ADHD: A Path to Success
Life through the Eyes of an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Child
Continued
More simply put, CAER uses lights and sound to help the ADHD child enter a relaxed state. Then, the relaxed and calm child, with the aid and supervision of a therapist, imagines an anxiety-provoking situation -- such as school. Quickly, the relaxed state erases the anxiety state so that school, or whatever the provoker might be, no longer causes stress in the child.
Initially I used Computer Aided Emotional Restructuring on my adult patients who had a variety of common problems such as depression, anxiety, phobias and marriage problems. The results were exciting. Many times these problems were eradicated in just a few sessions.
Therefore, I began to extend the procedure to other problems not commonly addressed by EMD/R, including ADHD. Even with my early, primitive CAER machines, the results were striking.
I really did not know why CAER works, but two different sources began to yield insights. By reflecting on my own difficult school history and listening to the ADHD children themselves, my understanding developed. These children were telling me about feelings and experiences that I could remember well from my own school years.
That's why ADHD: A Path to Success is a story of hope for parents of ADHD children. It is a personal story. It is my story. It is the success story of my patients.
Adaptive, Not Defective
Chris, a Six-year-old Boy with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Chris was a cute, freckle-faced, six-year-old boy who embodied my image of Tom Sawyer. Only in the first grade, Chris was already falling behind in his schoolwork. His teacher described him as constantly disrupting the class by speaking out of turn, touching other children, being out of his seat, and playing with toys rather than doing his work.
Occasionally Chris would get into fistfights with other children. He did not start such conflicts, but when provoked, Chris spared no effort or tactic to win. And he always did win.
Chris’ mother brought this young "Tom Sawyer" to me for an evaluation for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This was at the school's insistence. The teacher was resolute in her belief that Chris had ADHD and must be put on stimulant medication.
Since Chris’ mother strongly objected to this recommendation, she instead brought Chris to me, a psychologist with a new, drug-free, alternative treatment.
After only three sessions using Computer Aided Emotional Restructuring (CAER), Chris’ behavior at school and home improved markedly. Yet at age six, Chris was at the lower limit developmentally to benefit from CAER.
Three years after his initial visit, follow-up evaluations have revealed no further academic or behavior problems. Chris is still doing well at home and school.
Computer Aided Emotional Restructuring is a treatment technology that extinguishes ineffective emotional patterns quickly, effectively, and without drugs.
As the title implies, "emotional restructuring" demands cooperation from the patient in order to dredge up unpleasant memories. These unpleasant memories are often the root of physiological and psychological problems.
With Chris, I asked him to think about people who made him mad. This included his teacher, some of his fellow students at school, some boys at day care who would not let him play, and his big brother. Chris liked doing this. He said it made him "think about things."
At the end of session one, which included an initial evaluation and beginning treatment using CAER, Chris’ mother was given a five-minute cassette tape and instruction sheet to take to the teacher.
The teacher was asked to record her "behavioral control instructions" such as "put that in your desk," "keep your hands to yourself," and "sit on your bottom."
During sessions two and three using CAER, this same tape was played. Once again, Chris was asked to think about people who made him angry. He reported that this tape made him mad. He also said that after he had listened to the tape a few times, it did not make him angry.
By the end of the third session, Chris did not seem to have any emotional response to the tape. The powerful feelings that were at the root of Chris’ behavioral problems were extinguished by CAER.
I also saw Chris’ mother for one session. This was to alleviate her own guilt about putting firm limits on her son. Abused and rejected in her own childhood, she was overreacting in her determination to avoid the same patterns with Chris.
Although she had an excellent command of behavior management concepts, she could not effectively put them into practice because doing so made her feel terrible. In fact, whenever she tried to be firm with Chris, his complaining made her feel like the "Wicked Witch of the West."
After one session using CAER to re-experience her own unsettling emotions, Chris’ mother was able to do an excellent job of systematically rewarding and punishing Chris. That's because such actions no longer tapped into her own emotional history.
With the help of CAER, it can be overcome.
Myths of ADHD
Traditional thoughts impose a number of damaging myths onto children like Ryan. These myths have led to many ineffective treatment approaches.
Let's compare traditional views of with my view of children like Ryan.
| ADHD Children are defective and disabled. | ADHD is a very refined adaptive skill |
| There may be neurological problems in ADHD children. | Neurological problems are irrelevant because ADHD is learned. |
| An ADHD Child’s mental processes are strange, unusual or defective. | ADHD children think just like we do. |
| Ritalin improves children’s performance | Ritalin helps parents and teachers, not children |
ADHD children are not
clocks with a broken mainspring
and gears falling out.
When people describe a specific child, I'm often left with an image of the kid
with a clock mainspring spiraling out of his head and gears raining down. If all of his
gears and springs were in right, if his broken parts were fixed, he would work and do what
we want.
In fact, we do treat the child as if he were a broken mechanical device like a watch. But we use professional words such as "disorder."
We do this because a medical diagnosis denoting disorder, brokenness, or deviancy makes it more socially acceptable. As neat and circumscribed as this approach seems, it does not capture the diffuse, culturally enmeshed nature of the problem.
