over focus - ADD / ADHD Message Board

STN'SMOM · 09-17-2003, 06:10 AM

my 6 year old has adhd & a vocal tic. since the school pychologist brought this to my attention i have been doing research on the subject. i read what dr. amen said about the 5 different types of adhd. he seems to be the only one who is that specific. all others seem to lump it together and recommend stimulants or strattera. it seems as though different types need different types of medicine.
i think my son would fall in the over focus area.

he seems to get facinated with a topic or show and will talk about it or play the game for hours during the day for days on end. for the most part he tunes out all other games or shows or even topics. when he was 2 & 3 he would sing and dance blues clues all day and ignor every one. then it was power rangers, then yugio, then harry potter and now it is the video game star fox. all conversations lead back to this topic. he has told me he gets rid of all other thoughts so he has room in his brain for the game he is consentrating on. when i ask him what he learned in school he tells me he played imaginary star fox in his mind and made it to the next level. he is in first grade and already the teacher says he is behind.
dr. amen seems to think seritonin helps over focus issues. how do i know what my child truly has? I would like a real diagnosis as to what part of his brain is working differently then others. can any one help? i also heard the st johns wart is good for over focus issues. i also heard the st johns wart have made kids manic if it is not an over focus issue. i don't want to experiment on my son's brain. does anyone have advise?

09-17-2003, 02:09 PM

St. Johns Wort can make kids manic if they have bipolar disorder. Did you read Healing ADD by Dr Amen or just look at some info from the book? If your son has ADHD then he would also have the regular ADHD problems combined with overfocus problems. If he ONLY has problems with overfocus then he probably doesnt realy have ADD. Doctors diagnose so many things as ADD.... it really used to upset me. But now I try to think of it this way, even if someone doesnt have true ADD they still have symptoms that are similar to the next persons, they still need support for their problems etc. The ADD lable just makes it easier for people with similar problems to find and support each other..... even if they dont have "true ADD"

It is ashame that they lable children so quickly though, because obviously if the real problem was found they could better help the kids.

Overfocus issues seem to be connected a lot with OCD. Have you looked at the symptoms of OCD to rule that out for your son?? Docs sometimes misdiagnose OCD as ADHD... just like they misdiagnose about a hundred other things as ADHD. Overfocus symptoms that arent too severe, as well as the severe ones that would be called OCD are usually linked to a lack of serotonin. If the main problem your son has is overfocus then trying a treatment to enhance serotonin would be a good way to go. St. Johns Wort is pretty safe but I myself wouldnt give it to a 6 year old. Well I take that back, if it was in a low safe dosage and I had a good pharmacist to talk to about it I might. beCalmd is what I take. I don't have overfocus problems. It has ingrediants to balance all sorts of brain chemicals. One of the things it contains is 5-HTP which increases serotonin. I can tell ya, it works great for my ADHD. And I have heard that it can be even more helpful for obsessions, OCD, and overfocus issues. You can get 5-HTP at the grocery store for pretty cheap. Be careful with the dosages though. Most of those they sell at the grocery store are formulated for adults and many times the dose is even to high for them. What I like about beCalmd is that it doesnt have too much of anything. Its safe. They even have a formula specifically for kids thats chewable and fruit flavored.

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~*~ Kristy ~*~