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My Nose Has PTSD and Unexpected Reasons For A Childhood ADHD Diagnosis By Devin Hastings, author of Anxiety, OCD and Hypnosis: New Answers For Those Who Suffer In Silence |
At the tender age of 43, I finally figured out the birds and the bees and became a father. Funnily enough, that was around the same time I got hit in the head with a shovel which I believe was instrumental in my decision to become a dad.
Now at the even more ripened age of 48, I have two boys ages 2 and 5. Apparently the shovel struck again.
And the other day, my creative and inventive (read: devil possessed) elder child came to me with a really innocent look on his face and said: “Um, Daddy? I think my blanket smells funny. Could you smell it?”
Being somewhat distracted because I was trying to keep my other child from pulling the cat’s tail with one hand while he was wielding a spatula with the other, I nodded yes to my son Harry and took his blanket. I should have noticed the look on his face but didn’t because my younger boy Thomas had just discovered the joy of spitting yogurt out of his mouth onto the cat.
Anyway, I took Harry’s blanket, put it right to my nose and took a big sniff. “GAAAHHHH! Harry! That’s awful! My nose! My nose! Son, were you sitting naked on this blanket after using the toilet?! Oh Dear God I think my nose has died….”
Then of course Harry’s hysterical laughter sets off his 2 year old brother’s maniacal laughter. It was like a chain reaction because the more my eyes crossed while trying not to be sick, the more those two laughed…at me…..their big, strong daddy who must never be laughed at.
Sigh….I know one thing: Parents get ADHD from their kids. You have to constantly be looking around for the next installment of “Mr. Fork and Mr. Outlet Can Be Friends” or “Look Daddy, I Can Vacuum The Cats Tail”.
So ADHD is sometimes situational and frankly, incurable unless we can keep our kids in bubble wrap until they are married.
Other forms of ADHD however may in fact not be ADHD at all. It is now being recognized more and more that a lot of ADHD diagnoses are incorrect.
For example, according to Dr. Lidy Pelsser of the ADHD Research Centre in the Netherlands, 64 percent of children diagnosed with ADHD are actually experiencing a hypersensitivity to food.
So if your child is hyperactive, fidgety, inattentive, and impulsive or shows a marked interest in having you smell their evil blankets, it is most likely due to a food allergy (and due to being a normal, insane little human being.)
Where does hypnosis fit into all this? Simply that it can help a child to find a food elimination diet much easier to tolerate. And it can help a child to more willingly avoid those foods that make them a “challenge”.
Other reasons a child may be misdiagnosed as ADHD are explained by Claudia B. Rutherford, Ph.D., a Massachusetts-based licensed psychologist who specializes in the psychological and neuropsychological testing of children and adults.
Before listing those reason, listen to Dr. Rutherford as she states: “I would say that many of the kids I see come in with that diagnosis (ADHD) and it turns out to be incorrect, and I know that many clinicians feel it is over-diagnosed." (1)
Keep in mind that although Dr. Rutherford is speaking specifically about children, the following reason can also be responsible for ADHD-like symptoms in adults as well.
Sleep disorders – According to Steven Y. Park, MD, otolaryngologist and author of “Sleep, Interrupted: A Physician Reveals The #1 Reason Why So Many Of Us Are Sick And Tired” sleep apnea can produce classic ADHD symptoms.
Hearing problems can cause frustration in the parent because the child “appears” to willfully not be listening and thus ADHD symptoms are be thought to be present.
Ask yourself: “Is my child around loud noise? Are there lots of loud children in the same area? Does my child listen to loud music with a headset? Is the TV too loud? Does my kid have a history of ear infections or fluid build-up in their ears?”
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can happen at the most ‘innocent’ of times. Has there been a *significant* emotional trauma at some point in your child’s life? PTSD can without a doubt produce ADHD symptoms.
Generalized anxiety disorder can also create ADHD symptoms. Generalized Anxiety Disorder can be caused by many things such as moving to a new school, divorce, problems with a teacher, relative or teacher and even difficult parent/child relations.
Depression, like quicksand, can suck any person down into a morass of diagnosable symptoms. Understand I’m not talking about the ‘Life’s Usual Ups-and-Downs’ causing temporary sadness that happens to everybody – Instead I am talking about real depression.
And keep in mind that “mind-follows-body” so if there is a medication-induced or physiological reason for “false depression” then that should be addressed before resorting to an ADHD diagnosis.
Search on the internet for “drugs/medications that cause depression/anxiety symptoms” and for “physical problems that cause depression symptoms”. One physical problem that cause depressed feelings is an underactive thyroid.
Learning disabilities are manifold and many symptoms are the same as ADHD symptoms. Listen to your intuition. Have your child gently tested.
Auditory processing deficits can also mimic ADHD symptoms. According to Dr. Rutherford: "Kids with central auditory processing disorders have trouble performing well in the classroom, doing better one-on-one." (2)
Speech-language delays do not occur as a culprit to many parents but they can be responsible for ADHD-like symptoms.
Traumatic brain/head injury (TBI) can happen to a child in so many ways as any parent knows (and fears.) TBI can occur after falling off a bicycle, a sudden car stop, getting knocked down by a sibling or during a sporting event. And it could have happened months ago since often symptoms are not always immediately noticed.
One thing to keep in mind about ADHD is that it is a group of symptoms and that there is no definitive diagnostic tool that guarantees a diagnosis of a condition which will absolutely respond to a particular medication. It is overall, a rather uncertain diagnosis that may mask the real reason for the symptoms.
"Your child has ADHD" is not an iron-clad description or understanding of what is actually true. Be careful of “easy explanations” that may not respond very easily to medicated answers.
And finally, remember that parents of ADHD or similarly challenged children can use hypnosis to very effectively help them cope with the difficulties they face.
Hypnosis does not remove problems. But it can give you an amazing ability to cope with problems - if you allow it.
So the next time your child has a “unique” way of doing the dishes (CRASH!) just remember, there are thousands of other parents who are also pulling out their hair.
With smiles,
Devin “Thomas NO! Do NOT hit Daddy there!” Hastings
Devin Hastings is a Minnesota based hypnotist. With over 27 years healing experience, Devin runs his state licensed school in Minnetonka, MN and travels around the world teaching on hypnosis and NLP for anxiety, diabetes, sales, weight loss and more.
Devin's latest book is "21st Century Medicine: Clinical Evidence For The Healing Power of The Mind."
REFERENCES:
(1) ADHD Misdiagnosis in Kids: Conditions that Mimic ADHD
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20100930/lf_ac/6705638_adhd_misdiagnosis_in_kids_conditions_that_mimic_adhd_1
Jillita Horton Thu Sep 30, 12:10 pm ET
(2) Ibid #1.
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