Brain Workout Center’s Position on the Treatment of ADD/ADHD with Medication
We believe that there is a crisis in our culture:
Too many teachers, support groups like CHADD, the pharmaceutical industry, and too many pediatricians and psychiatrists, promote the use of medication to the children, teenagers, and adults who are described as hyperactive, impulsive, or inattentive at home or school.
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The use of stimulants has replaced behavior training and good teaching and parenting
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Stimulant drugs can actually impede learning
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Stimulant drugs are dangerous
In the mid 1990’s parents, teachers, and even physicians, could well have been influenced by a popular book, Driven to Distraction by Hallowell and Ratey, both psychiatrists. They compare ADD to nearsightedness. “ADD exacerbates learning problems in the same way that nearsightedness does. The first step in the treatment of nearsightedness is to get glasses… There are several medications used in the treatment of ADD. They all help the individual to focus better. In a sense, they act like internal eyeglasses, increasing the brain’s ability to focus on one task over time while filtering out competing stimuli or distractions.” The drug companies also have a huge campaign to persuade professionals that no harm comes from stimulants.
But through much research, reported by Peter R. Breggin, M.D. in his book Talking Back to Ritalin (2001), there is, he says, “accumulating evidence for acute and persistent brain damage and dysfunction caused by these drugs [meaning Ritalin, Concerta, Adderal, and others].” The part of the brain that filters out competing stimuli, the reticular activating system in the core of the brain, is “profoundly disrupted by these drugs, causing impairments in energy level, alertness, and responsiveness to external stimulation. People become more apathetic and less aware of the world around them.” We have observed this in our students who have begun our Challenge Course while on stimulant medication.
For many of our families whose children have joined up to do The Brain Workout Challenge Course, you may well say that we are ‘preaching to the choir.’ If, though, you know of any families seeking to find alternatives to ‘drugging’ their children, please give this handout to them.
Inattentiveness and poor behavior are due to a number of causes. We address most of them at our Brain Workout Centers:
- Weak sensorimotor system (balance) resulting in poor body control.
- Inefficient eye movement skills
- Lack of behavior training
- Poor nutrition and sleep habits
- Allergies (Is This Your Child by Doris Rapp, MD)
The primary treatment focus at Brain Workout Center is the vestibular system, which is the ‘hub’ of the sensorimotor system. The vestibular system (balance) engages and stimulates the reticular activating system mentioned above. Another very important treatment focus is the training of self awareness and self control. Through various physical activities, students learn that they are in charge of their ability to pay attention, listen, and to keep their bodies still. When a student struggles in school, anxiety and increased stress is often observed and judged as ADHD. Brain Workout Center trains the foundational thinking abilities that underlie doing well in school, such as reading comprehension, listening, memory, making good decisions, and problem solving.
Students who graduate from The Brain Workout Challenge Course have improved self confidence because they have learned that they alone, not drugs, control their thinking and their behavior. They are more responsible and mature. And as a side benefit, they make better grades!
BRAIN WORKOUT CENTER (the other anti-drug): side effects include RESULTS!