subject: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - Deciding What Is Right For Your Child [print this page] Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - Deciding What Is Right For Your Child
If we knew what exactly is going on inside the brain of a child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, we might be able to treat it better and with a lot more success. Read this article to find out what the various issues are and then you will be in a better position to decide what is right for your child.
Have you ever tried to have a cell phone conversation with somebody while walking through the mall? If you have, you will immediately realize how many distracting elements there are around you from sounds, smells, noise, people crossing your path and so on. It is quite difficult and in a way, the ADHD child's brain is like that all the time. He just cannot filter out all the extraneous noise and other distractions and get on with the task in hand. His brain chemicals which help him to decide, concentrate, focus and motivate him are dopamine and norepinephrine. But in ADHD these are skewed and seem to be out of sync. Hence the inattention, distraction and all the other problems of lack of focus.
One way to treat all this is to use psychostimulant drugs which seem to balance the dopamine and norepineorine chemicals but nobody is quite sure. Nobody knows the long term effects either and if they do, they are not revealing too much. Just think that Ritalin, the most popular ADHD drug on the market, is actually forty years old. Can I really believe that no drug company or health authority across the length and breadth of the USA has not done a long term study on the long term effects of this drug? If you are not concerned about the long term effects, you can put your child on ADHD meds and that will be your decision.
But many parents find that the band aid approach of these meds for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has addressed none of the problems which are all there in the name of this mental condition. How can you teach your child learning skills? Can your child cope with social situations and above all, does your child know what inappropriate behavior actually means in terms of its consequences. The questions are endless and we know all too well that no pills can teach skills.
So deciding on meds will be just a small part of the answer to this vexed problem. We know for example that creating a structured orderly routine in a well organized environment can really help kids. How ADHD friendly is your home? What about child behavior modification techniques?
We know that the right school can be important too. Is your school geared up for ADHD and how are they coping with your child or how is your child coping with them?
These then are the decisions to take and I am afraid that medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is not going to be enough. It will calm the hyperactivity and maybe help with attention span but that is about it. What about all the rest? How on earth can a child cope?
To help you decide what could be the best treatment, I have built a website where you can get a lot of these answers. Why not check it out now for your child's sake?
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