What is ADD and why is it so hard on everyone?

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is a condition that at the very least interferes with the quality of life and at worst can lead to drug and/or alcohol problems, juvenile delinquency, and relationship and employment failure.

Difficulty concentrating or maintaining attention on tasks is the primary symptom of the disorder; hyperactivity may or may not be present. It is generally characterized by impulsiveness (with no thought to consequences), low tolerance to frustration, resistance to discipline, poor social skills, moodiness, difficulty following directions, a lack of organization, and underachievement relative to what is often above-average potential.

Almost half the children who have untreated ADD are a year behind in school, have low self-esteem, and lead unsatisfying lives. They may be emotionally thin-skinned, even while hurting others' feelings.

Individuals with ADD often make careless mistakes in their work, fail to follow through and finish tasks, avoid tasks that require sustained mental effort such as paperwork, lose things, are easily distracted, and are forgetful.

If they are also hyperactive, they may be fidgety, move about excessively, do things noisily, act driven, talk too much, blurt out answers before questions are completed, interrupt, intrude on others, be disruptive, and have difficulty taking turns.

People around the individual often feel angry, frustrated, and exhausted by the effort of living with or teaching them.

How is ADD assessed?

Assessing ADD requires a thorough medical history; an understanding of the client's social, educational and developmental history; access to previous evaluations and school testing, psychometric testing (intelligence), educational and perhaps personality testing - and neurometric evaluation.

A neurometric evaluation assesses the activity of the nervous system, as an attentional deficit is usually of neurological origin.

Neurometric assessment involves an qEEG in which brain wave patterns are recorded and analyzed. Increased slow wave activity (delta) and decreased fast wave avtivity (beta) in the front of the brain is a pattern recently linked to ADD.

Research suggests a malfunction in the regulation of a neurotransmitter as the most likely source of the problem. The disorder can be inherited or caused by trauma, such as lack of oxygen to the brain at birth or fetal alcohol exposure.

Myosymmetries is at the cutting edge

qEEG is a method of recording electrical activity of the brain. Using sophisticated computer equipment neurofeedback training uses the qEEG to teach people to control the electrical activity of the brain.

At Myosymmetries, we use two forms of neurofeedback training; EDS (Electroencephalograph Driven Stimulation) and neurofeedback training using biofeedback.

In both treatments, the clinician connects the client (child, teenager or adult) to a computer by means of electrodes placed on the scalp. This is painless and non-invasive.

The EDS training involves a computer program that measures the brain's electrical activity and leads the brain through an ever changing pattern of brainwave activity by means of tiny flickering lights attached to sunglasses the client wears while relaxing in an easy chair.

The brain does not perceive the lights as the spectrum is outside of the visual field, but through the interaction of the lights and the patient's brain, the strong slow wave frequency brainwaves are gently reduced.

At the same time, the proportion of higher-frequency brainwaves increases, and a greater variety of frequencies begins to occur in the brain.

These changes amount to greater flexibility both neurologically and behaviorally.

When the slow wave activity is interspersed with more wide-ranging and variable patterns of brain wave activity, ADD symptoms decrease or even disappear.

During the second stage of treatment, using the biofeedback, clients are trained to increase their fast-wave activity and decrease their slow-wave activity. In this step, they learn how to generate more beta waves, which is the frequency needed to concentrate. This form of therapy teaches the ADD individual to recognize what it feels like to concentrate as rewards are given when the beta frequency increases and the slower frequencies decrease. This half of the therapy is very similar to playing a video game with your mind.

When the treatment is complete, the newly flexible brain is no longer stuck in a slow wave frequency and is able to shift from resting state up to a higher levels of concentration as required by the situation.

What can clients expect?

This is the good news - especially for distressed and exhausted parents who are with their children through all their unmedicated hours, including dealing with the "boomerang effect" once the medication wears off.

Parents can expect: