Here's a really big part of the whole Holistic approach to recovery-

[Robbo]

Neuroplasticity is a growing and important part of living with and recovering from ADHD.

Neuroplasticity has been studied, researched and proven more and more over the last few years than I realized. I’ve been reading an article here http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1580438,00.html and took a break to come here and post the link. It’s a huge key to recovery from much more than just ADHD. As most of us have learned, many other struggles co-exist with ADHD. Dyslexia is one of the more frustrating ones. And short term memory problems are a huge source of grief for many of us. I have depression too. It’s nowhere near as bad as it used to be.

It’s my real experience that brain exercises, of all kinds help us. Our ADHD brains have a special “out side the box” kind of creativity. We’ve had to develop that. I prefer to say “there is no box” “the box” was invented by insecure controlling people who looked outside themselves for what felt like security, predictability, the stability they wanted to be there. Neuroplasticity laughs in the face of predictability. It has the potential to put countless clergy, therapist, and scientists out of work. While unleashing equal amounts of creativity, innovation, and discovery.

I’m encouraging you guys to investigate this new science, and scientific discovery. I’m convinced that ADHD is real, I’m also convinced that education is the long term solution to ADHD and plenty of other struggles we have. I’m willing to take medz for now. But they may only be needed long enough to help me get through the education, re-habituation, and re-organizing of my life process. I may even have to change the people in my life, choose my friends differently. Most of all keep my mind open. Keep learning. Education is it! more listening, less talking. That’s a tall order for me, I love to talk as much as I love to write. Ack!

The actual remapping of the hard wires of my brain is possible. I have the unique experience of having a spinal cord injury, chronic pain, and phantom sensations that distract the hell out of me. I may never get to the point where I don’t have to take any medication. But I’m more hopeful than ever about being able to completely change my attitude, and ability to cope with the cards life has dealt me. I can’t change the cards, but I’m definitely deep into the process of changing how well I play these cards. And I don’t have to bluff in order to win the game of life. To me, winning is to feel successful. As I define success.

I can’t care less about what other people consider to be success. It’s about me being comfortable inside my skin. (even if I can’t actually feel two thirds of it due to a spinal cord injury. I’ve been nearly obsessed for 15 years with figuring out why the body parts I can’t feel when they are touched. Still feel like they are ice cold, or like they’re soaking in acid, there are plenty of other creepy sensations something like the imagination of my parasympathetic nervous system create. I take less than half the amount of pain and spasm medicine that I took 12 years ago. That’s because some how I’ve managed to find a way to relax my way out of letting pain and other messages appear in my brian. In terms of remapping neuronal connections, I led those particular messages to a dead end my not giving them my attention. Instead I focused on my own spirituality. A vast land of self discovery. We all get to find out own wonderland there fortunately. (no I haven’t been taking LSD, lol)

“It’s all in my head”, of course!, but that knowledge has never helped me, it used to seem pointless to even think about. The fact that I have more control over what happens inside my head is making all the difference. I’m realizing “mind over matter” can actually be more of the solution than I realized. Mental and emotional sweat. Work. Meditation, meditation, and more meditation, A lot.

Faith, all the different ways faith works has always been the golden key to becoming more comfortable in my skin. Literally. Faith works when combined with real work, mental and emotional sweat, perseverance.

More than 20 years ago I was talking to a roommate about how the water at the beach in Santa Cruz was too dang cold for me to have fun swimming in it. He looked me deep in the eyes and said (as if he wanted it to reach my subconscious) “it’s not TOO cold” about a week later I was free to swim in that water with much more comfort, I had fun!. Simply because I had faith in my ability to change my experience by changing the way I looked at it. Sure it was cold, but not TOO cold. I had a great swim.

Surf, or swim around the Internet some and see what you can find out about Neuroplasticity and how it can help us here. I’ll bet I’m not the only one finding tons of extra hope.

Love n peace

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[sdwa]

They say exercise helps and also diet. I, too, have done tons of meditation (although not lately) and explored spiritual ideas. Doing what I’m best at makes me feel more whole. One positive aspect of ADHD is the ability to immerse myself totally in an experience, with conscious intent – visualization, prayer, creativity, whatever.

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[Anonymous]

Robbo, very interesting ideas, thanks for the link.

I am new to ADHD and have started to look into the relationship between it and diet

Not sure as yet if there are foods that are known to be good or bad.

cheers

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[Robbo]

I get nutrition tips emailed to me from Dr. Andrew Weil here’s a link http://www.drweil.com/ I’m very sure how healthy we eat makes a difference, It may have been Dr Jain from here who said something about eating protein when we first get up. Check out his videos. All the videos are great, the price ROCKS! (they’re free) Obviously eating junk food and too much sugar n salt can mess with our health. I have to be very careful with caffeine.

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[Anonymous]

Tea….I hate to do this but……”We Are What We Eat’!!! There are so many chemical ingredients in boxed or canned foods that are just plain harmful, cancel causing additives at best. All one has to do is refer to the Food and Drug folks for confirmation. Look around at a now bizarre cancer rates. Cancer is no longer “if” it is now “when’! Even so called fresh fruit and vegis are so chemically laden (sprayed & fertilized) that washing them no longer is enough. Organic foods are a far superior choice……

If contamination levels become higher than FDA requirements, they just raise the requirement level….check out apples!! So if you think that ingesting unknown amounts of random samples from a chemistry lab is not affecting us………hmmmm….I don’t know???

The food industry is an extremely powerful lobby group………..be aware.

Toofat

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[Robbo]

That’s so dang true toofat, very. I wash vegetables in – about 1/3 of a gallon of vinegar, n water, plus about 1/4 cup baking soda, and the juice of 1 or 2 lemons, I wish I could say this in metric measurements, but that would involve MATH, yikes!! Slosh n soak the greens, beets, peppers, tomatoes, or whatever for a good 5 minutes, scrub stuff like carrots, apples, n donuts, oops no donuts, (sorry if you’re a cop). and then rinse it all really well with tap water. All the time I find mud! in the bunches of fresh spinach, or parsley that I stuff in my juicer. The mud is laden with all the junk listed on toofat’s post. I like to push the greens through my juicer with carrots, apple slices, celery. Just grab lot’s of different colors of veggies. A wide variety of color is an easy way to cover all the different nutrients we don’t really want to study about.

It’s okay to take vitamins. maybe it’s better to use a juicer. I would feel like a cow chewing it’s cud if I ate all the veggies I put through my juicer. Take the pulp that it pushes out into the “pulp bin” part of your juicer. Stick that in your blender with some yogurt, ice, a little milk, or maybe almond milk, even water and protein powder. I’ve been adding probiotics to the mix too. I think it helps with digestion some. Digestion is complicated stuff. I’m not sure about the probiotics. I doubt there’s enough in most yogurt to help. The trick for me is to REMEMBER to put probiotics in my dairy stuff. Ya can’t tell if it’s working if ya don’t use it consistently. Now that I’m getting a handle on the ADHD, I bet I can find out just how much the probiotics stuff is actually helping me. What’s important is to get lot’s of fruits n veggies. A good protein source, lot’s of clean water. I double filter my tap water too.

The wax on non-organic apples traps in a lot of that crud toofat talked about. It may sound a little bit paranoid. But my gut instinct says it’s true about all the new toxins on our mass produced, machine cleaned, and chemically preserved “health” food. I haven’t had a microwave for years. I think I might already have a brain tumor though. Too late!! dang it…

Do be aware.

PS, my sense of time is freaked out, it seems like it’s been much longer than a month since we wrote the stuff above here. Maybe just because it’s the beginning of the month. In maybe a week it might say 2 months… That’s what freaked me out, hmmm a number? of weeks ago, lol. Maybe ADHD time rolls differently from “other peoples” time. It’s good not to be “other people” huh?, I’m perplexed. Maybe I got dosed with too much pesticides when I was little. Ack!! mom put miracle gro in my cereal!!! jus joken.

3-4-2012 It’s late though, so it’s almost the 5th… hmmm. I can’t count sometimes either. Maybe now that I’m trying methylphenidate (generic ritalin) I’ll be able to tell time… maybe even count without using my fingers! cool, huh?

Will wonders ever cease?

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[Anonymous]

I was diagnosed in July – tried the meds & felt so sick (but I had also just started to change my lifestyle to a more holistic one…so taking the meds did not feel right for me)…I embarked on a drastic lifestyle change…started to exercise a lot & cut out Gluten, sugar, caffeine, and dairy from my diet….basically living off only things that grow in the ground and things that eat the things that grow in the ground…no canned or processed foods…I thought it would be the hardest thing to do but discovered that it was a bit like quitting smoking….after a certain amount of time (about 1 month) I realized the cravings for these kinds of food left me…I had no desire to eat like that again – plus I felt so amazingly clear headed & healthy – I did not want to eat like that again…

I started to take fish oil & a range of supplements…

I began to see a “Body Talk” practitioner as often as I could here in Montreal to deal with the mental issues (came off my antidepressants after being on them for 10 years)…

The change is wonderful, I am doing things I never, ever thought I could do….

I had to say goodbye to friends who were toxic & I worked on staying on track & committing to this lifestyle change as if my life depended on it…

I’m still battling with issues on a daily basis but somehow I can sense a calmer person is emerging…I am posting this just as an alternative to being on the meds, because not everyone can tolerate taking medication or may not want to…

I still have short term memory, forget things, get lost…etc. but I find that the “fog” has lifted – and this has enabled me to see the problems more clearly & start to deal with them, set in place ways to cope…I am just beginning to get a clearer picture of what I need to do to organize my life so I can function on a daily basis…

I have an issue with interrupting people as they are speaking & seem to take half and hour to say something when I could have said it in a few minutes…also I seem to give out too much personal information…

Are these all part of it?? I seem to have read somewhere that it is…and if it is, does anyone have any tips to try & combat these issues???

Thanks…..

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[Robbo]

<<<<<<< as if my life depended on it. >>>>> I think it does, the quality of your life definitely does. I hope you keep posting about this, it’s very good information.

<<<<< I still have short term memory, forget things, get lost…etc. but I find that the “fog” has lifted – and this has enabled me to see the problems more clearly & start to deal with them, set in place ways to cope…I am just beginning to get a clearer picture of what I need to do to organize my life so I can function on a daily basis…

I have an issue with interrupting people as they are speaking & seem to take half and hour to say something when I could have said it in a few minutes…also I seem to give out too much personal information…>>>>>>> **me too man, it’s a bummer, friends get fed up n leave**

<<<<<<<<Are these all part of it??>>>>> **Uhuh! yep, you betcha** <<<<<<<< I seem to have read somewhere that it is…and if it is, does anyone have any tips to try & combat these issues??? >>>> Tips are all over this web site, I’m working on a “best of” page” been working on it for at least a week. Please keep an open mind about getting a complete, professional diagnosis. You’re doing great, but please don’t completely rule out medicine. I’m sure it’s possible to learn to live with those problems you’ve listed above. I’m finding that it’s much faster with some direction from my doctor, psychiatrist, counselors, etc., It’s easier, and less painful for the people in my life who want to be friends with me. My ADHD “ways” do hurt the human relationships I have, not many, just a die-hard or two who haven’t been friends with me long enough to get fed up… Just 5 mg of the generic ritalin 3 times a day, 150 mg of Wellbutrin (the generic of that too, budeprion) and prozac, (again, the generic) work. With the education here, and just a little bit of ritalin. I’ve cut the prozac in half from 20 to 10 mg, over 4 months ago, and the budeprion from 150 mg. 2 times a day to just one, that’s just when I started the ritalin a little over two weeks ago… um, I think. I’m sleeping better. Mostly because I have a life now. Exercise = good sleep. I think the prozac and wellbutrin were adding to the pre-existing problems I’ve always had about sleeplessness. I always fell asleep in school. Got in trouble for being late, cutting school. All the same stuff the rest of the gangstars here have gotten in trouble with.

I’m far from perfect now. Don’t want to be. Imagine if none of us had problems?, If we were all sane, it would drive most of us crazy!!! lol. Yep, huh? uhuh!.. dang rite man. yoo betcha. Ditto… Freaking stark ravin maddness taboot! DGMS (at’z -don’t get me started-, an ADHD thing…) huh? yep, yeah!!! uhuh!! hehehe. LOL ROFLMAO n just pee’d!!! AACCKK!! (joken, no yellow accident today)

It’s easier now for me to remember to eat healthy!!!, It’s less work to motivate myself because I can see real awesome results. Reely real!!! Hmmm, I think eYm gettin a lil carried away, does that happen to you? if so, it might be ADHD that’s making you do that ya know. Just sayen.

You can help us all tons just by keeping us up to date on your progress.

I want to encourage you, and remind you that we can’t be a fanatic about any one single part of the WHOLE holistic solution, get it?. Well, actually it is sorta fun to be a fanatic, huh? no nebber mind. don’t do that. Well. heck man do whatever you want. I ain’t no termite!!!

K, stick with me now… almost done.

Good luck Phoenix4ever I hope you’re also watching the video’s here, Dr. Jain wastes zero time in getting down to the core solutions in his video’s, and all his writing, he’s also on an excellent video here http://www.caddac.ca/cms/video/player.html [Darn, it was there weeks ago, if I find it I’ll come back n post an address] Check the videos here. We’re super lucky to have so many professionals helping us for NOTHING!!!, actually, they get paid in well being, happiness, and of course more success!. People like us plastering our stories of climbing out of “ADHD hell” are a testament to the crew here, and the gazzilian members that post here also show the results, be patient, take the time to read a ton of what’s here. The videos are super great when I just can’t read. But that’s mostly behind me. Heck writing is much easier now too.

Stick around, and thanks for taking the time to read. Be like gloo!

Robert.

PS, caffeine and ritalin DO NOT MIX, that’s just my experience. I complained at the pharmacy for not warning me. I think I remember Munchkin saying that too. I really do miss coffee. I make it excellent. yum!!! deeelish! I better shut up…

PPS Be like Gloo man!!

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[Robbo]

Hey! me and my friend coffee are getting along great! today, I found some expensive but very good decaf french roast. Half regular. I drink about half the cut, then add milk n let it get cold in the fridge. Make sure to eat something too. I only have the coffee if I have time to let the caffein wear off enough before I take the methylphenidate.

Compared to starbuks it’s actually very inexpensive now that I think about it. I never go to starbuks so I don’t even know what people are spending for that umm… brown stuff.

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[Tiddler]

GREAT thread. Thanks.

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[Robbo]

Hmmm,

I’ve got a tricky riddle, easy stuff for many of us ADDers, me, I’ve got the B|G ol AYYCHHH (H) part. But the slow down notes in my apartment are still helping me. Ya know it takes a very long time to slow down when you’re traveling at the speed of light. A friend of mine keeps sayen “don’t trip” to me. Because, I’M MOVING AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT for crying out loud lol. hehe, oops off topic again.

The puzzle.

I wanted to check n see how Poenix4ever was doing, went to his profile. There is says “most recent post 3 days ago” hmm, If he posted 3 days ago, then where is his post?. Something’s wrong with my internal clock maybe, Doh!!! OOOHH! dang now I feel like an idiot. 3 days since -anyone- posted. Not the person in the profile. Hmm, my mind is stubbornly self centered. But it’s better than being a dang termite! I’m not crazy about the taste of wood. What an embarrassing brain fart. Gonna have to change my pic again, that’s just for fun.

Never mind.

goin bak to mymyoosic… This seems too funny to delete, beside. I can’t just leave it blank. that’s too weird huh?.

yabut yabut ya-butt… onandonanon

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[Robbo]

Got 5 minutes? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAzmyB9PFt4

Got about 79 minutes? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2pGLI_xLak&feature=relmfu

Do yourself some real good, and check the links on these pages. I haven’t checked em all, I’m watching The Dalai Lama at the University of Washington one and decided to post this link before I forget…

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[Tiddler]

Seriously? You were listening to the Dalai Lama? I’m a tad/lot jealous!

LOL about posting something while you were listening though. I think we can all relate to that. Looking forward to checking out the links.

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[Tiddler]

LOL I thought you were at a lecture. I’ve looked at the link now!

ADD alert!

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[Scattybird]

I saw the D Lama when he came to the UK – for no reason other than I thought it would be cool. He sat crossed legged on a chair for 3 hours chatting, then hopped off and walked off stage for lunch. If I sat crossed legged for 3 hours I’d need emergency services to help me stand up again and I certainly wouldn’t be able to walk for a while.

Will check out your links Robbo when I am at a computer.

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[Author]

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