I wanted to focus this week on some of the alternative therapies that I've come across in my research. I wanted to learn a little bit more about biofeedback. I have no idea what this was, so if you want to learn more as well, you can try this site that I found.
http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/tc/biofeedback-topic-overview
This therapy involves placing one or more sensors on the scalp and one to each ear. These sensors are then connected to a device which shows the electrical activity of the brain, referred to as brain waves. From the EEG, the therapist helps the client to associate specific mental states with his/her brain waves. Feedback regarding brain activity is presented to the client via a video game in which the brightness and speed of a Pacman like figure corresponds to a preset threshold. The therapist guides the client by telling him/her to make the video game work with his/her brain.
As brain waves in the desirable frequency occur, the video game moves faster, or an alternative reward is given. However if brain waves in the undesirable frequency occur, then the video game is hindered. Since EEG Biofeedback training is a learning process, progress is gradual. For most conditions, initial improvements can be observed within ten sessions. In the case of hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder, training usually is recommended for about forty sessions and more sessions may be needed depending on the severity. Whereas, some symptoms related to head injury such as quality of sleep, fatigue, and chronic pain frequently improve in less than twenty sessions (EEG Spectrum website, 2000). http://www.healing-arts.org/children/ADHD/biofeedback.htm#wethink
I had never heard of this type of therapy before, and I really just brushed over it in my earlier readings. I didn't really understand what this was about. The site said that this therapy has been researched for the past twenty years, so it's not like it's something that they just came up with. Seriously though, this sounds a lot like science fiction to me.However, I don't totally discount this. I've read in the past two years that the video game industry has been working on a type of equipment that you place over your head, and you can control the video game with your mind. If your interested in it, you can read more about it on the site below. http://company.neurosky.com/about-neurosky/
Supposedly I guess doing the biofeedback helps to train your brain to think in a less distracted manner, is what I understand from this. It doesn't sound too bad, and I guess it's helpful.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
nature therapy
I was thinking about some of the alternative therapies that they have for ADHD, and I was remembering how in developmental concerns, we talked about nature therapy. I was wondering if they don't have something like that for ADHD. So, I was looking around, and i found the site redcliffascent.com. They help a variety of teenagers from 13-18 that have different problems, and ADHD was listed as one of them. This program is for children a little bit above our age range. I also found talismancamps.com, this is for children 8-12. some of the activities were rock climbing and rafting. I wouldn't mind going to this camp. It was however $2400 for 12 days, so $200 a day for them to sleep in a cabin, and have fun doing these activities. I wouldn't send my kid. This is too pricey. Of course, they'll get to be with other kids like them, and have that feeling of camaraderie, and they might learn some things to help them out during the school year. Seriously though, I'd save the money, and take my whole family on vacation. Maybe I'll search the web, and sprinkle some of the therapy throughout my trip. This camp must be for rich people.
prweb.com has an article about the effects of the wilderness on children with ADHD. They talked about how they felt calmer, they were more able to concentrate, and they were less impulsive. I don't know, I get so irritated when I read stuff like this though. Of course the wilderness has a calming influence on these children. I feel a lot calmer too, when I'm not in school, or being constricted by some sort of schedule, that maps out every area of the day. These children are outside breathing air, not the recycled stuff coming through their air conditioners and heaters. A lot of children live in either apartments in the city, or suburban or urban areas, where they hear traffic all day long, and just all that noise of a thousand people all living together in one tiny area. They never get to see any real nature. 95% of the available land in Cincinnati is developed. Where can you go anywhere in this city and not hear unnatural things? Even when you're in a forest, you can hear the highway just on the other side of it. Most children go home and play video games or watch TV. I don't think a lot of parents let their children go to the park every day, which it seems to be such a benefit for these children. I don't know 'nature therapy'. Do you really even need the second word? Isn't that what nature is? Therapy?
prweb.com has an article about the effects of the wilderness on children with ADHD. They talked about how they felt calmer, they were more able to concentrate, and they were less impulsive. I don't know, I get so irritated when I read stuff like this though. Of course the wilderness has a calming influence on these children. I feel a lot calmer too, when I'm not in school, or being constricted by some sort of schedule, that maps out every area of the day. These children are outside breathing air, not the recycled stuff coming through their air conditioners and heaters. A lot of children live in either apartments in the city, or suburban or urban areas, where they hear traffic all day long, and just all that noise of a thousand people all living together in one tiny area. They never get to see any real nature. 95% of the available land in Cincinnati is developed. Where can you go anywhere in this city and not hear unnatural things? Even when you're in a forest, you can hear the highway just on the other side of it. Most children go home and play video games or watch TV. I don't think a lot of parents let their children go to the park every day, which it seems to be such a benefit for these children. I don't know 'nature therapy'. Do you really even need the second word? Isn't that what nature is? Therapy?
Monday, August 3, 2009
Family Strategies
Today I wanted to focus on what strategies families can use in the home to help with their ADHD child. I found the website livingwithADHD.com, they give some tips about what you can do to manage the behavior. i wasn't really all that impressed with it. the tips they had, you would use with any child. 'Use incentives before punishment to reinforce desired behavior', 'consistently enforce discipline', and 'reduce stress in the family'. If these tools are so helpful, why isn't everyone talking about how great they work, and what miracles they've wrought with these children? This just reinforces my bad opinion of ADHD. Maybe children diagnosed with ADHD, are just the victims of bad parenting. I was also thinking about how diet can be very helpful in dealing with ADHD. I talked a little bit about it in an earlier blog, but I didn't go all that in depth with it.
I was reading on everydayhealth.com, and their advice was to have a diet with complex carbohydrates, magnesium, omega-3s, vitamin C, and B complex vitamins. I'm sorry, but this made me very angry, because I just thought this was incredibly dumb. All they're saying is to have them eat healthy. The diet would be beneficial to anyone who wanted to have a healthy lifestyle. Of course if a child ate a bunch of sugary, fatty food, it would make them hyperactive, and who can pay attention, when they've got all this junk food flowing through their body?
I was also thinking about how ADHD is said to be on the rise, and i wanted to see why that is, so i went onto medicinenet.com and their take was that it was due to greater media interest, heightened consumer awareness, and availability of effective treatments. So, they don't really believe that more people are acquiring ADHD.
Anyways, I'm sorry this blog is a little all over the place, I started with one idea, that made me think of something else. I was trying to focus on strategies for families. i was looking at helpquide.org/mental/ADHD_ADD_teaching_strategies.htm, and this sort of goes along with families. It's about how a teacher can help a student with ADHD. School is a big part of a child and their families life, so these strategies would be helpful at school or home. This first one was, have the child sit somewhere that's not distracting. So, at home, you would want to do homework in a quiet place away from interruptions. Give instructions one at a time, so if you want them to do chores, just tell them the first one, and let them complete that before they do the next one. Work on a difficult task first. so, if you want them to do a variety of things, tell them to the hardest one first. and use charts. I think most families have a chore chart, where they put it up so that their child can work on things around the house. I really thought these were easy things that could be done for the child in the home.
I was reading on everydayhealth.com, and their advice was to have a diet with complex carbohydrates, magnesium, omega-3s, vitamin C, and B complex vitamins. I'm sorry, but this made me very angry, because I just thought this was incredibly dumb. All they're saying is to have them eat healthy. The diet would be beneficial to anyone who wanted to have a healthy lifestyle. Of course if a child ate a bunch of sugary, fatty food, it would make them hyperactive, and who can pay attention, when they've got all this junk food flowing through their body?
I was also thinking about how ADHD is said to be on the rise, and i wanted to see why that is, so i went onto medicinenet.com and their take was that it was due to greater media interest, heightened consumer awareness, and availability of effective treatments. So, they don't really believe that more people are acquiring ADHD.
Anyways, I'm sorry this blog is a little all over the place, I started with one idea, that made me think of something else. I was trying to focus on strategies for families. i was looking at helpquide.org/mental/ADHD_ADD_teaching_strategies.htm, and this sort of goes along with families. It's about how a teacher can help a student with ADHD. School is a big part of a child and their families life, so these strategies would be helpful at school or home. This first one was, have the child sit somewhere that's not distracting. So, at home, you would want to do homework in a quiet place away from interruptions. Give instructions one at a time, so if you want them to do chores, just tell them the first one, and let them complete that before they do the next one. Work on a difficult task first. so, if you want them to do a variety of things, tell them to the hardest one first. and use charts. I think most families have a chore chart, where they put it up so that their child can work on things around the house. I really thought these were easy things that could be done for the child in the home.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
CHADD
I just wanted everyone to know that I was working on the last two posts, and my computer kept messing up, so I started over on a new one, so that is why there are two. I have a little bit of the same information on both of them, since i thought the other one was gone. Anyways, I was trying to do some research on the contributors to CHADD, because I am always wondering what is the angle behind the money that is going into these organizations. I watched too much Law and Order. However most of their money comes from legitimate medical organizations dedicated to doing research on ADHD, and helping out these children.
CHADD
I was looking at the CHADD homepage, this is the largest support group for people with ADHD and for parents of children with ADHD. There are a lot of support groups out there of course, but since this is the largest, I thought I would focus on this one. They have alot of information on their site. They can help you find a local support group for your family. If you become a member, you recieve a magazine, you get access to the national resource center, you get discounts on their annual national conference, and you get advocacy and the state, national, and local levels. Here'se the website if anyone wants to check it out.
CHADD is supported by a number of organizations. The Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation awards grants to major medical institutions for post-doctoral fellowships in child and adolescent ADHD and child and adolescent depression. The Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation was established in 1993 through a capital grant from the Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund. The seven trustees of the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation are the grandchildren of Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein. Joseph Klingenstein was a founding partner of Wertheim & Company. Joseph Kilngenstien was very interested in giving to his charities in particular the Mount Sinai Medical center.
The Lilly Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of patients and the communities we serve.
CHADD
I was looking for some support groups for ADHD, and of course there are a ton of them out there, so I wanted to focus on the largest one there is. This is the group I would go to if I had ADHD.
www.chadd.org This is the Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder support group, you can of course go onto the website and look up what kinds of services they provide, but I'll just give a rundown on soe of the things you can see. They send you a magazine, they set you up with a local support group, they put out the latest news on ADHD, and they give out discounts on prescriptions. It's a non-profit agency, and they recieve grant money from the Klingenstein Third generation foundation, whose mission is to research pediatric ADHD and pediatric depression.http://www.ktgf.org/
They also get money from Eli Lilly and Company foundation, their mission is to imrpove the lives and patients that it serves.
Horace W. Goldsmith contributes to them as well. I couldn't really find out specific information on what they give towards this organization, they just say they are a not-for-profit organization, and theyhave assests of $864 million.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
ADHD TEST
I was trying to find an ADHD quiz online, so that I could take it. I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of score I would get. I was able to find a couple. I went on to Psychcentral.com and took their test. I scored an 85. I was diagnosed as having adult ADHD. I was advised to seek further diagnosis from a trained medical professional immediately. You guys should try it out and see what you get.
I also went onto http://counsellingresource.com/quizzes/adhd/ and got a score of 78 on their test. It was very similar to the one on psychcentral though, so you only need to take one of them.
http://addtestonline.com/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/test.html This is another test. I got a 60 out of 90 on this one.
Anyways, as you can see there are a lot of different sites to choose from, I've just listed a few. I just put in a fake name and email address, and went through the questions. On all of them I was instructed to go to the doctor for more testing, as I had a high probability of having adult ADHD. Most of the questions were pretty similar to the ones on the other sites, and some were almost word for word. This is a good tool for people to use on themselves, if they are trying to figure out what's wrong with them. Teachers can use these, if they are having questions about a certain student, or the person can take it themselves. I've read some of the blogs where this was their first start on trying to figure out what was wrong with them. Parents can use these as well, I've read that some of them have on their blogs. Just for curiosity out there, I will not be referring myself to a doctor.
I also went onto http://counsellingresource.com/quizzes/adhd/ and got a score of 78 on their test. It was very similar to the one on psychcentral though, so you only need to take one of them.
http://addtestonline.com/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/test.html This is another test. I got a 60 out of 90 on this one.
Anyways, as you can see there are a lot of different sites to choose from, I've just listed a few. I just put in a fake name and email address, and went through the questions. On all of them I was instructed to go to the doctor for more testing, as I had a high probability of having adult ADHD. Most of the questions were pretty similar to the ones on the other sites, and some were almost word for word. This is a good tool for people to use on themselves, if they are trying to figure out what's wrong with them. Teachers can use these, if they are having questions about a certain student, or the person can take it themselves. I've read some of the blogs where this was their first start on trying to figure out what was wrong with them. Parents can use these as well, I've read that some of them have on their blogs. Just for curiosity out there, I will not be referring myself to a doctor.
Monday, July 27, 2009
ADHD message board
I was trying to find some sort of information about groups that support families with ADHD. Since we are blogging, I thought it would be a great idea to include this blog that I found about people that have ADHD, and parents of children who have ADHD. Here they are able to talk with other people who are going through the same type of struggles that they are going through. ADHDnews.com
This is where people can tell their stories about what they went through trying to figure what was wrong with them, how doctors were misdiagnosing their disease, some people had to try a whole bunch of different drugs in order to find the right one for themselves. One of the first ones I read was about a man who was ready to end his life, because he couldn't deal with his illness anymore, he thought he was bi-polar, but then he found out that he had ADHD, so he went off his medication. He was taking Prozac, and then he switched over to Adderall, and his whole life got better.
This is a great way for people to be able to talk about their symptoms, and get feedback from pother people who have the same problems. It's also good in that it's anonymous. These people can talk about their lives, and the problems that they are having in a non threatening manner, and have other people support them. I talk to people at work about my blog, and I tell them that I'm researching ADHD, and again I do not want to offend anyone, but a lot of people there do not believe in ADHD. I think a lot of people out there that are not directly affected by ADHD, or have any experience with it, they do not believe in it. As in, it does not exist, all these children out there on the medication, are doped up, and they just need to go outside and play.
I was interested in one of the posts, midnight 22, they were talking about having found out they had add with some hyperactivity, and a lot of the things he was talking about was so spot on with the way that I talk about things. It was very hard for him to finish school. This is my third college I've been to, and I started in 1998, and I still don't have my degree. Every time I finish a semester I get bored, and try and find some way to get out of coming back. I was almost not going to come back in the next few weeks. I just got offered a job, but they let me postpone starting it, until I finish the next semester. If I get bored again, maybe I'll take it. He also talked about how he was very determined. This is like my motto. I use this word all the time. If I don't know how to do something, or I think something is too hard to do, I only get through it, using my determination. I'm also easily overwhelmed. The past two terms, I've worked 32 hours every week. I had so much going on, I couldn't concentrate on how to do the work. I would read all the syllabi's for my classes, but it was too much, I couldn't take it in, or understand what I was supposed to do. I would have my husband read the syllabus for me, and he would compile a master list, and then tell me daily what I needed to do. I could never have gotten through all this without him. I've seen some of the other student's planners, with their work all written out, and they would just go through it all, and they could talk about what they had done, and what they still needed to do. I could not do that. He had to go away while I've been doing this class, but before he left, he made me a chart of what I needed to do, and I put check marks next to things when I finish them. Thankfully it's only one class, otherwise I would be having an anxiety attack.
I think all these people with ADHD need to have a partner to help them out. I think it would go much easier with them.
This is where people can tell their stories about what they went through trying to figure what was wrong with them, how doctors were misdiagnosing their disease, some people had to try a whole bunch of different drugs in order to find the right one for themselves. One of the first ones I read was about a man who was ready to end his life, because he couldn't deal with his illness anymore, he thought he was bi-polar, but then he found out that he had ADHD, so he went off his medication. He was taking Prozac, and then he switched over to Adderall, and his whole life got better.
This is a great way for people to be able to talk about their symptoms, and get feedback from pother people who have the same problems. It's also good in that it's anonymous. These people can talk about their lives, and the problems that they are having in a non threatening manner, and have other people support them. I talk to people at work about my blog, and I tell them that I'm researching ADHD, and again I do not want to offend anyone, but a lot of people there do not believe in ADHD. I think a lot of people out there that are not directly affected by ADHD, or have any experience with it, they do not believe in it. As in, it does not exist, all these children out there on the medication, are doped up, and they just need to go outside and play.
I was interested in one of the posts, midnight 22, they were talking about having found out they had add with some hyperactivity, and a lot of the things he was talking about was so spot on with the way that I talk about things. It was very hard for him to finish school. This is my third college I've been to, and I started in 1998, and I still don't have my degree. Every time I finish a semester I get bored, and try and find some way to get out of coming back. I was almost not going to come back in the next few weeks. I just got offered a job, but they let me postpone starting it, until I finish the next semester. If I get bored again, maybe I'll take it. He also talked about how he was very determined. This is like my motto. I use this word all the time. If I don't know how to do something, or I think something is too hard to do, I only get through it, using my determination. I'm also easily overwhelmed. The past two terms, I've worked 32 hours every week. I had so much going on, I couldn't concentrate on how to do the work. I would read all the syllabi's for my classes, but it was too much, I couldn't take it in, or understand what I was supposed to do. I would have my husband read the syllabus for me, and he would compile a master list, and then tell me daily what I needed to do. I could never have gotten through all this without him. I've seen some of the other student's planners, with their work all written out, and they would just go through it all, and they could talk about what they had done, and what they still needed to do. I could not do that. He had to go away while I've been doing this class, but before he left, he made me a chart of what I needed to do, and I put check marks next to things when I finish them. Thankfully it's only one class, otherwise I would be having an anxiety attack.
I think all these people with ADHD need to have a partner to help them out. I think it would go much easier with them.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Treatment Options
I've been looking at some different treatment options for children with ADHD. I liked the idea of alternative methods for this, because I was looking at one site, where they talked about a child being on medication for three years. Frankly, that's horrifying to imagine to me. I wonder what that does to their liver? And, this will probably upset some people, but I would not do it. If someone told me I had ADHD, I would not take the drugs. If for some reason, I had a child and they told me that they wanted to put him/her on this medication for possibly three years, I would not do it. I looked up the side effects of the drugs that are taken with ADHD, and it says for the most part, they're minor, but that you can experience decreased appetite, insomnia, increased anxiety, and irritability. You can also have mild stomach aches or headaches. I also would not put my child on this medication, because they would probably be like me, and I always experience every side effect that comes with the medication.
depression-guide.com/adhd-medication.htm
Just for some statistical fun: In 2000, 19 million prescriptions were filled for Ritalin, Strattera, and Adderall, all were labeled for ADHD. These drugs are actually helpful for all people. They can help you to focus your attention more easily, depending on the dose. Just in case you guys need to focus on your classes in the next month.
focusas.com/attentiondisorders.html
Some of the different treatment options include a special diet, biofeedback, herbal medicine, nutritional therapy, herbal medicine, nutritional therapy, homeopathy, physical discipline and vitamin supplements. You can also do art therapy, acupuncture, and biofeedback. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics and Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder did not endorse any of these therapies. The first one art therapy, I thought was kind of neat, because that's something enjoyable that the whole family could do. I don't see brothers and sisters adhering to a strict diet, just because one of their siblings has to. The whole family could sit around the kitchen table, and work on crafts together.
depression-guide.com/adhd-medication.htm
Just for some statistical fun: In 2000, 19 million prescriptions were filled for Ritalin, Strattera, and Adderall, all were labeled for ADHD. These drugs are actually helpful for all people. They can help you to focus your attention more easily, depending on the dose. Just in case you guys need to focus on your classes in the next month.
focusas.com/attentiondisorders.html
Some of the different treatment options include a special diet, biofeedback, herbal medicine, nutritional therapy, herbal medicine, nutritional therapy, homeopathy, physical discipline and vitamin supplements. You can also do art therapy, acupuncture, and biofeedback. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics and Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder did not endorse any of these therapies. The first one art therapy, I thought was kind of neat, because that's something enjoyable that the whole family could do. I don't see brothers and sisters adhering to a strict diet, just because one of their siblings has to. The whole family could sit around the kitchen table, and work on crafts together.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Diagnosing ADHD
Diagnosing ADHD
To find out if a person has ADHD, they must first show the symptoms of the disease for at least six months. Health care providers, like pediatricians and psychologists diagnose it using information that they gather. The chld goes through a full physical examination, and the parents and child discuss the child's medical history to see if they could have a different condition that is causing the behavior.
Other causes for ADHD-like behavior could be:
1.) Sudden life change
2.) undetected siezures
3.) Thyroid
4.) lead toxicity
5.) sleep problems
6.) anxiety
7.) depression
Doctors can also do a clinical assessment using standardized behavior rating scale or a questionnaire.
I find this all to be a little suspicious. How can you have a medical diagnoses for a disease that you can't test for? And by test for I mean, draw some blood, look at an Xray or an MRI, or something. This is why I have such a hard time believing in this. The basis for giving a diagnoses of ADHD, is because they exhibit symptoms of the disease. If a person drops dead suddenly, doctors do an autopsy, and they try and find out what caused this death. They run all these tests, and they find out, they had a undetected heart condition or something. Are people going to drop dead from complications of ADHD? Maybe I'm not thinking about this in the right light. Maybe they're not saying that ADHD is really a disease. Maybe it's like how they say autism is a disease, because you can actually run medical tests to find out that your child has autism. With autism you can look at genes and brain development to back up the diagnosis. But, that kind of makes sense, being able to do actual medical tests, to find out if you have something. For ADHD, you can't do that. Maybe this is in it's infancy really, and in the future, we will have better technology, and more knowledge about how to find and treat this. Right now it seems to be a more 'magical' type of disease, than an actual one. Maybe through the course of my readings, I will be able to change my view.
To find out if a person has ADHD, they must first show the symptoms of the disease for at least six months. Health care providers, like pediatricians and psychologists diagnose it using information that they gather. The chld goes through a full physical examination, and the parents and child discuss the child's medical history to see if they could have a different condition that is causing the behavior.
Other causes for ADHD-like behavior could be:
1.) Sudden life change
2.) undetected siezures
3.) Thyroid
4.) lead toxicity
5.) sleep problems
6.) anxiety
7.) depression
Doctors can also do a clinical assessment using standardized behavior rating scale or a questionnaire.
I find this all to be a little suspicious. How can you have a medical diagnoses for a disease that you can't test for? And by test for I mean, draw some blood, look at an Xray or an MRI, or something. This is why I have such a hard time believing in this. The basis for giving a diagnoses of ADHD, is because they exhibit symptoms of the disease. If a person drops dead suddenly, doctors do an autopsy, and they try and find out what caused this death. They run all these tests, and they find out, they had a undetected heart condition or something. Are people going to drop dead from complications of ADHD? Maybe I'm not thinking about this in the right light. Maybe they're not saying that ADHD is really a disease. Maybe it's like how they say autism is a disease, because you can actually run medical tests to find out that your child has autism. With autism you can look at genes and brain development to back up the diagnosis. But, that kind of makes sense, being able to do actual medical tests, to find out if you have something. For ADHD, you can't do that. Maybe this is in it's infancy really, and in the future, we will have better technology, and more knowledge about how to find and treat this. Right now it seems to be a more 'magical' type of disease, than an actual one. Maybe through the course of my readings, I will be able to change my view.
Monday, July 20, 2009
ADHD
ADHD
1.) What is ADHD?2.) What are the treatments for ADHD?
3.) How is ADHD diagnosed?
4.) What causes ADHD?
5.) Why has the diagnoses for ADHD risen in recent years?
Throughout the course of this class, I will be focusing on the above questions.
What do I think ADHD is?
I have decided to focus my research on ADHD. The reason I have chosen this topic, is because I don't believe in ADHD. This may seem harsh to my classmates who are reading this, but this is the reason that I have chosen this topic. I have learned a little bit from my Developmental Concerns class and my Accommodations and Adaptations class, but overall I don't really understand what it is exactly, and I think this may be the main reason that I don't believe there is such a thing as ADHD. I'm going to first explain what I think ADHD is, and then I will tell what I have learned through my readings.
It is a well known and documented fact, that over the past thirty years there has been a tremendous increase in the amount of time that children spend watching TV, playing video games, or working on the computer. Children spend an average of 5 hours 18 minutes a day watching TV, playing video games, or being online. 60% of five and six year olds have their own TV in their room. In 1980 it was calculated that children spent an average of 3 hours a day watching TV.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article55555797.ece.
I refer to these statistics, because in the past 10 years there has been a significant rise in the number of children that have been diagnosed as having ADHD. I believe that our society has made a huge transition towards being more sedentary and eating more unhealthy foods. 15% of children between the ages of 6-19 are overweight, and 10% between the ages of 2-5.
www.harvardmagazine.com/2004/05/the-way-we-eat-now.html
I want to point out that at no time have I read an article that links these findings to the rise in ADHD. This is my own opinion that I have formulated with this information. Or rather this information is here for the purpose of backing up ideas that I already had. I believe that the children of today don't get enough exercise, they eat too much junk food, and they spend to much time in front of the TV and their video game systems. I believe this is the reason there are so many children diagnosed with this disorder. I believe all these things helped children to be hyperactive as it were. They just have so much pent up energy, that they are unable to release, and they just drive people crazy with their energy.
What is ADHD?
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity is characterized by impulsiveness, hyperactivity and Inattention. Children with ADHD have trouble functioning in multiple settings. ADHD has three subtypes:
1) Predominantly hyperactive-impulsive
2) Predominantly inattentive
3) Combined hyperactive-impulsive and inattentive
Hyperactivity
*fidgeting
~talking a lot
dashing around, playing
~trouble sitting still
constantly moving
difficulty doing quiet tasks
Impulsive
*impatient
*blurt out inappropriate comments, show emotions without restraint, act without regard to consequences.
~difficulty waiting for things
*interrupt conversations or other's activities
Inattention
*easily distracted, forget
*can't focus on one thing
*bored with task after few minutes
*difficulty focusing on organizing, completing a task
~trouble turning in homework assignments
*don't seem to listen when spoken to
*daydream, easily confused, move slowly
*difficulty processing information quickly and accurately
*struggle to follow directions
* always
~sometimes
www.nimh.nih.gov
Reflection
I still want to reiterate that I don't really believe in ADHD. However, I decided to put stars next to the 'symptoms' that characterize myself. As in I deal with these things on a daily basis, constantly through out the day. I put a squiggle line next to the items that I have problems with, but not as much as the others. In the past I have had conversations with other people about how I react to certain situations, and how many of these 'quirks' I exhibit. My family has always wondered why I can't remember things after I've been shown or told about some subject numerous times. I have huge lists of directions for simple activities that are more precise than a manufacturing booklet. I'm very easily distracted by things, and I have to constantly restart projects. It takes me a long time to process information. I've always wished I could retake every class, because every time I get to the end, that's when I get the 'Ah ha' moment, and I understand everything. But, by that time it's too late, and I've failed it, but now I know everything. I've learned to do a variety of things, but I have a limit on directions. If anything has anything longer than three steps in it, I can't do it. That may seem strange, the number three, but it's true. Also, I have a specific way that I learn. I watch someone else do it, and then we do it together. For some reason if someone else know how to do something, and I learn from them, and I do it with them, then I can do it alone. I even have a direction list for this class, it's called 'how to blog'.
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