The ADD Self Help E Book PDF
Preview The ADD Self Help E Book
C O N T E N T WHAT IS ADD? DO I HAVE ADD? DOES HE/SHE HAVE ADD? 5 THE SELF HELP DIAGNOSIS and TREATMENT of ADD using Checklists 11 The Maxi ADD Checklist 13 38 10 Common Features in All Types of ADD 41 The 6 Different Types of ADD FIXING ADD (Section A) A Brief Overview of The Management of ADD 45 FIXING ADD (Section B) The Detailed Treatment of ADD 52 Beating Street Amphetamine 67 ADD, Street Drugs and The Law 69 So What Is The Situation Now? 72 The “Big 7” Mental Health Disorders 73 A Case History 106 3 A D D S E L F H E L P One Doctor’s Thoughts From 17 Years’ Intensive Study of and Work with Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Addiction Patients 107 Disclaimer 118 A D D S E L F H E L P 4 WHAT IS ADD? DO I HAVE ADD? DOES HE/SHE HAVE ADD? WHAT IS ADD? DO I HAVE ADD? DOES HE/SHE HAVE ADD? If you read this ADD E Book and do the Checklists a few times, you will be rewarded with a better understanding of ADD than even the experts had until a few years ago. Don’t get spooked by a few unfamiliar words and don’t be bluffed by people who make it seem very complicated. What you need to know is not very complicated. Does Everyone’s Brain Work Well? No! Many People Have a Brain that needs to work much better! Do You Need a Brain That Works Well? Yes! To beat the problems and have a good life you really do need a Brain that Works Well! A Brain That Works Well will save you heaps of trouble. It is what you most need in order to Feel Good, to Function Well, and to have a Normal Happy Life. An Efficient Brain will help you to be and to get what you want/need in life. A TROUBLED LIFE is nearly always caused by a BRAIN that doesn’t work well enough for the Troubled Person to FEEL GOOD and to FUNCTION and PERFORM WELL. Some of their Brain Chemistry Flows and Brain Electricity Flows are disturbed; their Brain has recorded too many Nasty Memories (Mental DVDs of Nasty things that have happened); and they have too many Negative Thinking Habits. THE COMMONEST BRAIN DISORDER THAT CAUSES PEOPLE DISTRESS, to be DYSFUNCTIONAL & to be DRUG & ALCOHOL PRONE is ADD/ADHD (ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER). Are you gifted at art, colours, music, drama, literature, writing or sport? Do you daydream too much, or have difficulty staying focussed and concentrating? Do you often have to read things over and over again before you “get” the message? Do people often have to repeat what they say to you several times before you “get” the message? Are you easily distracted? Do you have too many things on the go at once, many of which you never get finished? Do you often run late for or miss appointments? Are you fidgety or impulsive? Do you use more Social Drugs, Over the Counter Medications and/or Illegal Street Drugs than most other people? Is your life a disappointment to you and/or to your family? If your answer is yes to more than 3 or 4 of these questions then it is likely that you have some degree of ADD/ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder). 5 A D D S E L F H E L P WHAT IS ADD? DO I HAVE ADD? DOES HE/SHE HAVE ADD? In ADD your Brain doesn’t work well because its Base (The Basal Ganglia) doesn’t produce enough of the chemicals Dopamine and Noradrenalin. These two chemicals stimulate the Front Part of your Brain (The Frontal Lobes), which are Understimulated and Underactive and don’t perform properly when there is not enough Dopamine and Noradrenalin. When you are ready, now or later, go to www.MentalFirstAid.com or www.MentalHealthAssessment.org. In 20 to 30 minutes doing one of the Checklists will show you whether you have any Features of any of The “Big 7” Mental Health Disorders, including ADD, that are spoiling your life. Repeat a Checklist weekly if you have a Total Score of more than 200. Each time you do a Checklist you will better understand any Mental Health Disorders you have and become clearer about how to fix them. Approximately 1 child in 15 is born with ADD, which is a Brain Chemistry Prob- lem they inherit from one or both of their parents; so in a class of 30 children on average 2 have ADD. ADD can be mild, moderate, severe, or very severe; there are 6 different types of ADD; and when there is ADD there are always other Men- tal Health Disorders as well such as Bipolar Disorder and/or Anxiety Disorders and/or Major Depression and/or Insomnia etc. So it’s a bit complicated, but don’t worry, ADDselfhelp will make it all clear and reasonably easy if you go through it a couple of times. Children with Mild or Moderate ADD are a bit more “difficult”, need more care and don’t do quite as well as the average child; unless they find something they are naturally good at and which is interesting or exciting enough to turn them on by stimulating their Brain to produce more Noradrenalin and Dopamine. They may then excel because when they are turned on ADD people are always gifted and talented. Approximately half of the children born with ADD grow out of it by their twenties. However if it is Moderate and they don’t find anything that turns them on, or if it is Severe, unless it is diagnosed and treated long before they grow out of it, their ADD can cause them to reach adult life with a Poor Education, a Poor Quality of Life, low Self Confidence/Self Esteem, and a Sense of being a Failure. Those with very severe ADD may also have joined Troubled Groups, be in trouble with Drugs or Alcohol, and may have trouble with Unemployment or have an Unskilled Job which is below their potential. ADD needs to be taken seri- ously, and fortunately we can now diagnose and treat it very effectively. Another positive is that ADD children nearly all have high “practical” intelligence in addition to special gifts and talents, and once they are diagnosed and treated properly and understand ADD they can find their place in life and make this superior intelligence and their gifts work for them. A D D S E L F H E L P 6 WHAT IS ADD? DO I HAVE ADD? DOES HE/SHE HAVE ADD? The half of the ADD children who haven’t grown out of it by their twenties con- tinue to suffer from ADD right through to old age unless they are diagnosed and effectively treated. Effective treatment can only happen if the person with ADD and those who are near and dear to them take a strong personal interest in under- standing and managing their ADD. You can’t just leave it all to the Doctors and the Psychologists. Other people can help you but they simply can’t do it all for you. Unless you also Help Yourself you will never get well enough to have a normal happy life. ADD has been made a much more common problem in modern times by two of the most damaging changes that have occurred in human lifestyles in the last few generations; all the Unnatural Artificial Chemicals in the Manufactured and Junk Foods and Drinks we now consume, and the Lack of Physical Exer- cise in so much of today’s Work, Recreation and Daily Living. Our lifestyles now seriously differ from the lifestyles that our genes, our bodies and our brains adapted to over thousands of years. If you have, ADD a Fresh, Nature Based, Low Artificial Chemicals Diet and Fluids, Physically Active Employment and a Lifestyle with lots of Exercise, will help you to feel normal and to function much better. That Diet and Lifestyle will also help you to reduce your chances of developing two oth- er serious and increasingly common health problems, Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome, which can also spoil your life. Our BRAIN is our “Headquarters”!! It is our main “Managing Centre” and is much the most important part of each of us Our BRAIN is made up of millions of tiny cells. Each of our many different types of tiny brain cells produces tiny flows of different types of Chemicals and different speeds (frequencies) of Electricity. These tiny flows join together to become big- ger streams of Chemicals and Electricity which flow to all of the different parts of our brain and our body. Through the strength of the flows of the different CHEMICALS and the different speeds of ELECTRICITY which it produces A D D S E L F H E L P 7 WHAT IS ADD? DO I HAVE ADD? DOES HE/SHE HAVE ADD? our Brain creates and/or manages most aspects of our life – our feelings, our thoughts, our memories, our actions and our general health and ability to function. When your Brain doesn’t work well your whole life becomes uncomfortable or painful, more difficult, more hazardous. Getting your Brain working better is the most important thing you and your Healthcarers can do to help you to avoid and to solve problems, to feel good/normal, and to enable you to have a Normal Happy Life. ADD sufferers nearly all have superior Practical Intelligence (not Academic Type Intelligence) and giftedness in things such as Music, Art, Colours, Sport, Drama, Literature, Writing or other activities; but ADD is also called “the Addictive Brain Disorder”. So people with ADD can be great as Sir Winston Churchill was, despite all the cigars he smoked and the whisky he drank, or they can be great but then crash and burn as Heath Ledger did. Getting your Brain working well includes correcting your Brain Chemistry Flows, correcting your Brain Electricity Flows, dealing with recurring Nasty Memories and Dreams, and developing the Habit of Always Being Positive/ Optimistic/Confident in Your Thinking, Actions and Feelings. In the past the only treatment for ADD was to improve the Brain Chemistry by boosting Noradrenalin and Dopamine production with the Stimulant Medications Ritalin or Dexamphetamine. Increasing Noradrenalin and Dopamine stimulates The Frontal Lobes of the Brain to function more normally. However, we have now found that diet, exercise, types of education and training, types of work and lifestyle are also all very important in improving Brain Chemistry and making ADD people’s lives comfortable and functional. It is especially important for people with ADD to build their lives around things they find very interesting, very exciting, and/or challenging and a bit scary, because those things increase their Brain’s production of Noradrenalin and Dopamine.We also now have Modafinil which is a milder stimulant of Noradrenalin and Dopamine production and therefore is not abused and is safer than Ritalin and Dexamphetamine. We have also found that SNRI “Antidepressants”, which also boost Nora- drenalin and Dopamine levels, may give better overall results than Dexam- phetamine and Ritalin in many cases of ADD, and are much easier to control than Dexamphetamine. Because Antidepressants boost Brain Serotonin levels as well as Noradrenalin and Dopamine levels, they are helpful for Depression, Anxiety, Low Self Confidence/Self Esteem, some Sleep Disorders and Post Trau- ma Disorders as well as for ADD. So Antidepressants help ADD and also help many of the Disorders that very often go with ADD. Fortunately they don’t aggra- A D D S E L F H E L P 8 WHAT IS ADD? DO I HAVE ADD? DOES HE/SHE HAVE ADD? vate Anxiety or Sleep Disorders or cause weight loss, which Dexamphetamine may do. Also any Doctor can prescribe Antidepressants so they are much more affordable and quicker and easier to get than Dexamphetamine and Ritalin, which only Pediatricians, Psychiatrists and Neurologists can prescribe in Australia. We also now know from the new SPECT Brain Scans that in about 20% of cases of ADD there is Overactivity in other parts of the Brain in addition to the usual ADD Underactivity of the Front of the Brain. Anything that increases the Noradrenalin production in the Brain improves the performance of the Underactive Noradrenalin deprived Front Part of the Brain but makes the Overactive Irritable parts of the Brain more Overac- tive and more Irritable. Overactivity in parts of the Brain not only causes Irritability but may cause Anger and sometimes even Rage or Violence e.g. Temporal Lobe ADD in which Road Rage and Domestic Violence may occur. So Irritability, Anger and Rage is made worse by Dexamphetamine, Ritalin and Stimulating “Antidepressants” in about 20% of cases of ADD. However we now know that the Irritability, Anger and Violence can be quickly, easily and best be prevented with Anticonvulsant/Mood Stabiliser medications, e.g. Carbamazepine, Lamotrigine or Sodium Valproate . Major Tranquilisers/Antip- sychotics such as Amisulpride, Quetiapine, Olanzapine or Pericyazine may also help to settle Irritability, Anger and Violence and may be a better choice when there are severe Anxiety Disorders or Paranoia with the ADD. Some cases will respond best to a combinations of a Mood Stabiliser and a Major Tranquiliser. When you take both you need smaller doses. In ADD there is also excessive production of Brain Electricity, which usually shows up in a special EEG (a recording of the electricity flows of the brain) as excessively strong flows of the 3 and 5 Hz Electricity. These excessively strong flows of Electricity can usually be corrected long term with 30 or 40 sessions of EEG Biofeedback. EEG Biofeedback is a Brain Electricity Feedback Training or Tuning process in which your Brain Learns to produce more moder- ate, more normal flows of electricity. This Learning gives lasting improvement, whereas Medications give passive, temporary improvement. For many years we have known about the 2 commonest types of ADD (Hyperac- tive and Inattentive), which we call ADHD and Inattentive (or Daydreaming) ADD and which are due to Underactivity of the Frontal Lobes of the Brain. Now the new SPECT scanning techniques, which show all the Overactive as well as all the Underactive areas in the brain, have shown that there are at least 4 other types of ADD, including Overfocussed ADD, Temporal Lobe ADD, Limbic ADD and Ring of Fire ADD. It is now possible for us to accurately diagnose and effectively treat all of the 6 different types of ADD. 9 A D D S E L F H E L P WHAT IS ADD? DO I HAVE ADD? DOES HE/SHE HAVE ADD? This means that all ADD sufferers can now be helped to feel normal, to function normally and to live Normal Happy Lives. It also means that the many ADD people who are gifted in music, art, colours, drama, literature, writing, sport etc, can now aspire to be High Achievers without the danger of Substance Abuse or Addiction causing them to crash and burn, as has happened to so many gifted people in the past. Although most doctors and psychologists diagnose ADD through the traditional consultation method and sometimes by also getting SPECT brain scans done, in my practice I have found that an accurate diagnosis can be made most ef- ficiently, quickly and cost effectively with Computerized, Internet Enabled, SelfHelp Checklists. These Computerised Checklists ask all of the questions needed to make an accu- rate Assessment, they never forget to ask anything, and the patient has usually already started to understand what ADD is by the time they have read and answered the ADD Checklist questions. By the time they have read and answered all of the Checklist questions at www.MentalFirstAid.com or www.MentalHealthAssessment.org they have also usually discovered for themselves whether or not they have any features of ADD; and they are also already starting to realize what the solutions are for some of their ADD problems, if they have any; and they can repeat an online ADD SelfHelp Checklist whenever they are motivated to learn more, day or night, 365 days of the year, at minimal cost. Some people doubt the accuracy of self administered Checklists, believing that patients are sometimes not honest. Any Doctor who works in a Drug and Alcohol Clinic is told lies every day and I am pretty skilled now at knowing when a patient is telling the truth and when they are telling lies. What I and other Doctors have found is that patients will often reveal more of the truth to a computer than they will to me. Every week patients reveal things of vital importance to their treatment when they click on answers to my Checklist Questions which they have never previously revealed to a Doctor, and probably weren’t going tell me either. Guilt and Embarrassment/Shame are major downers in the life of every person with Mental Illness and Substance Abuse. Often what they value most in a Doctor is that no matter what they admit to the Doctor won’t be judgmental; and computers aren’t judgemental! When my patients are bending the truth, hiding things from me or telling me lies I usually know, and they usually know I know. People are smart when their Adrenalin is flowing, which it is in those situations. Once they know I am not going to judge them, criticise them or get angry or laugh at them, they reveal more and more in subsequent Computerized Checklists, making their treatment easier and more effective. A D D S E L F H E L P 10 THE SELF HELP DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT of ADD THE SELF HELP DIAGNOSIS and TREATMENT of ADD using Checklists Each Question in the Checklists asks about a particular Discomfort or a particular Difficulty in daily living, which could be spoiling your life if you suffer from ADD or from other Mental Health Disorders. Each question is asked to help make it clear to you as well as to your Healthcarers whether or not you suffer from a particular Discomfort or a particular Dysfunction. Therefore each time you do a Checklist you will 1. Learn from the questions that are asked what the problems are that ADD can cause a person. 2. You will learn more and more about how your Brain and Mind Function, and whether your brain has any ADD Malfunctions/Dysfunctions. Also what effects this has on how you feel, how you perform, and on your Quality of Life. 4. Each time you do a Checklist you will become more motivated and more able to make those changes that will help you to solve your problems and to improve your Quality of Life. 5. Your Brain will automatically start to make changes as you repeatedly read and answer the Checklist questions, especially if you keep visualizing exactly what you want, and keep saying to your self and to others exactly what you want, e.g. “I want to be very good at Paying Attention”, and “I want to be very good at Focussing and Concentrating”, and “I want to be able to quickly and reliably “get” what I read and “get” what I hear,” or “I want to be able to accurately sense what other people are feeling so that I can have good relationships,” or “I want to be better organized, to be able to get things done and to do well in life,” or “I want to have nothing to do with drugs”. I wanted The ADD Checklist to be thorough, but not too long or too difficult for people to do. I therefore developed 2 Checklists that have ADD questions, so that you can start with an easy shorter one, The Mental First Aid Checklist, before going on to a more detailed one, The Mental Health Assessment Checklist. 11 A D D S E L F H E L P
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