Texas nursing facilities have dramatically reduced the inappropriate use of antipsychotic medications for nursing facility residents with dementia, according to a recent report that ranks states on this key measure of long-term care quality. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has several initiatives to help nursing homes reduce the unnecessary use of antipsychotics among residents, and Texas recently experienced the largest reduction of any state in the nation. If someone you know is diagnosed with dementia or resides in long-term care, please take a moment to watch this video or read the report to learn more about the paradigm shift toward prescribing less medication and adding more nature walks, communication with family members, and music. You can find more information about the report here: https://hhs.texas.gov/doing-business-hhs/provider-portals/long-term-care-providers/nursing-facilities/quality-monitoring-program/evidence-based-best-practices/appropriate-use-antipsychotic-medications
0 Comments
What is so important about a support system?
One of the things I assess for when clients come in for therapy is the strength of their social support systems. This helps me understand if the client has people to rely on during hard times or if they face life’s battles alone. It also helps me know who can be relied on for active support of the client outside of therapy. These people can include a spouse, family members, or friends. A strong social support system has been proven to be a strong influence on mental health. A more than 80 year study by Harvard found that people who embrace community live longer happier lives. Having a group that understands what you are going through decreases feelings of loneliness and symptoms of anxiety and depression during difficult life events. A support system is where we create our perception of belonging and purpose. A sense of belonging brings peace of mind. When a person has planned activities with others to look forward to, hopefulness for the future increases. A study about online support groups by Zigron and Bronstein states that the benefits of having even a weak network of support for your health condition provides emotional support, reduces stigma, and creates a sense of belonging. 5 Steps to start building your support system: 1. Make a list of all your interests and hobbies. Include spiritual beliefs, physical, mental, occupational, creative/artistic and educational interests. Include morals and beliefs you are passionate about. You might be surprised at how large this list could be! That is great because it expands your options. 2. Now that you have your list… it is time to start a new one. On this next list brainstorm as many places and ways you can participate in these interests and hobbies. 3. Okay. Here comes the hard part…. Make a plan to go do some of these activities and follow through with that plan. I know it can be hard sometimes but you will be a better person for it! While you are at it, say hello to some of the people you meet who share similar interests. These encounters could create lifelong friendships. 4. Active participation has been proven to be empowering! To reap the most out of any community of support and to increase your likelihood of positive experiences, you should consider ways to get involved. This increases a person’s sense of purpose which decreases feelings of loneliness and depression. 5. Have you ever felt like an outsider or foreigner? It is not a good feeling. If you already have an established friend group or community find ways to grow your support group by inviting others to participate. You’ll reap the extra benefit of doing something life changing for someone else. * Just because you have trouble finding the right support group does not mean it is not out there! You can search for specific support groups online. This will widen your access to groups of people who have similar interests or support needs. Support groups for specific medical and mental health diagnosis are also available online. Have you found that group that you fit into? Each one of us longs for a sense of belonging and when we do not have it we struggle with feelings of loneliness and instability. I encourage you to find your tribe, your crew, your team and reap the benefits of having a caring and supportive community around you. Joy, Hope and Peace. We hear these three words a lot this time of year. They are written everywhere; Streetlights, commercials, ornaments, windows of shopping malls…. It would be understandable if you have become desensitized to the meaning that each brings to the world. What do they really mean and how do they affect our daily lives? If you do a little research you will find that these three words have power that can be wielded to improve your total wellness and that of those around you!
Joy inspires gratitude and vice versa. Both are reliant on each other and inspire a person to look at their life through a clearer lens. We get so bogged down by the expectations of ourselves and others. The fear, guilt, and regret we feel when we have not met those expectations can leave us viewing the world very negatively. Practicing gratitude can bring joy into your life. It is important to take a moment to bring clarity and awareness of the accomplishments you’ve achieved and the goodness that surrounds you. Meditating on something positive such as what you are grateful for, for twenty minutes a day has been proven to restructure your brain. Check out some of the amazing research about the benefits of mindfulness meditation here: (https://davidji.com/scienceofmeditation/) Something so simple as taking some deep breaths and recounting all the things that you are grateful for can greatly impact the quality of your life. The effects are contagious so notice those around you becoming more joyful in your presence. If you change your mentality, you will change your life. Hope is the bedrock of our dreams and aspirations. Hope inspires life changes for the good. Socially acceptable and inspired goals have become difficult to navigate these days. We constantly see advertisements and social media telling us what we should desire and become. It is easy to lose yourself in a world that sets unrealistic expectations for how you should live. The things prescribed to make you “happier” are seldom achievable by most people. For those who do achieve these goals or statuses, they often are left feeling empty, unfulfilled and looking for the next fleeting gratification. To remedy this cycle of hopelessness, set your goals for fulfilling and achievable things. Some might include a healthy lifestyle, a healthy and connected family, and ways you can give goodness to others. Creating a sense of meaning in your life can inspire genuine happiness and hope. Find your sense of purpose. By getting involved in serving your community, you can inspire others to have hope in their lives as well. If you want to learn more you can read this awesome article I found here: (https://www.drtoddhall.com/post/beyond-happy-5-factors-for-a-fulfilling-life-backed-by-science) Joy and Hope bring Peace. We have a lot of negativity floating around. If listening to the news puts you in a bad mood then cut certain news outlets out of your daily routine. Negativity is contagious. It is like a bad virus that infiltrates even the healthiest people. The good news is that if negativity is contagious so is its counterpart. A simple genuine smile and a, “How are you?” Or “Have a nice day”, can completely change the atmosphere around you. Even if you must, “fake it ‘til you make it”. People will catch the spring in your step and your positivity will change your environment creating a safer and more joy filled day. Yes safer! Negativity is dangerous to your physical, mental, and social health. Therefore, I encourage you to be an advocate of peace in the world. Share some joy and hope with others. You will be surprised at how empowering it will feel to positively affect your own health and the health of others around you. When you see those three words during your daily commute or on a holiday greeting card, I hope you will marvel at the importance of them. Remember to carry these sentiments in your mind throughout the year and be open to their positive impact on humanity. I wish for you and yours all the Joy, Hope and Peace you can possibly receive this holiday season, and all of the New Year! How distractions limit success, effect mental health, and strategies to be calmer and more productive in a healthy wayIts 6:30 am and I’m beginning my daily fight with my alarm clock. It’s not that I haven’t rested enough. It is mostly the struggle to gather the ever fleeting thoughts in my mind into focus so that I can put one foot before the other and start my day. I’m assuming I’m not the only person out there who struggles at times to get their brain to wake up and do the things they need to get daily tasks done. As soon as we wake up in the morning to the time we go to sleep, we have our phones in our hand and the pressure of a thousand tasks we need to complete. We live in a productivity driven world. If we aren’t careful and take purposeful steps to give our brains a break, mental health will decline. Constant overstimulation and pressure to be successful can cause some people to feel anxiety, develop OCD due to the demand for control but lack of it, and failure or feelings of inadequacy can lead to depression. These are just a few possible results someone could experience. Everyone has varying capacities to handle stressors.
Our lives are so filled with distractions, to sit still and complete one task can be so overwhelming. When I was still in college it would take me about fifteen to twenty minutes to get my coffee, organize my assignments, catch up on emails and texts, and calm my mind enough to be able to focus on my work. I know the likelihood of me being alone in that is slim. We have so many distractions that keep us from being productive. We push ourselves to accomplish so much in one day our brains never get time to organize thoughts. We don’t give ourselves time to process information. When we have emotional reactions to events many people don’t know how or have the capacity to deal with it. Our phone rings, our email notification dings, your mom always happens to call right about the time you get in the zone and are actually accomplishing something! The news update comes on your phone that there is another shooting. Because we live in a post-911 world we watch anxiously and pray that somehow no-one dies or that the shooter is stopped. This alone could cause some people to lose a whole days work because of the media coverage that is everywhere you go. Do you feel anxious just reading this? Imagine this is how some people feel constantly. If you are one of these people or have at some point in your life felt like your are running in a tunnel that never ends, you are not alone. The good news is there are a lot of strategies that can help you become calmer, more organized and productive. How To Be More Calm And Productive The key is to try to not implement too much change at once. If you try to do too much you will drop one of the many balls you are juggling and that will cause the same problems as before. We don’t want that, so pick one thing that you think will work for you and make small but long lasting changes. If in two weeks or so you think this new thing is working and you want to try more then add another. Get Organized: I’ve heard it said that having a cluttered and unorganized environment is a reflection of your mental health. I’m not sure if that is empirically tested, but we all know how we 2 September 26, 2018 feel when our house is a mess verses when everything is clean. Especially when I work from home, I usually have to do the dishes and pick up around the house before I can focus on the work I needed to do that day. Getting organized may include tidying up your environment, reviewing your schedule, and making a to do list with high and low priority tasks. Do what you can of the high priority tasks and if you cannot complete the list forgive yourself. Remember you are human! It is also important to make realistic goals and to do lists. Don’t make a list that is impossible to complete. At the end of the day, go over in your mind or make a list of all the things you’ve accomplished that day. You will surprise yourself and you will go to bed knowing you did accomplish something! Create Healthy Habits: Habits are powerful! They should be your best friend. You’ve heard it before and it is so very true, humans are creatures of habits. Our brains function best on habits! Habits can give your life a sense of stability, predictability, and security. When you have poor habits or don’t have good habits established it can really cause you to struggle. The more of your life that can be ritualized and simplified the more space you will have in your brain to accomplish bigger, better, newer things. If you have the habits of the same bedtime and morning routines your body will automatically hop to it without much thought and effort. However, if you don’t have well established routines it takes so much more energy to get going and tell yourself to do each thing every day. Its like when you drive the same rout to work every day. You don’t really think about it. You just get in the car and autopilot takes over and your mind has the extra room to daydream or think about what you need to do that day. I absolutely love the book “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg! If you want to know the research behind how powerful habits are this is the book to read! Simplify Your Life: Cut out all the unnecessary things and people from your life. I usually am against cutting people out of your life. However, we all have experienced at some point that person who drags you down. Their negativity, their over reliance on you, their poor boundaries. You have a good heart and you like to help people but sometimes that can severely limit your ability to be successful. I like the way it is described in Boundaries by Dr. Henery Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. They explain that we all have our weight to carry like a backpack of stones. Everyone has their own stones and you should not carry someone else’s for them. You can pray for them or help them with the boulders of life. You should not avoid your responsibilities because you are always taking care of other peoples responsibilities. Sometimes cutting people from your life is only temporary. They may become healthier and add positivity and value to your life again. Another way to simplify your life is to remove the daily decisions that clutter your mind so that you can go on autopilot and reserve that energy for more difficult tasks. Habits help as explained above but other ways may be to limit your clothing choices or have your clothes picked out for the week. Some famously successful people who wear the same thing every day include Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Simon Cowell, and Andy Warhol. Having meals planned and prepped also limits the energy you spend wondering about what you are going to eat and where you will get it from. All these little decisions add up and can distract you from being productive through the day. Practice Self-Care: In the mental health field we hear a lot about self-care. I will most likely write a whole blog post about self care. It is that important! If you don’t take care of yourself you are not going to have the energy and mental health to be able to be productive and give to others. Remember to replenish your energy. Some people need to go on a run, others need to read a good book. Introverts need alone time and extroverts get their energy from being around others. Find what in life makes you feel renewed and plan it in your schedule. It is an appointment you cannot afford to not keep. To help increase clarity of mind and attention try mindfulness meditation. According to research published in the journal of Brain and Cognition done by Gotink, et al., in only 8 weeks you can change the way your brain works. (you can read the whole article here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/ pii/S0278262616301312) Among many other benefits, mindfulness meditation showed to improve emotion regulation. This has a huge impact on how you manage stressors throughout the day! If you would like to know more about mindfulness meditation or how to do it, you can ask your therapist or check out the many mindfulness meditation apps in the app store. You can find a list of some of the best ones here: https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/topmeditation-iphone-android-apps#the-mindfulness-app. The most important thing is to not let the day to day pressures weigh you down. Focus on the things you are grateful for. Love and be kind to yourself. Remember the big picture. Remember your purpose. No other human knows you quite like your spouse. Well, maybe your mother. Just as your mother was free to offer critique or constructive advice, I wonder if your spouse is permitted to do the same? Let’s take a closer look at vulnerability in marriages. Vulnerability is opening oneself to certain situations or making yourself emotionally sensitive to another. Early life circumstances and upbringing may have taught you to guard your heart or emotions. However, in marriages, it may not be conducive to hold defense mechanisms. Your closest ally can also be a great teacher. Personally, I have begun great marital goals designed to better parent, manage money, or become a better spouse only to learn my idea was not that great. Ouch! Failing as a spouse hurts but let’s consider how being vulnerable or open to feedback (if you’re adverse to the word vulnerable) may help. You see, your spouse is not you. And that can be a good thing because their perspective may identify blind spots or constraints in your great plan. Permitting yourself to be vulnerable can create deeper, meaningful relationships and allows your spouse to act as a support. You may learn more efficient practices in which to accomplish goals. Though I must caution, vulnerability has risks. If you and your spouse do not have a certain level of trust, love, and respect you may find yourself subject to stinging, unproductive comments aimed at hurting and not building you up. If that is the case, perhaps exploring these issues in marriage counseling would be beneficial. Can you pinpoint the feeling you experience when you see a stranded motorist on the side of the road? Or an overwhelmed parent taking care of a newborn baby? Initially, you might feel prompted to help but quickly list excuses that keep you from helping the ailing parent or the motorist. Occasionally I’m found in similar circumstances and thought I would share a recent experience that you may find yourself in one day.
I was at a local store grocery store when I ran into an old friend. He and I struck up a conversation and he began sharing information unknown to me regarding past grief. He mentioned he found great healing and improved mental health through counseling 20 years ago. As we were talking I noticed an individual close to us waiting in line to check out. The individual was very attentive to our conversation. His eyes were red and a look of sadness was observable. I could tell he wanted to join our conversation but just could not muster the strength. I experienced the exact feeling described above. Do I engage the individual in conversation not knowing the direction it will lead? Or do I close the distance between my friend and myself to exclude the individual? We choose to open the conversation to the stranger and he shared a recent grief experience regarding someone close. The outcome was three human beings connecting to a similar life experiences. My friend and I were able to genuinely dispense hope and provide counseling resources to help the individual navigate through their grief journey. I encourage you to extend a hand and perhaps step out of your comfort zone for a bit to offer support to someone who is looking for help. You do not have to be a clinically trained mental health professional to identify emotional pain. So I invite you to consider taking a chance the next time you experience the urge to assist someone because the experience you have might pleasantly surprise you. What constitutes quality time in your family or marriage? Sitting around the dinner table eating and talking? Playing board games? Playing in the backyard? Or maybe watching TV together? I invite you to take a moment to note areas where you and your family have taken time to connect with one another in the past few days. With advancements in technology and social media, you may find yourself immersed in the lives of others, pursuing unending streams of knowledge, and left feeling detached from your own life. A quick internet search led me to a 2015 Statista report stating that adults ages 18 and up spend an average of 11+ hours a day on technological devices, including TV viewing. Other studies concluded a more conservative average of 7-8 hours of daily technology use. Let’s consider that for a moment.. Say we are sleeping 8 hours a day, working 8 hours a day, and spending 7-8 hours on technology. Where does that place us in terms of connecting with family and spouses? In my own experience, raising children requires a whole lot more than meeting their physical needs for food, water, and shelter. Additionally, great marriages don’t just happen while simultaneously scrolling through Instagram. Children and marriages require nurturing, love, support, opportunities to grow, and regular intervals of our undivided attention. Let us reassess where our time is spent, stop to listen, and engage with our children. Life lessons need to be dispensed to our children and hurt feelings resulting from bad days at school require care. Successful marriages demand ongoing work and availability of time allows us to close marital gaps by meeting a spouse or partner’s needs. So I invite you to take a moment, put down your phone or device and schedule time with your family. Incorporate 15 minute family walks, dinners with the family, or read a book to your little ones. Why? Because there are no second chances when raising children. Although I believe it is possible to rekindle the spark between disconnected spouses, marriages often fair better when both partners still have hope in the ability to enhance their relationship. Ever reflect on how you managed a major life event and wish you could go back in time and change some of those decisions? Most people do. Let us reflect on the recent hurricane, flooding, or other recent stressful event. What would you have done differently to prepare or endure the crisis? Personally, as I reflect on the stress stemming from the hurricane, I recall my short temper and lack of patience. Feelings of helplessness were present and I felt directionless, yet, wanting to act. Who wants to just sit and wait for something bad to occur? So there I was barking orders at whoever would listen, pacing the floor, and feeling agitated. We can glean the valuable knowledge from our past experiences to aid us in future stressful events. This can be done by exploring how the practical steps listed below would have impacted our behaviors and actions. Use the short list below to find practical ways to navigate future stressful events. Stop…pause….even for a short period of time, to ground yourself. Slow the process. Take time to collect your thoughts and orient yourself and others to the issue at hand. Pray, mediate, or utilize other skills that calm or relax you. Journeying through stressful situations with everyone at their best mental state can make life more manageable. While paused, you can also take time to plan. Success is fostered by a good plan, right? Organize or even prioritize your thoughts. Focus on what can be done in the present and not what can’t be accomplished. Enlist support of your family, friends, or spouse. Many hands can lighten a load. Once you are focused and moving in accord with others, each person is able to effectively utilize their own skill sets. Reviewing and implementing coping skills is another practical step that aids in working through future stressful events. Identify and use coping skills that help comfort, relax, and reduce stress. After all, some stressful events do not resolve overnight and may take weeks, months, or years. Coping skills can be as basic as reading, walk/jogging, journaling, or playing a favorite game with the family or friends. Identify coping skills that work for you. If I would have paused, planned, and incorporated coping skills to reduce stress, Hurricane Harvey would have still created incredible amounts of destruction. However, a sense of calmness or even peace would have enabled me to be more productive, leaving me better prepared to provide safety and support to my family and others around me. Take some time today and reflect on the past hurricane or a major life crisis and reflect on how the steps above could be used to improve future situations. It's spring time and the weather is nice. For those of us who do not regularly exercise, NOW is the perfect time to put the remote control down, shut off the computer, put down the smart phone and do something good for your body and mind. Exercise (even 20 minutes a few times a week) has tremendous emotional as well as physical benefits...
I know it can be really tough to get motivated when you are not used to exercising... (trust me, I know!) excuses and time restraints erode our best intentions. However, setting small, micro goals is really helpful to increase our motivation. Try committing to exercise for today or just this week. Then you can re-evaluate your goals. Exercise needs to be fun to give you the motivation to stick with it... so ask a friend or family member to join you or find a 5K race that looks like fun and sign yourself up! Here is a website that might help you find a 5K in the Houston area http://www.houstonrunningcalendar.com/. Most of these races are for charity... you are simultaneously helping others as well and staying fit. Everyone wins! If you don't know where to start, check out this "Couch to 5K" program, geared toward... well, couch potatoes! It starts off with alternating 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. You can do that! Can't you? Of course you can!! http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml Let's put down the excuses and get outside today!!! Happy exercising!!! Photo courtesy of mapichai/freedigitalphotos.net Will you help me promote Children's Mental Health Awareness Day (May 8, 2014)? Please say, "Yes! I'd love to!" There is a contest titled "What Happiness Means to Me" which is open to all Texas students, elementary through high school. I would love to display some of your entries in my office if you'd like to loan them to me for display... Please read the information below for all the contest details. Good Luck to all the contestants! Chest vs. Diaphragmatic breathingMost people take breathing for granted. You just do it without much thought. Yet in reality, focusing on how you breath can reap huge benefits. There are two common breathing patterns that we are all familiar with: 1) chest breathing 2) abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing. Can you guess which one is associated with anxiety and other emotional distress? You got it! It's chest breathing... see how smart you are? When you breathe through your chest, the breath is more irregular, shallow and rapid than diaphragmatic breathing which is non-constricting and even, allowing your respiratory system to effectively produce energy and remove waste from your body. Have you ever wrestled with how to discuss sex and intimacy with your children? If you have, I know of a resource that may help.
Check out CLER (Christian Life Enrichment Resources) Ministries' "Just Say Know" programs CLER Ministries Website for elementary and middle school children and their parents. I was recently searching for resources for a family I am working with when I found this well devised safety list for families who are at risk or have a history of domestic violence. No one deserves to be emotionally or physically abused. No one. Let me repeat... no one. That means you and everyone around you!
The list below (which I found on the Humble Police Department website) was so well thought out that I have to share it with you... I recently finished helping facilitate The Marriage Course (by Nicky & Sila Lee) at Kingwood Christian Church. The 7 week course was jammed packed with practical solutions, strength building tips and common sense strategies for nurturing your marriage so that it can be the best it can be. The course was SO GOOD that I’d like to share the following 8 tips from the course with you in hopes that you too will find it helpful…
Time. It is sometimes referred to as our most valuable commodity… and for good reasons. Time is said to be the great equalizer among us. No matter what your age, gender, race, nationality, religion, political views or socioeconomic status… our lives all revolve around a 24 hour day. You can’t buy more of it and I’m fairly certain that no one is ever going to crack some sort of scientific code that will enable us to multiply it. We have what we have, nothing more and nothing less. When you have ADHD, it affects all areas of your life. It doesn’t matter if you are a young child, a high school student or a grown adult raising a family… if you suffer from ADHD, it is a life-long disorder. Although it is true that ADHD symptoms can effectively be managed (with proper treatment) the effects of this disorder never completely disappear from your life.
Here are 3 of the most common ways that ADHD affects individuals: Have you ever done something for someone you love that you didn’t really want to do because you thought they should have taken care of it themselves? Did you do it because you would feel guilty if you didn’t? What about saying “no” to someone and then regretting it because it made the other person angry or upset? Or, are you someone who makes a habit of “fixing” everyone else’s problems? If any of those scenarios sound familiar to you, keep reading… "Estimates vary as to the rate of comorbidity with ADHD. Most sources cite that between 1/2 to 2/3's of children and teens diagnosed with ADHD have at least one other major disorder." Whenever there is consideration as to whether ADHD is an appropriate diagnosis, I always recommend screening for other disorders that may also be present. Not only is there a strong correlation between ADHD and other major disorders, but some ADHD symptoms (such as difficulty concentrating) can also be found in disorders such as Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Dysthymic Disorder. It is imperative that the presenting symptoms are viewed in a holistic context so that an appropriate diagnosis can be made.
Dr. Daniel Amen wrote in his recent blog, “researchers have discovered that physical activity works at least as well against mild to moderate depression, as any other treatment.” Most of us have probably heard that before… but have you really considered the implications for this bit of knowledge? It means that in some cases, natural ways of improving your mood (via regular exercise), can replace long-term mood stabilizing prescribed medication. How can that be? The effects of exercise have a direct and immediate impact on serotonin by increasing the serotonin levels in our brains, which makes us feel better… immediately! “A new research conducted at the University of Texas at Austin found that just one single 40-minute period of exercise can have an immediate (positive) effect on your mood,” Dr. Amen. Yes, immediate… and the benefits don’t end at improving you mood. Serotonin also is related to sleep, cognitive functioning (like problem solving, memory recall and attention), and multiple other processes that help us function properly and effortlessly. 10 Simple Tips for Parents with ADHD Children
1) Develop and utilize a simplistic organized system to keep track of school assignments, chores, and household responsibilities (e.g., using calendars, charts, notebooks, and class syllabus). Get your child in the habit of using very simple checklists! 2) Establish a routine schedule to help complete tasks. Your child will respond well to the predictability and structure! 3) Assist your child with study skills by teaching them to clear away distractions, study in quiet places and take short (5 minutes or so), planned study breaks throughout designated study time. Turn off all phones, TV’s and music. Recent research demonstrated there may be promising results for improving symptoms of ADHD by utilizing nutritional supplements such as:
1) omega-3 fatty acids 2) zinc 3) iron 4) magnesium 5) Pycogenol 6) ningdong (Please Note: ningdong contains human placenta and its use is highly controversial in the United States, yet it is widely used to treat ADHD in China. There is no available data on the long-term safety of ingesting human placenta). Contrary to popular belief, research does not support a reliable link between restricting sugar intake in children and reducing symptoms of ADHD. (However, in my opinion there are still many other health reasons to minimize children’s sugar intake compared to the child’s total daily calorie consumption). Research has also not found ginkgo biloba or St. John’s Wort to be effective supplements to reduce symptoms of ADHD. It appears that for parents who wish to seek non-medication treatment for symptoms of ADHD, a few dietary supplements may provide some answers. It may be worth the effort to explore these options to see if they may be right for your family. Of course, it is always a good idea to consult with a qualified nutritional expert when implementing any dietary changes. People often ask me for my opinion about treating ADHD with medication... and I always give the same response. I believe medication for ADHD (or any mental illness) is a personal decision and one that should be carefully considered. In short, it's a personal decision and one that only you can make for yourself or your children.
Some cases of ADHD do not require medication for significant improvement to occur at home and in the classroom, yet other types are severe and medication can be an important factor in the overall treatment plan for some people. I encourage people to learn as much as they can about natural ways to combat symptoms utilizing techniques such as behavior modification, plenty of physical exercise, positive reinforcement for desired behaviors and task completion, appropriate nutrition and meditation are all extremely beneficial. Parents are ultimately left with the responsibility for how their children will be treated for ADHD, mental illnesses or medical conditions. I am confident you will make the right choice for your family. |
Kingwood Psychotherapy &
|
|