National ADHD Awareness Month
What is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?
"It's like your brain keeps switching between30 different channels and somebody else has the remote." ~ Brett Thornhill
ADHD is a neuro-developmental disorder with characteristics such as inattention and/or hyperactivity. Symptoms of ADHD include, but are not limited to, careless mistakes, difficulty listening and/or following directions, frequent misplacement of items, fidgeting, excessive talking, and often interrupts or intrudes on others.
Typically, ADHD is diagnosed during childhood; however, if symptoms are ignored or neglected during this life phase, children can grow up struggling with academics and socialization, which can have long-term negative consequences well into adulthood. This can not only impact future jobs, but friendships, relationships, and parenthood as well.
According to the CDC (2022), using data from 2016-2019, the prevalence of ADHD in children aged 3-17 years old is approximately 9.8% (roughly 6 million). A study published in 2006 (NIH) shows an estimated prevalence of 4.4% of adults diagnosed with ADHD, aged 18-44 years old.
ADHD is more commonly diagnosed in males than females. Characteristics to look for in girls include "daydreaming quietly in class, feeling anxious or sad, exhibiting silliness or apparent ditziness, acting shy or inattentive, trouble maintaining friendships, picking at cuticles or skin, being a perfectionist" (2019). It is one therapist's suggestion that if your daughter has been diagnosed with depression and anxiety that she should also be evaluated for ADHD. It is important to note that some children may meet the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, but may not have the disorder. A clinician must observe clear evidence of reduction in social, academic, or work-related functioning in order to provide a definitive diagnosis.
Learn More About ADHD
Non-Medical Treatments for ADHD
Behavioral Therapy for Children
Common problem behaviors are addressed by structuring time at home, establishing predictability and routines, and increasing positive attention.
“The benefits a child receives from behavioral treatment are strongly influenced by the ability of the parent to consistently implement the program plan.” (Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.)
ADHD Coaching
Children, teens, and adults learn to organize and take charge of their lives. Coaches can help their clients achieve emotional/intellectual growth, strong social skills, effective learning strategies, compelling career and business exploration, and thoughtful financial planning.Find a coach
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Adults
The goal of this psychotherapy is to change negative patterns of thinking by reframing the way a person feels about him/herself and his/her symptoms of ADHD.This treatment helps lessen life impairments (i.e., procrastination and time management), but does not treat the core symptoms of ADHD: inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for Adults
Focuses on the social and emotional challenges associated with ADHD and other neuropsychological disorders.DBT was initially designed to treat the harmful behaviors of patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. It is now one of the most successful treatments for improving emotional regulation skills.
Play Therapy
Play therapy is used to provide reassurance and help children connect, learn, calm anxiety, and improve self-esteem. Therapists are able to indirectly reframe children’s perceptions, cognitions, and behaviors. Play is essential for children to feel connected, secure, and attached.Learn more
Equine Therapy
Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) is an experiential treatment during which clients interact with horses under the guidance of a specially trained mental-health professional and an equine specialist. Clients learn to regulate their body energy and pick up on non-verbal cues to build a relationship with a horse. The horse provides immediate feedback to the client’s actions as other humans can’t or won’t do.
Art Therapy
Art therapy helps children build mental flexibility, problem-solving skills, and communication skills as they explain their art project. Art also allows for organic moments of positive social interactions, like sharing materials, making compliments, or even making suggestions.
Music Therapy
Music therapy bolsters attention and focus, reduces hyperactivity, and strengthens social skills in three ways:Music Provides Structure.Music Fires Up Synapses. Music is Social. Learn more
Brain Training or Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback uses brain exercises to decrease impulsivity and enhance attentiveness. Critics argue that neurofeedback has not been rigorously studied in any large, double-blind studies and that, though some patients report improvements in attention, it has little effect on other problems associated with ADHD. Learn more
Take a Self-Test
October's Book Recommendation
"For over 100 years, ADHD has been seen as essentially a behavior disorder. Recent scientific research has developed a new paradigm which recognizes ADHD as a developmental disorder of the cognitive management system of the brain, its executive functions. This cutting-edge book pulls together key ideas of this new understanding of ADHD, explaining them and describing in understandable language scientific research that supports this new model.
It addresses questions like:
- Why can those with ADHD focus very well on some tasks while having great difficulty in focusing on other tasks they recognize as important?
- How does brain development and functioning of persons with ADHD differ from others?
- How do impairments of ADHD change from childhood through adolescence and in adulthood?
- What treatments help to improve ADHD impairments? How do they work? Are they safe?
- Why do those with ADHD have additional emotional, cognitive, and learning disorders more often than most others?
- What commonly-held assumptions about ADHD have now been proven wrong by scientific research?
Psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and other medical and mental health professionals, as well as those affected by ADHD and their families, will find this to be am insightful and invaluable resource."
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