ADHD Kids Guide for Mom

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ADHD And What Moms Need To Know

What This Special Report Is ­ And What It Isn't
The information in this Special Report strives to give you a commonsense "heads up" about dealing with your ADHD child. It is not a definitive clinical dissertation, nor is it a medical or legal document. It is not qualified to deal with issues involving medication. It does, however, attempt to provide you with a selection of tips and resource options that other ADHD children's parents have found particularly useful ­ and also to alert you to options and dangers you may yet have not encountered.

What Is ADHD ­ And Where Did It Come From?
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a relatively new term. Public awareness began in the 1970's (though it had been described as early as 1845 by Dr. Heinrich Hoffman). After World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II, people emerged from crisis mode and were for a long time preoccupied with materialism and achieving a shaky security again through rigidly following social norms and focusing on ultra-conformist behavior. In the 60's, a new generation began to question these values, and by the 1970's people were rapidly developing new-found awareness of their inner motivations, feelings and psyches. Around this time, the term ADHD emerged (along with a host of other psychological and psychiatric disorders).

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ADHD And What Moms Need To Know

Before then, a child who showed symptoms of inattention, fidgeting, poor impulse control and other forms of "disruptive" behavior were promptly labeled as "problem" children. Parents were blamed for being too lax, and the child often ended up getting punished with the strap in school, or spanked at home. ADHD started out being simplistically but aptly labeled as "learning and behavioral difficulties", or sometimes just "hyperactivity". Parents were blamed. Children were blamed. And if you were really lucky, diet was blamed. Even in the early1980's, "hyperactivity" was frowned upon by a generation still being liberated from bras and heavily stereotyped gender roles. There was very little help, and a lot of misunderstanding and condemnation.

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However, ADHD didn't go away and as post-70's mothers and fathers learned to be more assertive, a host of studies began to take place. This has grown over the years, giving rise to a variety of sub grouped "types" of ADHD and recognition of the fact that it is a far more complex psychological disorder than previously thought: Often with evidence of neurochemical differences (particularly in dopamine levels and delayed development in the frontal cortex and temporal lobe).1 Countless scientists (and studies) have concluded there is empirical evidence of the disorder, others still hedge around the issue or reject it as a disease or disorder because of personal bias. Strong opinions have been given by experts and laymen alike, accompanied by dubious publicity often supplied by the media, whose whole mandate is usually to run with the single most sensationalist "angle" and ignore every other fact that affects or shades that viewergrabbing "slant". We've had everyone from Tom Cruise to an English baroness putting
in their two cents worth, pro and con. We've seen it blamed on food additives, sugar, pesticides, environmental pollution, smoking during pregnancy, vitamin and mineral deficiency, environmental factors and all of the above. But the fact remains. 3-5% of all children on the planet are diagnosed with it ­ and countless more suffer many of the symptoms.

Roman T, Rohde LA, Hutz MH. (2004). "Polymorphisms of the dopamine transporter gene: influence on response to methylphenidate in attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder." American Journal of Pharmacogenomics 4(2):83­92 PMID 15059031 ADHD And What Moms Need To Know Page 6

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