A Holistic Approach to ADHD Treatment with Siddha Medicine

ADHD Management and Treatment

Every human likes to be appreciated, but people with ADHD really like to be appreciated more. So give them more praise, give them quality attention. Since they go haywire here and there, some confidence has to be instilled into them, but in a more humane and gentle way. We have to be constantly coordinating with the schools because children spend most of the time in schools than at home during the daytime.

So we have to work with schools to manage ADHD very effectively. See, the best part about ADHD compared with autism is that children with autism grow into adults with autism. But in the case of ADHD, most children with ADHD can actually shed their ADHD once they grow up if these things are applied in a very meticulous way.

For example, there are 100 children with ADHD—only 40 adults with ADHD will come out of those 100 children with ADHD. So that means more than 50-60% of the children with ADHD can become neurotypical with effective management. That is why we can really take this as a challenge and work with them in a very promising way. The last point is parental self-care. Why do I mention parental self-care? Because working with hyperactive people can be really draining, especially for the parents, and that has to be taken care of.

Impact on Siblings

So we spoke about parents. What about siblings? It's a big challenge. Having a sibling with ADHD can really have a profound impact on non-ADHD siblings because children with ADHD are prone to get all the attention from the parents. This leads to many conflicts, anger, and jealousy in siblings. Most of them feel isolated. They feel unattended by their parents, and resentment can bloom. That has to be addressed in a genuine way.

Celebrities with ADHD

When you talk about ADHD, we talk about a lot of celebrities. I'm sure, being in the US, you know this guy in the first picture—his name is Trevor Noah. He's a very famous comedy show host from South Africa. He's a very famous guy, and he claims he has ADHD. The middle man is an American actor—Channing Tatum is his name. The third one is an Olympic gymnast—Simone Biles is her name. And then we all know Michael Phelps, the Olympic swimmer. He is the topmost Olympic medalist in swimming. Michael Phelps is a person with ADHD. And then we know Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin Group CEO—he's also a person with ADHD.

Functional Challenges

Since we spoke about celebrities, not all people with ADHD are very high functioning. A significant amount of people with ADHD have functional impairment. So it's very shocking data which I'm going to present now. Here, the blue lines represent people with ADHD, and the white is for neurotypical people. Who repeats their grades most? Almost four times higher—they're from ADHD. High school dropouts—ADHD. More teen pregnancy happens to people with ADHD. Sexually transmitted diseases spread more among people with ADHD, and people who get arrested frequently—incarceration. When you see childhood detention centers, if you go and talk to those children and assess them, most of the children have ADHD.

If the energy is not properly managed, they may get into trouble very often. So that is what the message is. For example, there are so many areas where ADHD presents a disadvantage, especially in driving. The number of people with suspended licenses, who caused a lot of accidents, and drunk driving—most of them are from the ADHD category.

ADHD Treatment Approaches

Now we move to how we treat them. Not all people with ADHD need medical treatments—most of them do need it, but everybody needs lifestyle changes and therapies at various points in their time.

Types of ADHD Treatment

Medical/medicine-based:

• ● Antidepressants (some people may require it)
• ● Stimulants and non-stimulants

Non-medication based therapies:

• ● Behavior therapy for children when they're very young—ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) helps, and other behavior therapies help
• ● Psychotherapy for adults
• ● Social skills training is very important—that helps immensely for them to shed their ADHD traits once they grow up
• ● Support groups

I can't emphasize enough the importance of support groups. How did ADHD become popular? ADHD became popular only because of parent support groups. People were talking about ADHD since the 1970s, but it hasn't become popular. There was one US support group called CHADD—Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder. That parent group lobbied very well in 1987, and then they put it into legislation, and so many things happened after that. So support groups are essential to support people with ADHD and their families.

Social Skills Training for Adults

When it comes to adults with ADHD treatment, I wanted to emphasize more on social skills training because most of them lack soft skills. Those things can be easily taught in a structured way through CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), mindfulness, meditations—all those things immensely help.

General Tips for Managing ADHD

How to deal with them? Children with ADHD attract more discipline from teachers and parents, but it is not very good in the long run. Parents often focus on their weaknesses: "He's not sitting in the same place," "He's not listening," "He's not able to write," and all those things. But if we focus on weakness, again it's not right. Conforming to what works for other people—"He's doing like that, why can't you be like this?"—these things and constantly threatening them and keeping them in a state of pressure are things to be completely avoided while they're growing up.

What helps:

• ● Be an advocate for them in their social settings
• ● Encourage them with rewards
• ● If they can't do a task, break it up into small things and then chain it together—it helps immensely
• ● Instead of focusing on their weaknesses, focus on their strengths—it's called a strength-centric approach
• ● Encouragements and make them feel important

Supplements and Dietary Considerations

Some supplements help immensely, like Omega-3. For people with ADHD, their nervous system consumes four times the Omega-3 compared to their neurotypical counterparts. So we have to abundantly supplement Omega-3 and encourage fat-rich food as ADHD treatment.

For allergies, you have to reduce things like gluten and casein—you can try gluten-free, casein-free if you have allergies. Multivitamins help because they have nutritional deficiency, which is a hallmark picture of ADHD. Magnesium helps to calm them. Zinc helps. We can try these things as ADHD treatment.

Traditional Medicine Approaches

Like I spoke about anxiety last week, the same Siddha medicines help immensely in managing ADHD: Ashwagandha, Sarpagandha, Vallarai, Brahmi, Jatamansi, Shankhpushpi. These are the prime herbs. There are so many combinations also in Siddha medicines. On a case by case basis, we can employ them to a varied level of success.

There are a lot of sensory issues also occurring in ADHD. So external therapy helps immensely—like oil bath, oil massages. These are the first line of treatment that we provide in our facility. As we spoke about anxiety last week, the same types of physiological issues happen in ADHD too. So Shirodhara helps them immensely. Neck massages, liver and abdomen compresses, structured yogic exercises, meditation—all these things help immensely in ADHD treatment.