ADD Treatment - Part 1
While I am not an expert on ADD—Attention Deficit Disorder—I do have it, have had since God only knows when, was not until my early forties diagnosed with it, and have in the past four years read up on and written on ADD and the options for ADD treatment. So I offer you some information as I experience it and as I understand it.
First, I must stress that though I don’t adore this disorder, I do appreciate it and prefer it over other disorders (if, like Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron we each must be saddled with one flaw of extreme degrees, anyway). I am blessed with creative skills, have a reputation for being hyper…aware, cautious, and correct, and have a respect for challenged thinkers and learners.
I also will note that when I was first diagnosed, when my brilliant and life-saving therapist suggested I look into ADD and ADD treatment alternatives, I had been trying to understand what was wrong with the way I approached the world…to the point of conceding to having a behavioral problem and a subsequent or precedent drug addiction—to speed (street meth). So at the time of discovery and the blessings of a real name for the disorder, I had been twelve-stepping in recovery programs like Narcotics Anonymous, and was reticent about getting medical/chemical ADD treatment.
But after reading the best books, magazines, and on- and offline articles on ADD and finding that 1) all those years of snorting crank pointed not to a rebellious adamancy to staying a dope fiend but to an authentic and savvy self-medicating effort; 2) I was not an addict who needed more and more to normalize; and 3) there are medications that are designed for ADDers that are BETTER than stepped-on street speed…I decided on chemical ADD treatment.
So here are the treatments I read about (or studied up on), as defined and described by the greatest ADD specialists in the country—David Sudderth, Joseph Kandel, Thom Hartmann, Sari Solden, Thomas Whiteman, Michelle Novotni, Kate Kelly, and Peggy Ramundo:
Article (Part 1): ADD Treatment 1
Article (Part 2): ADD Treatment 2
Article (Part 3): ADD Treatment 3
