnetic treatments, biocleansing, nutritional adjustments, strategies for sleep disturbances, neurotherapy, and self-development management. I will also touch on spirituality and examine how families can engage their own faith and beliefs in dealing with ADD.

Together, we will create an individualized assessment of the ADD symptoms for your child. Together, we will create a plan for treatment. I have researched these methods, and while some may appear to be unusual and nontraditional, they've all been used successfully and all are based on scientific methodology.

Family Healing

Throughout this book, I call upon the family to be part of the healing process, which will also include assistance from professional caregivers and the school system. Please note, however, that I make no promises that any one method will cure all of your child's symptoms. ADD is very complex, and I caution you to be patient as you try these approaches. It may take time to find a treatment or a combination of treatments that work for your child. A parent's impatience with treatment can be misinterpreted by the ADD child as a criticism. You don't want your child to fear that his parents have lost hope.

I confess to being very optimistic in treating ADD. But I have a good reason to think that each child's symptoms are treatable. I have seen what families can do when they rally around a child. The treatment path you follow on this journey to a better life for your ADD child may very well bring your family closer together than it has ever been. I've seen it happen many times. At some junctures the important challenges may be related not to the symptom resolutions of ADD, but to the personal or interpersonal growth of the family. If that is all that happens, that is enough, because that is what will endure.

© 2005 Plume, a division of Penguin Putnam, used by permission.

About the Author

Dr. Frank Lawlis is a renowned psychologist, researcher, and counselor with more than thirty-five years' experience working with families. He is the cofounder of the Lawlis and Peavey Centers for Psychoneurological Change and was named a fellow by the American Psychological Association. Dr. Lawlis is also the chief content adviser for the Dr. Phil Show.