Let me start this blog by mentioning that I am not a writer. In school my least favorite activity was writing essays. I have unsuccessfully started a journal probably twenty to thirty times. I am also a private person who does not like to talk about my life to people I do not intimately know. So why am I writing a blog? There are two main reasons.
The primary reason is my daughter, H. She has ADHD, with occassionaly hallucinations thrown in. She is a bright, loving, delightful person. But she does not fit into the model that works well in schools. We noticed a problem in kindergarten, but it wasn't until the first grade that the teachers said anything. Second grade was when they wanted us to put her on medication. We did, against our better judgement, for 6 months because we were desperate. The medication "worked" for about a month, then her body adapted and the side effects remained while the positive effects disappeared. The thing we hated most about the medicine was how much it depressed her personality. So we stopped the medicine and started searching for something else. A while later, and desperate to the point of considering medicine again, we providentially found a therapist specializing in neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity? What is that? According to what I have learned, it diagnoses (by watching the child) areas in the brain that did not develop normally. Then the parents are given exercises to do at home that will help the brain rework those faulty connections so that everything works more normally. Honestly, it sounded a bit unusual and risky. But a friend whom I trust had been through the program and it worked wonders for her son. So we decided to give it a try.
So this blog is mostly to let you walk through the process with us. If it works, I am hoping this blog will help more people discover this option. I am sure there are other parents out there who would like to help their child either to use less medicine or to use none at all.
I mentioned there are two reasons that I am starting this blog. The second one deals with my love of cooking. I have celiac sprue, and H. is very sensitive to sugar so we try to keep her away from it without feeling deprived. These two issues make cooking a fun challenge in our house. I will occasionally post recipes that work for us. You might also find an occasional book suggestion since I am an avid reader as well.
I hope you find this blog interesting, entertaining, and helpful!
-Chelle
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