Alternative Treatments

So...have you heard about these alternative treatments for ADHD?

You know...exercise, high-protein diet, omega 3, magnesium, zinc, crawling therapy, music education therapy, neuroplasticity therapeutic approaches, cerebellum development exercises, meditation, medicinal marijuana, homoepathic treatments, chiropractic treatments, neurofeedback, gluten-free diet, or anything you may have heard of as being beneficial as a treatment for ADHD?

ALL LIES!! Scams! Snake oil!

Any positive effects you may have experienced with any of these treatments are purely a figment of your imagination.

/sarcasm

Okay, so I'm a little frustrated. I'm discovering that a lot of people are wrong on the internet about the whole idea of natural/alternative/experimental treatments. You simply can't say, "hey, such-and-such worked for me, maybe there's merit in it, anyone else wanna try?" without having half a dozen angry people jump down your throat about how such-and-such isn't accepted, peer reviewed, rigorously tested, clinically proven, blah blah blah blah blah.

Here's the thing, guys: we know that. Seriously, we do. Sure, some of us can get really excited if something does seem to be working well for us, maybe a bit too much so. But that doesn't mean we lose sight of the difference between what is and is not standard in the world of treatment.

I don't understand why there's such a backlash, though. I mean, I can understand this sort of angry reaction in the wider medical world, when crackpot "natural" and "alternative" remedies are suggested in lieu (not in addition) to standard procedures that have been proven, time and again, to be life saving. But a) ADD is not a life-threatening condition, b) most of the specialists promoting alternative therapies promote them in addition to traditional ones, and most importantly, c) mental health treatments are a personal, sensitive and often subjective matter. We all have a right to find what works for us and to say, "this works for me."

I think I laugh the hardest when I hear people claim that benefits from these methods are a "placebo effect." As critical as I always am of dismissing the placebo effect so lightly, I think it's especially ironic to roll your eyes at a so-called "placebo" effect on one's mental health. If a placebo effect is in your mind, isn't the proof in the pudding? After all, if I feel that focusing is becoming easier, that anxiety is decreasing, that awareness is better, that my mind is working better for me now than it once was, well, who is anyone else to tell me otherwise?

I'm not an expert. I'm not a medical doctor or a psychiatrist and I have only an average understanding of science. I'll readily admit all that. I can do my best to assess how my brain works and why, and I can talk about my own journey to healing in the hopes that others may find some value in it. That's about it.

But one thing I do think I'm qualified to say (because this isn't a medical opinion), is that so many of our social attitudes toward healing seem to have a lot more to do with being right about science than they do with having successful efforts to get better. If we can't fully understand the healing, it seems, we don't want any part of it. I think that's a very big problem.

Another thing I think I'm qualified to say, because I think it's common sense, is that there's a hell of a lot we don't know about medical science, yet. There always is, and probably always will be, a lot more to discover and learn. Is there anything wrong with keeping an open mind at times when there's nothing to lose?