Non medicated solutions to ADHD

[PaulRosedene]

I've just joined this chat. My daughter and nephew both take medication for ADHD. Can anyone recommend methods for coping with ADHD that don't involve medication ?

[Rubberneck]

Can you share the reason that they (or you) don't want them to take medication? If it is working, medication is the best treatment for ADHD.

[PaulRosedene in reply to Rubberneck]

This is for me. I would rather avoid using medication if I can.

[GosportNancy29]

Hi There. I was privately diagnosed with ADHD back in the late '90s when I was 37 but couldn't continue treatment due to cost. I have since been trying to get assessed on the NHS and was put on a waiting list last year to see a neuropsychologist.

The wait on the list could be a minimum of five years,

I'm in the UK where waiting lists are very long for people to wait to be assessed so I suspect that peer group support would be the way to go.

I would suggest you look for ADHD-related charities and sites with forums and meetings as you are more likely to find support for methods that don't involve medication if you don't want to pursue that route.

[PaulRosedene in reply to GosportNancy29]

I'm also an ADHD waiting list. But this could be a long wait.

[WeAreAllOK]

Besides meds, there are probably two options. 1. Therapy.

2. Coaching.

These are different, just do a little Googling.

I've heard a quite 'Pills don't build skills'

If you take pills, you probably need to do some personal skill building.

[PaulRosedene in reply to WeAreAllOK]

What's the difference between therapy and coaching ? Has either worked for you ?

[WeAreAllOK in reply to PaulRosedene]

Good question.

From "Driven to Distraction" by Hallowell (about 1994)

As far as I know, this was the introduction of coaching to the two treatments Therapy and Meds. Mid 90's the first ADHD coaching "certifications" - now there are a lot.

Coaches ask questions, support, walk alongside, Therapists use their frameworks to try to help you get fixed. Nancy Ratey talks about Partnership, Structure and process. This is building skills, helping with perspective.

I have had both coaching and therapy. :-|

I have a friend: she says we need 1) a buddy and 2) a system. Buddies can act like a coach. Plus I think we need a plan. Coaches help us to get a plan and stay on it.

Go well.

Paragraph on coaching

[daverussell]

You need to identify the symptoms that most affect "you" day-to-day and find coping strategies. We're all different in a number of areas that are unique to our lifestyles and chosen careers. Incidentally, I'm 49 and awaiting a diagnosis. I like to think I've found strategies that that help me day to day. However since changing (or returning to) a career, I'm concerned that I don't or won't be able to manage strategies - in fact a recent episode of Burnout has finally pushed me to seek a diagnosis and the option of medication if needed. I don't doubt medication, but I understand both medication and strategies may be necessary anyway.

[WeAreAllOK in reply to daverussell]

daverussell, You say:

You need to identify the symptoms that most affect "you" day-to-day and find coping strategies.

Agreed. We are all unique. There is this famous guy* from the US who gets clients to carry around 3X5 cards and then to record what went well, when you aced it, when you nailed it . . . and what were the circumstances, the triggers when it went right. Maybe over a month or so.

Then you build self-awareness, identify stuff, learn, you reflect . .

*I clean forget his name.

[Cat00]

I tried three different meds for ADHD, as did my daughter, all of them made us more ill so we had to give up on that pathway.I was diagnosed at 46 anyway so my life was already completely messed up, what with many incorrect diagnoses over the years and multiple physical disabilities, particularly pain disorders.

For me the thing that helps above all else is exercise. The more I do the better I feel. I try to do other types of work in bursts broken up with some form of movement. Wish I'd discovered this when I was younger, crazy fit now and more functional generally, it's a win win.

I would love to have an ADHD coach or something but I'm in the uk too and there isn't any available on the NHS or privately, so we have to muddle through on our own.

[Bbiiigggg in reply to Cat00]

Yes I second exercise working well to reduce the symptons. This along with a clean diet quality sleep and meditation is much more effective for me than meds, without effecting my personality or having crashes. It does come with time management issues which i'm sure for most of us on this forum is hard at the best of the times. If you are lucky enough to have family friends to support you could be worth a shot

[VictoriaCannon in reply to Bbiiigggg]

How do you motivate yourself to exercise? The whole thing of getting ready to go to the gym seems like such a huge obstacle!

[Misstea in reply to VictoriaCannon]

Is there some place interesting near you where your can walk about and just look at things and/or sit down to observe neurotypicals in their natural habitat? I tend to walk to the store but since I hate cold weather, I don't get out too much myself.

[Cat00 in reply to VictoriaCannon]

I started by taking up kung fu and then going to combat related aerobics classes at the gym. I find good music very motivating which really helps push me through the tougher cardio. As time went by I wanted to have better technique in my kung fu and made friends in the gym generally, so I now I do all sorts of stuff in the gym gym too. It does help that I managed to make friends with another martial artist who has ADHD, now we both hyperfocus together much to general annoyance of my family as I get home hours later and completely exhausted.

I have a lot of pain conditions and it really helps them too but I won't lie it is very time consuming.

I find with ADHD it's hard to be actually good at anything, it's nice to have a thing I can do well in. Hyperfocus and exercise make excellent bed fellows, especially since you can mix it up and keep changing what you're doing. The body benefits from it all and as a chronic insomniac it's really helped my sleep too.

I always found making friends difficult, but not in the gym, ADHD energy is welcomed in that environment and people like to feed off your energy. That's my experience at least.

[MorningDanceTrece in reply to VictoriaCannon]

That's an excellent point. I hope y'all don't mind if I jump in here.

I was trying to go to the Y to use the pool for walking. It was just too much work to get ready to go and then being in the handicap person van put too much strain on my body so by the time I got there I needed a nap although I did walk in the pool for a while and then go home but I was only able to do it once a week because it was so stressful. That wasn't really helpful. So what I do now is multiple times a day I grab my rollator and I go out in the hallway right outside my apartment and I walk up and down.

In addition to ADHD I have autism with Pathological Demand Avoidance, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and physical disabilities.

The short version would be:

find something that you like to do that's easy for you to do and easy to fit into your life that will still have positive benefits even though it's easy.

[GosportNancy29 in reply to Cat00]

"How to access ADHD CBT on the NHS

It is helpful that the NICE Guideline for NHS England recommends for ADHD alternative treatments to medication, such as ADHD CBT, to be available. However, the reality of the situation is that very few areas provide any service. Some areas may not provide CBT, but may have an ADHD nurse or ADHD coach that provides a similar service. A good place to find out about services in your area is to go to a local peer support group"

Info here from ADHD Aware in Brighton

[Cat00 in reply to GosportNancy29]

Yes sadly Cambridge has the longest waiting list in England, 7 years for adults 5 for children. We have 4 times the national average of people with ADHD. So there's is nothing available here anytime soon. This also extends to privately funded CBT/Coaches bc all their lists are full. You can, most likely, find remote appointments but a lot of them are bogus. Many of these companies have popped up almost overnight to cash in in the NHS backlog. It's hard to know who to trust in this respect, bc all the trusted partners lists are full.

[GosportNancy29 in reply to Cat00]

I looked into the NHS funding appointments in private clinics, but all the clinics I looked at took less than 2 hours for an assessment. When I spoke to my neurologist, he said to expect an appointment of at least 3 hours or so on the NHS as their staff are more thorough and have the training and qualifications needed to do the assessments.

[Cat00 in reply to GosportNancy29]

Yes we had to go private for diagnosis or my daughter would be doing her G.C.S.E's before she got seen. I wanted to get her to get access to medication before then, sadly the meds really didn't help either of us.The clinic we used did assessments for the NHS 4 days a week and private for 1 so we knew the criteria would be met and it was.

The meds costs over £300 a month for both of us and they made me ill and did nothing for her so after several different drugs and doses we gave up, it was so expensive.

Getting any kind of therapy is a pipedream though. They have removed "the right to choose" in Cambridge for ADHD now and when I self-referred for CBT etc I got a letter saying "my needs were too complex" and they couldn't help, my friend got the same letter too.

We were both part of a unit called "The Complex Cases Unit" when we were younger, which is where they put patients with mental health problems that they couldn't diagnose. Little did we know then that we had female ADHD which 20 years ago no one seemed to think existed...

[Tigger4me in reply to Cat00]

Cat00, If you don't mind me asking what meds did you and your daughter try for your adhd. I can also imagine that the Cambridge area is overflowing with requests for adhd testing and medication, especially medication.

Also so sorry that you have such a hard time in the UK getting professional help with your adhd. Hope that you can find help, some guidance and at least acceptance on this site.

[Cat00 in reply to Tigger4me]

We tried Methylphenidate, Lisdexamfetamine and Guanfacine at various doses.I don't think we'll be able to get any help but just knowing we have it and doing our own reading has helped quite a lot already.

[Tigger4me in reply to Cat00]

You definitely tried the front line medications. If I might ask, did the guanfacine work for you? It seems like this med attempts to help in a different manner than the two stimulants you mentioned. Thanks.

FYI, I take adderall and wellbutrin.

[Cat00 in reply to Tigger4me]

It helped me sleep but it shut down my bowel completely, I was in so much pain I couldn't tolerate it. We were reading about how drugs like methylphenidate transformed people's mental state, how people became focused, calm and at peace and how transformative that felt. My daughter and I got nothing like that, the stimulants made me really emotionally volatile and had no positive effect on my daughter.

Because my daughter is so young we may try meds again in the future just incase they can help but not for me. I've already got enough problems to go through that process again!

[Tigger4me in reply to Cat00]

I hear you. It's hard enough as it is without taking meds that make things worse.

[Cat00 in reply to Tigger4me]

Absolutely!

[Misstea in reply to Cat00]

This was me to a fault. I hate gyms (too social and now they largely aren't that safe for me) but I loved to walk almost everywhere. Now, I have arthritis in my spine at the tender age of 41 (Degenerative Disc Disease... 🙄) and a lot more back pain than I'd like. I still try to walk though.

[Mamamichl in reply to Cat00]

Exercise give us dopamine which is what we crave. We can just as easily need certain foods or even addictions.

[WeAreAllOK in reply to Cat00]

😀 There are ADHD coaches everywhere Cat00

eg store.adhduk.co.uk/ But it is a delicate process to find a good one.

[Cat00 in reply to WeAreAllOK]

Yes I did mention that but we don't have the money anyway...

[maribux]

Hi I did not knew I had Adhd till now, an I'm over 60... the way to cope was also for me exercising, do sport and anyway to move every minute of my life. And also listen a lot of music and do three different things at the same time. But probably you can find also some herbs, like saffron (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/362... but this depends on which kind of adhd you have

[PaulRosedene in reply to maribux]

Thank you Maribux for your comments. Unfortunately, as a guy, I can only do a maximum of one thing at a time. My mind does leap around a lot. But I do find that my mind will largely focus on one thing at a time. I think I am referring here to the subconscious, or the mind quietly considering matters in the background. I'm not sure if I'm making any sense ?

[Mfaepink1973]

My42 year old daughter was diagnosed a year ago after several years on the waiting list. She was prescribed Methylphenidate but several times has been left without any due to an international shortage. She is now trying British Supplement’s Lions Mane capsules which seem to be effective so far, worth a try anyway

[Tigger4me in reply to Mfaepink1973]

Mfaepink1973, Thanks for mentioning the use of British Supplements Lion Mane capsules for treating adhd. I remember hearing about Lions Mane in the past but this awareness needed to be revived. Thanks.

[MorningDanceTrece]

Caveat: Always RESEARCH! RESEARCH! RESEARCH!👍🏻

These are things that have helped me personally

1) Definitely anything that is geared toward helping someone learn specific coping skills / mechanisms / techniques. (It doesn't necessarily have to be geared toward people with ADHD).

I did not know that I have ADHD until I was 56 and there were a bunch of things I did over the course of time that were helpful because I've learned skills that I didn't learn growing up that helped me to cope better with life and the traits of ADHD.

2) Therapy -- individual and/or group; DBT; CBT; REBT; music; and Primal Scream

3) Animal (therapy)

4) Water therapy/swimming/walking/aerobics

5) EPA-only supplement

(It's one of the main constituents of Omega 3)

[I am not prescribing anything other than talking to your own personal health care professional if you're going to take supplements or medication]

6) SMART Recovery

(this organization helps people not only with addictions but also with maladaptive relationships to substances and/or behaviors with a Four-Point Program that has about a dozen tools. These tools can be used by anyone even people without any addictions or maladaptive relationships to any substance or behavior to have a better quality of life. I do so.)

I wish you good results 🕊️

[PaulRosedene in reply to MorningDanceTrece]

Thank you Morning Dance for your wonderful response.

[MorningDanceTrece in reply to PaulRosedene]

You're welcome. I hope that's something I said or somebody else says is helpful to you 😃

[FifthWheel]

My son was out of control when he was five and in danger of being kicked out of a private school that had only five kindergartners in it. . We followed the Feingold Diet and within two weeks we were living with a different child. He learned his alphabet within those two weeks which he had not been able to do before. He now has two bachelor degrees. Here is the website: feingold.org/

Counselling to ask for coping mechanisms are also very helpful.

[Prairiefrontporch]

I don’t take medication but I do take nootropics . I take noocube, you can buy it online and it works very well. I also eat clean, lots of protein, try to get lots of sleep, and I run. I have bad days still but overall I feel pretty good and can manage my life well.

[KnightlyADHD]

Exercise seems to be the most helpful for me (that paired with a healthy diet, but because of what I do, I don't always have control over what I eat). Exercising consistently has been a problem for me. Currently I've slowed down on my exercise routine and need to pick it back up. But for those who have said to do your own research, I would second that. There are some solid ADHD channels that I follow on You Tube such as HowtoADHD.

[Mamamichl]

DBT counseling, play therapy. Change in diet. Lots of protein.

[Zilmita]

I suggest that you do things with them that are psychologically, mentally, and physically challenging. Distracting them is a good one to tackle their adhd. Find out what they like to do. Things that require them to focus that's actually fun. Like boardgames, card games, baking, taking them to the movies, etc. I hope these suggestions help.