Understanding ADHD

ADHD, also known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is a neurological disorder that affects a large portion of the population and is not exclusive to children. A person of any age can have ADHD. Some children will outgrow it, or find ways to manage it as they go into adulthood. The most common ADHD symptoms are the inability to maintain focus, inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Kids diagnosed with this disorder are often labeled “strong-willed,” “challenging,” and “disruptive” to name a few.

Kids with this disorder are not “bad” but many are misunderstood because there is still a lot of research to be done into this disorder and how it affects the brain and thinking processes. Many of the disciplinary tools that work well for other children don’t work with kids with ADHD. It’s like their brains are wired differently. This is exactly true, by the way. Their brains are different. A study using brain imaging discovered that certain areas of the brain are smaller or under-developed in kids with ADHD.

What Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Does

ADHD affects the executive functioning parts of the brain that govern problem-solving, critical thinking, organization, and impulse control. The study looked at brain scans from kids as well as adults with the disorder. The differences were less noticeable in the adult brains, which may indicate that something changes as they get older. They still have the disorder but they are more able to manage the condition as they mature.

As a mom to 4 kids, all of whom have the disorder, I can attest to the fact that the symptoms do not disappear as they get older but they do change. My two older sons have learned to channel their hyperactivity into work and their careers. They are always on the go, take on extra projects, and hate being bored. As teenagers they were never at home, always had something to do, and would work two jobs sometimes to avoid boredom. They learned to use their challenges to their advantage.

My youngest, however, is a different story. He is hyperactive, impulsive, aggressive, and gets in trouble a lot. He was diagnosed with ADHD Hyperactive/Impulsive with ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) and shows many signs of ASD as well. We’re still working on getting a complete diagnosis for him because the last psychiatrist I took him to said that he shows a lot of signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder, but not enough for a diagnosis. Basically, she said he is “borderline.”

Other Conditions That Often Accompany ADHD:

• ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder)
• ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder)
• OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder)
• SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder)
• Anxiety

Ways to Treat ADHD

Medications combined with Applied Behavior Therapy is how many families treat this condition. Medications used to treat this condition include stimulants, non-stimulants, and sometimes anti-depressants. Finding the right balance takes time and is sometimes hard on the child having to adjust to changes in dosage and dealing with possible side-effects. For this reason, many families choose not to medicate their child and opt for natural remedies and dietary changes to manage problem behaviors.

The choice to medicate or not to medicate is a personal one. Nobody should shame you for deciding to use medication to make your child’s symptoms more manageable for them and the family. Kids with ADHD are often ostracized by peers, made to feel like their bad, and other adults who don’t understand the condition will say they just “need discipline.”

I totally support any parents choice when it comes to their choice of treatment options. This condition can be treated but not cured, so whatever works to bring peace and family harmony to the home is worth its weight in gold.

If You Think Your Child Has ADHD…

If you found your way here you are probably looking for answers to the burning question...does my child have ADHD? If you haven’t gotten a diagnosis yet you are not alone. Sometimes ADHD kids go undiagnosed for years until someone notices their behaviors, habits, and mannerisms and mentions it. It takes a trained eye to spot the symptoms sometimes because there are just as many cases that are misdiagnosed as there are ones accurately diagnosed’. The reason for this is because many of the symptoms of ADHD and similar conditions overlap and mimic each other.

 As a mother of 4 kids all of whom have ADHD, I can tell you that it is hereditary. If you have siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, or anyone blood -related with ADHD then it runs in your family. Also if you have one child with ADHD it is possible that any siblings they have later on may also have the disorder. That old saying “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” means that if you have a child with ADHD more than likely one of his parents has undiagnosed ADHD or ADD (though they don’t refer to it that way anymore). It’s funny when you can start to see some of your child’s traits in yourself.

 The best piece of advice I can give you as a parent is to stick to your guns. You know your child best and if you see a difference in them from children their same age and between siblings, you know when something is not adding up. Read and learn all you can about ADHD and if you believe your child has it then get him or her diagnosed as soon as possible. You will need to become your child’s advocate with doctors and teachers who will not listen or want to brush it off as them “just being a kid”. Yes, there are normal kid behaviors like not paying attention, having too much energy, and being disorganized. But these things come and go, they don’t remain constant with kids who don’t have ADHD.

 Kids with ADHD share some of the same symptoms but each child is different so they do not all display the same symptoms. Some include an excessive amount of energy, has trouble settling down, difficulty falling and staying asleep, low frustration tolerance, temper tantrums past the age when they should stop, impulsive, distractable, trouble focusing on more than one task, difficulty regulating their emotions, difficulty organizing tasks and materials, lacking motivation for tasks that are boring (chores, homework, etc.) hyperfocus on video games, television, and other stimulating activities. This is only a small list there are many more.

 Between my 4 kids, the two oldest are most like each other. Both have non-stop energy and can’t stand to be bored. They are the best workers in their jobs because they are fast and always moving. My daughter is more like me, quiet and reserved and a little slow to be motivated. She does tend to be more organized and accomplishes things on her own timeline.

 My littlest one is the most like me and probably why we butt heads a lot. He’s a sweet boy when he wants to be but has his days when he just doesn’t want to cooperate at all to anything I ask him to do. I know I’m going to have to endure a half hour or more of whining and crying when I tell him he needs to pick up his toys or clean his room. Neither one of us is very organized (you should see my desk) it’s an effort to get him to clean. It just goes to show how kids with the same disorder can show different symptoms.