Attention Deficit Disorder or with Attention Deficit Disorder with hyperactivity has moved to a being a condition of medical management rather than a condition of helping the child with management. One of the key places that pharmaceutical agents are recruiting drug reps from to sell medications for ADD is councilors at schools. If the councilor can identify children of certain needs, they have a built-in pool to draw from to increase medication sales. There is an inherent bias in this driven by the financial and not true medical need. If a child is struggling to pay attention or to optimize their health every rock needs to be turned to see what is going on in their individual system. There are a number of physical and biochemical reasons for difficulty with focus. It could be as simple as the foods one is eating, nutritional status including minerals and amino acids or adrenal function. Poor adrenal response means poor response to stress, such as focusing at school but medications would not treat that cause and so a child receives the message that it is easier to use a drug than to find out what is going on with him. A reliance on drugs is not the message we want to send our children, but that these are a tool of last resort when nutritional needs and environmental needs have been optimized. Helping each child to actualize their potential is critical and minimizing this journey to a one pill fits all message derails our ability to help children and even adults in a meaningful way.
