1. Your child is most likely suffering from a nutritional deficiency and/or a food sensitivity.
2. Genetically modified foods (GMOs), food preservatives & chemicals are contributing to many of your child’s attention, focus, sleep issues and even psychiatric symptoms.
3. For every medication that benefits a person, there is a natural plant or remedy that can achieve the same result without the consequence of side-effects.
4. Our emotions are largely governed by the state of our intestinal system. There is more serotonin in our bowels then in our brain.
5. Research has shown that the brain has a tremendous amount of changeability. Brain training therapies such as Brain Balance, Integrative Reflex, Vision & Biofeedback can make a world of difference.
6. The body has a greater ability to heal than anyone has permitted you to believe and recovery is possible without the need for potentially dangerous medication.
I am a working psychotherapist with over fifteen years of experience treating patients with attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Asperger’s syndrome, Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a myriad of other ailments.
All of the scores of psychiatrists and general practitioners I’ve encountered on the job have focused on medication as the primary treatment option. Yet, I always aimed at working with the more enlightened doctors who recognized the importance of therapy alongside their pharmaceutical treatments. This is because I’ve frequently seen medications change sweet and agreeable children into angry, depressed, and/or foggy kids their parents didn’t recognize.
For a long time, I wondered about the cavalier prescribing of drugs but bit my tongue. Who was I to question physicians with the benefit of many more years of medical training?
This changed in 2006 after I gave birth to a sweet, funny, beautiful boy named Evan. After several years, my son was diagnosed as having ADHD, pervasive developmental disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and apraxia. I was told he was on the mild to moderate end of the autism spectrum.
At first, I was in denial, but I also recognized the many signs that Evan had special challenges.
I knew doctors would eventually recommend medication. I also knew that I didn’t want my son to go down that road for fear it would severely damage his lively, wonderful spirit.
As my husband, Steve, and I tried to make do with physical and behavioral therapies, I received a medical journal article from my Aunt Joan about a link between malabsorption and malnutrition issues and apraxia. This led me to wonder whether Evan’s disorders could be a medical illness treatable with natural remedies that didn’t involve intrusive, personality-altering medication.
I started reading numerous medical journal articles and posts on the Internet from mothers who found alternative and natural treatments genuinely helpful. While I was skeptical at first, the potential rewards were so high that these methods outside the mainstream seemed well worth trying.
I’m now so grateful that my husband and I did try. It has made all the difference in Evan’s health and well-being.
Conventional medicine is incredibly powerful for dealing with a variety of ailments, ranging from a broken leg to a heart attack. When it comes to more nuanced disorders, however, Western doctors are trained to virtually ignore holistic approaches and natural remedies—even when the latter aren’t only cheaper and more effective, but sometimes the only good option.