ADD/ADHD Process

[AnyDream]

Hi all, I have been following this thread with interest. I suspect we have an undiagnosed family member with ADHD - female so it has not been picked up with the "typical" hyperactive pattern that is more commonly recognized in boys. She is that bit older, so harder to plug into free/funded services so we're trying to scrape some savings together to get some assessments done, more with a view of getting OT for self-organisation, etc. (Actually am also wondering if she has a touch of aspergers in the mix as well as there have been social difficulties all the way through, but that's a whole other thread).

DH most definitely has the ADHD thing going on, and (finally) is developing some self-awareness around it. One thing that we found helped enormously with him was a fatty acid supplement called Efalex. There was a period when he had to do intensive classroom-style learning for 9 months including some pretty intensive maths/physics/chemistry stuff, and he credits his success entirely to the Efalex. It took a few weeks for the effects to kick in, and it costs a bomb to take the adult dose, but in his case it was very effective.

I just thought I would mention this for the benefit of the mummas who are undecided about stimulant therapy. It's not an all or nothing proposition. You may feel more comfortable trialling some nutritional supports before committing to something like Ritalin. The effects may not be obvious over a couple of days, but over weeks or months become quite noticeable. There are also some interesting neuro-feedback treatments that have been used for 15 or 20 years that are not widely known about, but some people have found very effective as well. If you try something you can give yourself a timeframe to review the results & then either continue or move onto another therapy.