looking for info to help 16yr old with ADD

[Guest Guest_carol]

Hi,

My 16 yr old has just been diagnosed with ADD. We have been having problems with school grades for the past 5 years. He is in 11th grade now and I would like to find something that works so that he can get his grades up in order to get into college. His diet is terrible--lots of carbs. We have asked him to start eating more protein and less sugar and we have started giving him L-Tyrosine 2 caps 2x day. Does anyone have any other suggestions for us? The counselor we took him to wanted to put him on Wellbutrin xl and we are just not ready to resort to such a powerful drug. Thanks in advance.

[Guest Newbie]

Dear Carol, I just wrote a post and erased it! Not too good at this. I think you might need to find a doctor if your son won't cooperate. That helps if you can find one who understands all this. or a naturopath. Have someone else tell him what to do instead of you!! I'm just learning this so I don't have a lot of suggestions. Maybe read all the posts here. There's a lot of info. SOme of these parents sound like doctors themselves. ! I'm going to read and then find a doctor if I need to. It seem pretty complicated. Have you heard of that Efalex, the fish oil approach? (Or some kind of oil.) It's supposed to help some people. Health food stores have it I think. Good luck!!! Newbie

[Guest Jed Shlackman]

Carol, at your son's age it will be useful to have him identify what his interests are about school and achievement. You would also be wise to ignore the standard medical implications of the ADHD label and the counselor who believes that you should automatically drug someone into compliance with the demands of their environment [if a non-physician recommended a specific drug to you then even standard ethical guidelines are being ignored by that person]. Educate your son about options he has for his future (college, jobs, etc.) and what his responsibilities are. Let him know that his unique mind-body system may tend to be less adapted to typical academic demands and learning environments than others and perhaps sensitive to dietary factors, but that if he wishes to have an easier time learning and achieving then he may want to make diet changes, try some energy medicine approaches (for example NMT [Neuromodulation Technique]), try focusing on a specific desired vocation or creative interest, or choose to increase his motivation toward educational offerings, since physiology can be changed and influenced by the mind. Let him know your thoughts about drugs, and how you want him to have an internal locus of control and motivation rather than an external drug dependency that carries a variety of risks.

 

-Jed Shlackman, LMHC, C.Ht.

[Chemar]

My son takes Ginko Biloba along with a combination of flaxseed,Borage and marine lipid oils and has had a tremendous improvement in his ADD and overall performance at school.

 

Borage oil in particular appears to have a very positive effect on his ADD.