Passionate Instigator, Dynamic Problem Solver

ADD Plus: Sensory Processing Disorder

June 25th, 2014 05:00:00 am

I recently read an article on Additude Magazine that I couldn't resist making one or two comments on, not to mention adding in a few different insights. Go figure!

Here is the article and the ten conditions:

ADHD Plus: 10 Conditions that May Show Up with Attention Deficit

ADHD and Depression
ADHD and Learning Disabilities
ADHD and Anxiety
ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder
ADHD and Bipolar Disorder
ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder
ADHD and Autism
ADHD and Substance Abuse
ADHD and Tourette's Syndrome
ADHD and Conduct Disorder

In this series of blogs, I have been going through these conditions one by one and offering my unique perspective. Keep in mind that the National Institute of Health stated that we have a 20% rate of misdiagnosis, and it is very difficult to get rid of a label. I suspect the misdiagnosis rate would be higher if they remove the ADHD label and discover the real diagnosis—which could be another condition altogether, or the result of environmental circumstances ranging from bad diet to bad parenting or abuse. But the American Medical Association is not known for wanting to take ownership where it has previously been wrong; they'd rather bury a diagnosis instead of admit they were at fault.

Today I want to look at Sensory Processing Disorder, as defined by ADDitude Magazine:

Sensory processing disorder (SPD) is an inability to sort out external stimuli—making the smallest stimuli unbearable—or the need to search out high-stimulus activities to arouse sluggish senses. When researchers looked at children who showed symptoms of ADHD or SPD, 40 percent showed symptoms of both. It is important that both conditions are identified and treated early.

In my book Managing The Gift: Alternative Approaches For Attention Deficit Disorder, I talk about overload, and the reasons why I first perceived the ADD individual as someone without energetic skin, a method of protection. Whether it is sluggish senses (a survival technique for highly empathetic people), or overload (have yet to figure out how to protect oneself), the answer is the same: working energetically with the child, teaching him or her how to protect themselves without shutting down. How to not get side-swiped by everything going on around them. When I first started working with these children, the ADD label wasn't being used, or not as much. Teaching children how to take emotional coffee breaks helps them move past these issues, to the point where they don't devolve into a disorder.

The last thing to keep in mind is that Sensory Processing Disorder could be a side effect of many drugs. Before you or someone you know rushes off to the doctor to get another diagnosis and prescription on top of ADHD, check what the side effects of current medications are. Then, seek alternative options. Beware of rushing down the rabbit hole of prescriptions, especially when it comes to your children's health. How far will we go in medicating our youth before we say “enough is enough!”?

ADHD's incredibly high co-morbid rate of 80% leads me to believe that something is not adding up. Our symptom-focused world of medicine is causing at least as many problems as it is solving—and more in some cases. Fifteen minutes with a doctor is considered a long visit these days. Continuing education credits for doctors are underwritten by pharmaceutical companies. Decisions are being made that fly in the face of what our own institutions have show us. Around many of these issues, someone is toying with parents, as well as the American population as a whole. We're being made to look and act like fools; treated like rubes at a carnival who get fleeced by drug companies, corporations like Monsanto and General Mills, our media, and most of all, by our own government. I am not talking conspiracy theories here. I am talking about groups of people who are spending lots and lots of money in order to make lots of money; people who pay to sway politicians, while we rubes get fleeced—through what we're charged, what we are paid, how we are manipulated and sometimes even bullied into spending—to keep the bribery loop called lobbying alive and well.

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