ADHD Help

Today I am going to discuss some of the advantages of joining a support group. Support groups can help you in several ways. To begin with they offer you a group of peers with whom you can swap frustrations, successes, and strategies. Frequently talking to peers is less threatening than talking to professionals. Sometimes peers have practical insights which we professionals might overlook.

Next, peer groups offer you a place where you can learn which local professionals work well with ADHD. Other parents know which professionals have been able to help them. They also know which school teachers and counselors are sensitive to ADHD.

Peer groups are able to recommend or even provide advocates and help you to better understand your rights. They are also able to set up professional presentations so that you can learn more about ADHD. There are regional and national conventions at which you can learn from many different experts. ChADD, http://www.chadd.org, for example, will be having their national convention this November in Anaheim. I will be there with Elwood and lots of other fun surprises. I hope that I will be able to meet those of you who attend.

Finally, sometimes you can meet parents at support groups who are willing to swap baby sitting with you. As you all know, it is not always easy to find people you trust who are willing to stay with your children while you have a well needed, relaxing night away from responsibilities.

Peer support groups can be a very worthwhile investment in time, energy, and money.

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Imagine my surprise when yesterday I learned that Amazon.jp was down to their last copy of the Japanese version of my ADHD DVD book. Of course I really don’t understand what that means because I don’t know if they started out with five copies or 500 copies. However, I was quite heartened to also discover that more copies are on the way.

A little bit of personal history might help you to better understand how in the world I ever ended up on Amazon.jp. Besides being a psychologist, I am also a ventriloquist. I started ventriloquism when my Aunt Sally gave me a Jerry Mahoney puppet for my seventh birthday. At that time I was recovering from rheumatic fever, and she thought that the puppet could hel p the process. Aunt Sally was absolutely right, and ventriloquism became my lifelong hobby.

When I grew up and became an elementary school guidance counselor, I continued to use my Jerry Mahoney puppet to help me establish rapport with the students at my schools. Next I used Jerry when I worked at a residential hospital for severely developmentally disabled people. In fact, while I was at the hospital, I almost got to entertain on the same bill with Bo Diddley, but that’s another story.

In private practice I became even more involved with puppets, having the money to acquire a small collection for myself and for my young patients to use. Therefore, I indulged myself. It was good both for me and the children. The puppets made my work and their treatment more successful and enjoyable.

About 15 years ago I commissioned Jerry Baum, a puppet maker, to create Elwood for me. It was the first time that I ever had a professional puppet. By the way, we used to call them dummies. Currently, the politically correct term is vent figures. We wouldn’t want to hurt the little puppets’ feelings!

Anyway, once I had invested in Elwood, I decided that it would be beneficial to utilize ventriloquism to educate children and families about various topics. Since than I have produced PSAs on child abuse, molestation, stranger danger, domestic violence, 9/11, and, most recently on combat PTSD. I also produced 3 programs about ADHD. I combine ventriloquism, humor, magic, animation, and original songs to educate children and families in an entertaining fashion.

My puppet, Elwood, has already taken me to Japan three times. One of my Japanese sponsors, Dr. Michiko Hara, is a pediatric neurologist. She likes my videos so much that she had them translated into Japanese and published a version with subtitles and a script book. That, in a nutshell, is how I ended up on Amazon.jp.

I am including with this first entry a short segment from the Japanese version. In this segment Elwood learns what the letters ADHD mean.

My newest puppet arrived today. Honestly, I have no idea why I ordered another figure. Maybe it’s just because I like them. The puppet is a soft figure, quite different from the rest of my collection. It is a big monster. Here is a picture of him:

Maybe he will represent the “oppositional defiant monster” which is often associated with ADHD.

My son suggested that today I include my list of the seven most destructive ADHD myths. I decided to list them in reversed order.

7. You have to be hyperactive to have ADHD.

Children with inattentive ADHD are not hyperactive. Many are hypoactive (less active). They are daydreamers who are distracted by their own thoughts.

6. A child who can play a video game for long periods of time can’t possibly have ADHD

Children with ADHD are better able to stay on task when the task is highly attractive, with built in rewards and punishments. Video games meet these criteria. Children with ADHD also do better one on one and in new situations.

5. Too much sugar and food additives cause ADHD.

Not only has the myth never been proved, but research has also not proved that special diets reduce symptoms.

4. Medication should only be used at times when the children are in school.

We used to use the medication only for school, deemphasizing the fact that the children have problems with ADHD throughout the entire day. By only medicating for school, we made home management much more difficult.

3. Children magically outgrow ADHD when they reach adolescence.

We now know that many people continue to have problems with ADHD throughout their lives. Often the hyperactivity decreases as people age, but the problems with inattention and impulsivity remain. However, some people with ADHD do have a significant decrease in their symptoms as they age.

2. Using stimulant medications leads to drug addiction.

Children with ADHD are at a greater risk for drug and alcohol problems than children who don’t have the disorder. Treatment actually reduces that risk.

1. ADHD isn’t a neurological disorder. It is just an example of poor parenting.

ADHD is a real neurological disorder which is usually inherited. Since many of these children are difficult to parent, it is easy to incorrectly conclude that ADHD is due to poor parenting. Lot of parents are still being unfairly blamed for this neurological condition.