Alternative cures for ADD.

I ain't no expert (though I am a patron, of sorts) to ADD—Attention Deficit Disorder, but I must say I don’t think there are any such things as cures for ADD. 

Granted, the pill manufacturing industry will typically push the envelope and advertise “instant” this and “immediate relief” of that, and the doctors (particularly HMO doctors) are strong-armed into pushing just as hard. 

So you won’t find alternative information as readily as you might find some false promises of cures for ADD.

As one who has ADD, I have (before I was diagnosed and medicated effectively) research and practiced hard and long the possible “cures” for ADD.  Among the hoped-for panaceas were, for example, St. John’s wort root (for the depression component which is all too much conjoined with the disorder), rigorous daily exercise, and years of psychotherapy.

There is no one drug or medicine, activity, or treatment to completely obliterate the multi-dimensional disorder…just as there is no one (if any) cure for most disorders or diseases.  There are wonderful medicines and alternative solutions to treat individual symptoms.  Some swear by natural herbal concoctions (which do not list their ingredients separately) for focus.  There are pills for concentration or for curbing impulsivity.  There are potions for irritability and edginess. 

There are medically prescribed (and monitored) amphetamines, Ritalin, Adderall, Cyclert, SSRIs and MAOs, and even cocaine derivatives.

There is neurofeedback, biofeedback, behavior-modification therapy, and psychotherapy.  Years of dietary intervention studies have proven this approach sometimes valid.  Centuries of Eastern medicine has contributed to effectively assuaging some of the more intense and interruptive symptoms of ADD.  And decades of seeking out vitamin therapies has also helped some.

I guess it is the phrase “cures for ADD” that we might consider more closely, knowing that what we realistically seek is ease from suffering—relief from the hypertension, anxiety, impulsivity, intrusion, disorganization that is Attention Deficit Disorder.  We seek the rare quiet that rest from perpetual thinking and moving drains us with.  We yearn for a semblance of symmetry, of order, of peace.

And in combinations, the above-mentioned treatments take care of at least 90% of the malaise that is ADD (and I use a personal percentage here, not a scientifically established one).  By getting therapy once or twice a week and taking a prescribed medication daily, for instance, we can focus, be on time, quit interrupting others (or interrupt less), pay bills, study, work, and succeed in chosen fields (preferably those that lend themselves to our creative and quirky ways).  Or by eating exceptionally regimented diet plan foods, taking vitamins (in the right amounts!) and by getting energy healing, we can calm down, quiet down, slow down.  And by understanding the illness, by reading the best works by professionals and specialists, and by self-monitoring, we can eventually come to self-regulate much of the time.

Such ADD experts as Thom Hartmann who has discovered and developed whole analogies for who we ADDers are (the hunters, he says, in a hunter-gatherer world; in his book ADHD Secrets of Success) will even humorously, knowledgeably, and loving remind you to watch out for the snake oil salespeople who promise cures for ADD! 

 So best of luck finding the combination and the “cure” that is right for you.