MARILYN BERRY was thinking about A.D.D and keyed into cyberspace:
MB> > mine that has found another way of dealing with it
MB> > without the use of "drugs".
MB>Well, at the risk of getting raked over the coals by other people in
MB>this echo who do not agree with me, I feel like I really do need to
MB>answer you since you asked about ALTERNATIVE ways of dealing with
MB>ADD, and, as far as I know, I'm about the only one in this echo with
MB>actual experience with exactly what you asked about....
Well, Marilyn, I won't rake you over the coals. I'll try an alternative 
approach.
MB>Way back in the 1970's, my (then) 5-year-old daughter was diagnosed
MB>as having "MDB" & hyperactivity-- later, they changed the terminology
MB>to ADD & hyperactivity.  The pediatrician prescribed Ritalin and a
MB>psychologist informed us that our child would not be able to function
MB>in school at all without Ritalin and probably only in "special"
MB>schools even with it. 
Back in the 1970's the diagnostic methodology for what we now call ADHD 
was quite primitive. Many kids were mis-diagnosed. Heck, it even happens 
today. It is absolutely impossible that your daughter was mis-diagnosed?
Also, even then, I would have classified your psychologist as not being 
too bright. I hope it learned something since then.
MB>We ended up not giving our child Ritalin, and we went ahead and
MB>enrolled her in public schools.  We didn't just ignore the situation,
MB>though.  Our general goal was to help our daughter emphasize her
MB>talents (of which many were ADD characteristics) and preserve her
MB>self-esteem, so that she could achieve success.  For instance, she
MB>seemed to need far less sleep than an average child, so instead of
MB>insisting that she sleep and making her sleep with medication, we
MB>taught her how to utilize those nighttime hours when everyone else
MB>was sleeping-- she would read late at night, or work puzzles. 
Your daughter sounds very bright. What you did was to challenge her in a 
way that worked *for her*. Many very bright kids are often mistaken for 
ADHDers. There are many signs that are co-morbid. However, the ADHDer 
has them to a far greater degree.
MB>We enrolled her in sports that emphasized her abilities-- soccer,
MB>because it has few time outs & rewards those with an ability to keep
MB>moving; roller skating, because it takes a lot of energy; NOT
MB>softball, which requires children to stand around waiting patiently
MB>for something to happen. 
MB>We learned by trial and effort which foods affected her behavior and
MB>which didn't.  In our daughter's case, milk and other protein foods
MB>had a calming effect.  We were not able to find any correlation with
MB>sugar intake. 
Which is clinically shown to be the case.
MB>We changed OUR expectations of how our child was going to be judged
MB>in this society.  We didn't demand that she get straight A's in
MB>school, because we knew that part of her grade might include "ability
MB>to sit still."  We supplemented her school education with weekend &
MB>evening educational activities and were able to do a lot of those at
MB>HER pace-- sometimes going through museums almost at a run and
MB>finding out that she absorbed more of the information than when she
MB>was forced into a more leisurely & boring pace. 
You are challenging a bright child in a way that worked. 
MB>We made sure she did not feel that ADD was a "disability"-- in fact,
MB>we treated it as a TALENT that needed to be developed and worked
MB>with, just like any talent.  Therefore her self-esteem was not
MB>compromised. 
It probably helped because she probably did not have it.
MB>We feel we were very successful with our child.  She went through
MB>public schools, got accepted into a magnet high school, got
MB>scholarships to a good college and graduated with better than a 3.5
MB>average on her bachelor's degree in psychology.  She's now 28,
MB>married, has a baby (who does not seem to have ADD symptoms) and is
MB>the best mother you can imagine-- has unlimited energy to care for
MB>her child. She's worked several part-time and full-time jobs since
MB>she was 17, and her employers have raved about the quality and 
especiall
MB>y the quantity of her work-- she can work rings around "average"
MB>people.  She's currently a child-welfare worker for a state agency.
MB>She is also a very sociable person who literally has hundreds of good
MB>friends. 
Sounds more and more like she did not have ADHD to start. Just some 
problems that were mis-diagnosed, but taken care of by good parenting.
MB>Despite doomsayers who predicted then and now that untreated ADD kids
MB>will end up taking drugs, dropping out of school, being criminals,
MB>our daughter is educated, has never taken drugs, doesn't smoke,
(Continued next message...)
                ===>The Voice of Reason<===
                     mark.probert@juno.com
---
 * CMPQwk #1.4 * UNREGISTERED EVALUATION COPY
---------------