More Recesses And Fresh Air – Is This The Key To ADHD?

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I have just been reading an article about a US family who moved to Norway. They were really brave in that they left their ADHD son’s medication behind. The good news is that the child who had lots of problems in the US school started to thrive in Norway.

The family were delighted to find that the child started to enjoy schoolwork and was keen to do homework. But they were also more than impressed with the school environment in Norway. They noticed that things are done differently there and it seems to help the children a lot:-

• 3 recesses instead of 1
• much less technology in the classroom
• teacher gives undivided attention to the pupils
• the school day is one hour shorter – gives the kid more free time
• child has two hours of playtime which is four times the US average
• a half day field trip is obligatory every week.
• extra curricular activities encourage students to cook and do other manual tasks
• in Finland, every hour lesson has a fifteen minute recess which must be taken outside, whatever the weather!  Finland has one of the lowest rates of ADHD in the western world.

Scandinavia scores highly in OECD ratings

OECD ratings have put the Scandinavian countries at the top of the list as regards literacy and numeracy.  Norway comes in at 6th in the rankings while the USA is doing very badly at only in the 21^st category for numeracy while coming in at the 16^th for literacy.

What can we take away from this story?

Well, a change of scene to a Scandinavian country will certainly not cure ADHD and the above story was probably a coincidence and there may have been many other factors at play which meant that the ADHD child was able to stay off his ADHD meds. Lucky him and lucky parents too! But there are some pointers that we can take away from all this:-

• we need to give our children more time outdoors
• we need to reduce screen time
• we must look at alternative ADHD treatments rather than relying on amphetamine meds
• we should organize our homes to be more ADHD friendly. 

                    For more articles on Parenting see my Medium profile

The Risks Of Meds That Treat ADHD

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Although we do not yet know if Nehemiah Griego (Albuquerque shootings) was actually suffering from some sort of mental illness or whether he was on any psychiatric drugs, people are asking why the USA is so obsessed with movies, guns and video games rather than on how to deal with mental disorders when they are present.

We only know that he used to wear a lot of military outfits and that he was home schooled. It is a mystery how he was able to assemble an arsenal in his home. We also know that he was not allowed to watch video games. Can there be a connection with all these things? It is obviously too soon to make any suppositions.

One fact does emerge and that is the increasing concern about meds that treat ADHD and other mental disorders such as depression and autism.  We know that most anti depressants and ADHD meds tend to increase the levels of suicidal thoughts, hallucinations and homicidal ideation.   

Most of the drugs such as Paxil, Zoloft, Ritalin and also Luvox are known to increase violent actions by as much as 10% more than other drugs.  We also know that 95% of school shootings over the last ten years or so were carried out by teens who were on prescription medication such as Paxil, Zoloft and Ritalin.

Is there a connection with the Griego tragedy and that of Adam Lanza at Newtown? Too soon to say but one startling fact emerges. It is  the obsession with weapons. I have just learned that Nancy Lanza (Adam Lanza’s mother) was killed at Newtown with her own weapons. You see she was a survivalist and kept a lot of guns so that she would have maximum protection.  We know that the Griego family lived in an isolated spot and certainly they too may have had weapons in the home for protection.

But the Lanza case is more alarming because of the following reasons :-

1. Nancy Lanza never locked her guns up although she knew that her son was getting more and more antisocial and had behavioral problems.
2. she visited a shooting range often and Adam is also known to have been there.
3. as a teacher, she must have been aware of the dangers
4. she had taken him to a psychiatrist because she was alarmed at his isolation.
5. he would spend hours and hours on video games
6. when they went out, he would have screaming fits presumably as a sort of withdrawal syndrome from being taken away from the games.

We may never know the truth. But what we do know is that many of the medications for mental disorders and especially the meds that treat ADHD do cause side effects and some of the rare ones include violence, suicidal thoughts, homicide ideation and mania.

This should push us more and more towards a much safer holistic type of treatment where behavioral therapy (or more simply, parenting skills)  together with ADHD  homeopathic remedies are at the very centre of a any treatment plan.