Author: Torey C. Richards, LMHC

I'm a passionate Behavioral Scientist and Licensed Mental Health Counselor based in Florida. I've dedicated my career to unmasking the complexities of human behavior, mental health, and substance abuse. My journey in this fascinating field has led me to work extensively with a diverse range of individuals from those grappling with chronic mental illness and substance use to others navigating the trials of daily life. The opportunity to study the nuances of people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors has been enlightening and truly rewarding. Moreover, guiding people towards transformational changes that break down barriers in their lives is a fulfilling mission I carry with me every day. Currently, I work at a level one trauma center with patients who have suffered unfortunate traumas. Previously, I held the reins as the Director of Mental Health at a county jail for over 8 years, a fulfilling role that offered unique insights into criminal justice and mental health. Additionally, I mentor the next generation of mental health professionals as a qualified supervisor, continuously inspired by their commitment and ambition. Beyond my professional endeavors, I'm a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, an avid reader and writer. I hope you'll join me on this voyage of discovery.
Abnormal Psychology, Popular Psychology

Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections

by Torey C. Richards, LMHCLeave a Comment on Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections

There is a growing hypothesis that there exist in a small subset of children, a form of rapidly forming obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and/or tic disorder known as PANDAS.

PANDAS is an acronym for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections. According to research, these children literally go from “normal” to “abnormal” in the matter of hours. Parents are usually able to pinpoint the exact time and day their child’s behavior changed in the forms of tics (erratic movements or vocalizations), emotional irritability, bed wetting and lose of previous learned motor skills. This is thought to follow exposure to the strep virus (i.e. a strep throat) and appears to be some type of autoimmune reaction.

PANDAS was first proposed during observations and clinical trials by the US National Institute of Health and was verified by further clinical trials, where children, after having been exposed to the streptococcal virus, developed rapid, sudden and dramatic OCD and tic disorder symptoms. There isn’t a 100% cause and effect between streptococcal and PANDAS, or even clear evidence that PANDAS is a separate disorder from Tourettes/OCD, so research is ongoing. Because of this, PANDAS is not yet, or may never be considered a complete disease on it’s on, and there is some discussion that it should be called PANS, an acronym for Pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome to further include not just the sudden onset of tics and OCD symptoms following exposure to a previous infection, but the sudden onset in children regardless of a previous infection or not.

What if I Think My Child Has PANDAS and is There a Cure?

Your family doctor or psychiatrist will be able to access and diagnosis whether your child has PANDAS or not. Treatment for PANDAS right now are the same as the treatment for Tourettes and OCD which include cognitive behavioral therapy and medications such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). As research grows and the PANDAS hypothesis is either further confirmed or denied, other therapies and medication options will become available, but as of right now, there is no cure other than to try to reduce and control the disturbing and undesirable symptoms of PANDAS.

There seems to be a link between previous childhood exposure to infections such as strep throat, to the development of PANDAS, but there isn’t a 100% certain link and you shouldn’t worry too much that exposure to infection in childhood will lead to life long, neuropsychiatric problems. However, there seems to be growing evidence that in some children, this is the case and like with every child, if you notice sudden changes in your child, such as decrease in previous learned motor skills, increased irritability, tics (vocal and/or physical), difficulty sleeping, difficulty eating or any other unusual behaviors, it is very important to have your child seen by a doctor or specialist to not only rule out PANDAS, but also other diseases and pervasive developmental disorders such as Autism, Aspergers and childhood disintergrative disorder.

For more information on PANDAS visit http://intramural.nimh.nih.gov/pdn/web.htm

Abnormal Psychology, Popular Psychology

Is Your Child’s Oppositional Behavior ‘Normal’?

by Torey C. Richards, LMHCLeave a Comment on Is Your Child’s Oppositional Behavior ‘Normal’?

Oppositional behavior is often a normal part of childhood, especially around the ages of two to three years of age and early adolescence. Often oppositional behavior occurs when the child is hungry, tired, stressed or irritated. During these periods they may defy their parents, teachers, other caregivers, argue, talk back and be disobedient. These behaviors may be upsetting to parents, but they usually aren’t too upsetting because they fall into the “normal” realm of oppositional behavior expected in childhood. But when does openly defiant, uncooperative and hostile behavior become abnormal and a need for serious concern? When it stands out when compared to other children of the same age and developmental level and when it is so consistent, frequent and disruptive that it affects the child’s personal, school and family life. That’s when normal oppositional behavior becomes Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD).

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) present with an ongoing pattern of defiant, hostile and uncooperative behavior towards authority figures that seriously interferes with the child’s daily life in the form of getting in trouble at school frequently or having to be disciplined regularly. Some symptoms of ODD are:

  • Spiteful attitude and revenge seeking
  • Often being touchy or easily annoyed by others
  • Excessive arguing with adults
  • Frequent temper tantrums
  • Often questioning rules
  • Deliberate attempts to annoy or upset people
  • Active defiance and refusal to comply with adult requests and rules
  • Mean and hateful talking when upset

Usually these symptoms are exhibited in multiple settings such as at school or at home, although they may be more present in one or the other. While the causes of ODD are unknown, one to sixteen percent of school-aged children/adolescents have it. Parents with children who have ODD often say that their child was more rigid and demanding from an early age compared to their other children who didn’t have ODD. It is widely expected that a combination of psychological, biological and social factors contribute to the development of ODD.

What To Do If You Think Your Child Has ODD

If you think your child has ODD, they will need a comprehensive evaluation that will include checking for other disorders such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), mood disorders (such as depression or bipolar disorder), learning disabilities and anxiety disorders. If these disorders are also present in your child, they will have to be treated as well because it is nearly impossible to treat ODD without also treating any other coexisting disorders. Some children with ODD can go on to develop conduct disorder, which is a much more pathological and destructive disorder.

Treatments for ODD

They are many treatments for ODD that include Parent Management Training Programs which help parents manage the child’s behavior. Individual therapy where the child can learn anger management skills. Family therapy to help the overall family communicate and work more effectively together. Cognitive Problem-Solving Skills Training and Therapies to assist with problem solving and negativity. Social Skills Training to increase flexibility and improve social skills, increase tolerance and decrease frustration with peers. 

Medication in some cases is helpful when ODD symptoms are extreme or very distressing or if they coexist with other disorders such as ADHD.

Since ODD children can be very difficult, parents of children with ODD need help, support and understanding. They need self care in the forms of:

  • Take a time out if you are being extremely stressed by your child and support your child if they decide to take a time out to prevent from getting more upset
  • Maintain interest in other things besides your child
  • Pick your battles with your child
  • Build on the positives, reinforce desired behaviors
  • Manage your own stress
  • Set up age appropriate rules and consequences for your child
  • Don’t be afraid/embarrassed to ask for help

Most children at different stages in their development will exhibit oppositional behavior, that is normal, but when it becomes abnormal, it’s important to know when and who to turn to for help. The Oppositional Defiant Disorder Resource Center (www.aacap.org) is a great resource and a great place to start if  you want to know more about ODD.

Uncategorized

Parents Denial of Their Child’s Mental Health Issues Doesn’t Make It Go Away

by Torey C. Richards, LMHC31 Comments on Parents Denial of Their Child’s Mental Health Issues Doesn’t Make It Go Away

ImageThe more family sessions I do, the more concerned I become at the astonishing number of parents who are in denial of their child’s mental health issues.

Recently I was dealing with a teenage girl referred to me by her mother because she was scared to be by herself, “acting weird”, talking and laughing to herself.

After meeting with the girl twice I got her to tell me some information she had ever told anyone else. She was hearing voices and having extreme paranoid delusions of someone putting “voodoo” on her and making her do things against her will.

After further sessions and gathering more collateral information from her mom and sister, I diagnosed the girl with a psychotic disorder, with a rule out of paranoid schizophrenia.  I referred the mom to a local psychiatrist so the young lady could be evaluated further and the mom was extremely hesitant. She questioned my every judgment, and while she was very concerned for her daughter, she hoped that it was “all in her head”. I tried to convince her mother that it wasn’t “all in her head”, but an illness, that according to her records, seemed to run in the family.

Their family history was peppered with undiagnosed mental illnesses.

Needless to say, the mother didn’t follow up on my referral until a few weeks later when her daughter had a psychotic episode that truly scared the mother. It was then she came back and thanked me for recognizing this when I did.

And then last week, I had a girl come to me extremely tearful. She had old and new self-inflicted cuts up and down her arm. She told me that she was suicidal, tried to walk out into traffic the day before but a friend stopped her. She had thoughts that day of hanging herself or jumping off the third floor of the school building.

I called her dad to have a conference and recommend that she be taking to the nearby psychiatric hospital for her safety. I didn’t need his permission to do that, but I thought it would be better for her.

When her dad showed up he was extremely annoyed, yelled at her for not being able to communicate with him, and said that she wasn’t suffering from depression, she was just “lazy”. He said she was failing school because she slept all the time, didn’t do her homework, didn’t want to be involved with her family and seemed aloof.

The more he described her “laziness” to me, the more he re-affirmed my diagnosis of his daughter being depressed. He argued with me that she was depressed because of her failing grades and being behind in her school work, even though she and I both tried to explain to him that the depression is what caused her to start failing school and get behind in her work in the first place.

He didn’t want to hear or believe that his daughter was depressed and suicidal. He said that it was a cry for attention, and it very well may be, but as a mental health professional, my job is the evaluate the situation and keep my client from hurting themselves or other people. I had her involuntarily hospitalized to a mental health facility for her safety. Her dad left with angry, probably thinking we were wasting his time, but I’d prefer him to be angry with me for being overly concerned than to be mad at me for not trying hard enough to prevent her suicide.

Even just recently I have been working with a girl suffering from severe depression and suicidal thoughts. She confessed to me that she had attempted suicide last weekend by taking 18 sleeping pills and was disappointed that it didn’t work. I convinced her to allow me to call her father so that I could recommend psychiatric help, possibly hospitalization. The first thing her father said to me over the phone was, “No, I don’t believe it. We are Christians, we don’t do things like that.”

It took me while to convince her father to actually come into my office so him and I can sit down and talk with his daughter, and even then it took nearly the whole session before he started to accept that his daughter was indeed depressed although he was still in denial about her suicidal thoughts or previous attempt.

Parents can be my biggest allies or worst enemies when it comes to dealing with children and adolescent clients, and their denial of their child’s mental health issues only complicates everything. I see so many kids who can benefit from intense therapy and maybe even medication, but their parents ignore the seriousness of the situation and write it off as defiant behavior, active imagination or they just hope their child will grow out of things such as torturing animals and setting fires. Denial is a defense mechanism and while it’s okay to be skeptical, being in denial is almost always unhealthy in the long run.

Uncategorized

How Much Responsibilty Should You Have For Your Friends?

by Torey C. Richards, LMHCLeave a Comment on How Much Responsibilty Should You Have For Your Friends?

I am a big proponent of everyone being responsible for themselves, and this is largely because of my own personal flaws. I am a codependent. I often feel responsible for other people’s happiness and well being. This often times puts me in situations where I get used or even worst, don’t treat myself right because I’d prefer to see others happy before myself. Still, I think there are times when you should have a responsibility to and for your friends, and of course times when you should not.

The other night, a friend of mine went out drinking with a female friend of his. They both got intoxicated, she more so than he. After the drinking was done, he tried to help her sober up by walking around with her and forcing her to drink water. It was getting late and he was ready to go home so he took her to an establishment and according to him, told them that they were responsible for her and to not allow her to drive. Well, an hour later he got a call from a police officer saying that he had stopped her, was giving her a DUI and wanted to know if he was available to pick up her car from the side of the road.

My friend was devastated. At one end he felt responsible and on the other, felt like he had done all he could do and that she was a grown woman responsible for her own decisions. I agreed with him to a certain extent, except she was intoxicated and intoxicated people usually make very poor decisions. On top of that, as a friend, I felt like he should have placed her in a taxi and make sure she got home safely. When my friends and I go out drinking, we ALWAYS have a designated driver. I thought it was a poor decision on both of their parts to both drink in the first place. And as a man, I thought he should have been extra protective of his female friend.

I watched as he went back and forth from feeling bad, to feeling like he did nothing wrong and I notice I was starting to feel a certain way about him, almost as if I couldn’t trust or count on him in a life or death situation. I wondered if we had been together that night and he was more sober than I was, would he have left me to fend for myself the way he did his female friend. Then I had to start questioning what type of friend was he really? Sure he’s a fun person to hang around, but I was starting to think that he certainly wasn’t someone to count on in a life or death situation. Me, being who I am, would have never left my friend to fend for herself while she was inebriated, but maybe that’s just the codependency in me, or maybe that’s because I think friends should always look out for the best interest of each other.

So I think there is a line between taking responsibility for say, your friends happiness and being so codependent that you are not allowing them to learn to take care of themselves, but in the situation when it comes to your friends safety, especially when they are not in the right frame of mine to look out for themselves, I do think a good friend has the responsibility to make sure that their friend doesn’t do something irreparably foolish that they will certainly regret later.

Taking Control of Your LIfe

Are You an Emotional Tampon?

by Torey C. Richards, LMHC17 Comments on Are You an Emotional Tampon?

Often men, good men who are emotionally available when so many other men are emotionally unavailable find themselves thrown into the role of being an emotional tampon by the women they care about.

According to Urbandictionary.com, an emotional tampon is “a role taken on by a man in a ‘just friends’ male/female relationship. An emotional tampon is a man who will always be there to provide a woman with the proverbial ‘shoulder to cry on’ or some other outlet for her to otherwise vent her emotional frustration, problems and mental unbalance. Ultimately, he becomes the only person for whom this behavior is reserved as nobody else will tolerate it but him.”  -Gregory Prius

This especially happens when a man is trying to become more than friends with a female who has already delegated him to the “just friends” category. These men usually aren’t aware, or are in denial of their doomed state and think that being friends will lead to more, but it seldom does and usually ends up with many nights of listening to her complain about the no good guys she keeps seeing and trying to make her feel better after her heart has been broken again and again with hopes that their loyalty and and passion will be repaid with equal loyalty and passion, hopefully in the form of a real relationship.

The problem with being an emotional tampon is that this never happens! You get used and once she is feeling better, moved on to a different guy or got back with the same guy, you’re cast aside with no regard until her next period emotional crisis. This usually leaves the guy feeling jilted, bitter and angry towards the female, but usually he says nothing and is all too eager to relegate himself as her emotional tampon the next time she comes crying. These guys hearts are big, they are emotionally over available to an extent, but in the end, they are always left feeling fouled and unappreciated.

The Psychology Behind Men Who Tend to Be Emotional Tampons

These men tend to suffer from lack of self-esteem and confidence. They often are enablers and codependent. They often feel responsible for other people who should be responsible for themselves. And, they are dreamers. Nothing is wrong with being a dreamer, but it’s important to know when to let a dream go, especially when you are being used.

If you recognize yourself as an emotional tampon, you should just stop it! Yes, it’s that simple, stop it! Stop allowing someone to use you. Everyone is given one life and is responsible for it, not you! You are responsible for your own life and that’s it. It won’t be easy, we really care for and often times even love the women we become emotional tampons too, but it’s really just a fuzzy fantasy. It’s okay to be a friend and part of someones support system, but it’s not okay if that relationship is only one way and you don’t benefit from it at all. It will only leave you feeling used and emotionally drained. Save all of that energy for a woman who will appreciate your emotional availability and will reciprocate in one way or the other. Your days of being used for a few days out of the month and then thrown away until needed again are over!

Uncategorized

Young, Poor and Pregnant

by Torey C. Richards, LMHC3 Comments on Young, Poor and Pregnant

Why Your Teenaged Girls Get Pregnant

I work with a lot of young teenage girls and they all have a few things in common, including curiosity, misinformation about and pressure to have sex. What I hear a lot in the inner-city school I work at is that “everyone is doing it”, so the pressure to be part of the overall sexual culture becomes very important, at times, more important than the girls own autonomy. Most of these girls are clueless about sex and birth control. They are too afraid to let their parents know that they are sexually active, would die of embarrassment if a condom was found in their purse and would be too ashamed and scared to ask the guy they are having sex with, to put on a condom, if he doesn’t automatically do it. So instead, they open themselves up in more ways than one to everything that comes with precocious sex including sexually transmitted disease and psychological impairment.

Many get pregnant out of simple ignorance, but most get pregnant for more complex and often subconscious reasons. In her book, Young, Poor and Pregnant Judith Musick goes into great details about the psychology of teenage motherhood and why young girls decide to engage in sex, get pregnant and have babies. These girls usually get pregnant because of the lack of some other need. From my personal experience, six out of about forty young women I worked with last school year got pregnant for these reasons:

  • “My mom has been in prison all my life. I’ve never really had a mother. I can be a better mom than she was.” –“Luz”, 15, 10th grade
  • “My mom and I don’t get along. I think me being pregnant and having her grand daughter will bring us closer.” –“Jessica”, 17, 10th grade
  • “I have no idea what I want to do in my life. I’m failing school. I might as well have a baby and marry my boyfriend.” –“Rosaria”, 15, 10th grade
  • “Having a baby will give me someone who will always love and want me.” –“Keyana”, 17, 11th grade
  • “My boyfriend has a baby with another girl. If we have a baby together then I won’t have to worry about him leaving me for his first baby’s momma.” –“Brianna”, 15, 9th grade.
  • “My boyfriend and I have been fighting a lot. I think having a baby will bring us closer together.” –“Laura”, 18, 11th grade.

Only one of these young ladies came back to school after giving birth to their children. The other five dropped out. It’s hard for a young mother to continue her education after having a child, especially with a lack of support. The one girl that did come back  has a lot of support from her family and her baby’s father.

Why African American and Hispanic Teenage Girls Have Babies More Than Their European American Counterparts

European American teenage girls that get pregnant are more likely to have an abortion or give their baby up for adoption than African American or Hispanic teens. A small part of this may be finances, but more so I think is the strong anti-abortion and anti-adoption heritage in these communities. These children are also more likely to grow up in poverty if these young mothers are emulating their family and community. If it is the norm for 16 year old girls to get pregnant, drop out and get on welfare, where is the push for other young girls in the community to be different? If these young girls mothers had them while they were young, had more kids than they could financially and psychologically take care of, and these young girls older siblings repeated the cycle, it is incredibly hard for this young lady to avoid that same trap unless she has a strong will or other safety measures and programs are put in place.

Real Life Example

The other day a good friend of mine called me in shock. His 15 year old daughter is pregnant. She’s only in the 8th grade. This saddened me, but this is a generational curse. Her mother had her when she was 16 which is about the same age her grandmother had her mother. However, my friend and this young ladies mother were doing the best they could to keep her from making those mistakes, but it wasn’t enough. I’m convinced that the psychosocial factors surrounding her getting pregnant and then deciding she wants to keep the baby were even stronger and more prominent than whatever interventions her parents were trying to implement.

The Good News

Despite the popularity of shows like “16 and Pregnant”, The number of teenage girls that are getting pregnant is at its lowest point in nearly two decades according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Still, according to the CDC, 1,100 teenage women get pregnant each year which means that about one out of every ten babies born are born to teen moms.

Better education and prevention programs need to be put in place and it all starts at home. Don’t be afraid to talk to your teen or preteen about sex. If you are uncomfortable talking to them, they will be uncomfortable talking to you and you both will end up having an uncomfortable conversation when she becomes pregnant. Get sexually active teens on a form of birth control. Yes abstinence is the best way, but birth control AND a condom will hopefully keep your sexually active teen from becoming a teen mother.

Popular Psychology

Letting the Dead Die this Easter Sunday

by Torey C. Richards, LMHC3 Comments on Letting the Dead Die this Easter Sunday

Holding on to Dead Stuff

One of the reasons we get cheated out of the most our lives can be is because we hold on to too much dead stuff. Dead relationships, dead jobs and dead dreams.

This Easter, the resurrection, no matter what religion (or no religion) you believe in, can have significant meaning for all of us. Perhaps you are married to something that is dead or holding on to a dream that is dead. Too many of us are holding on to death.

Many of us have dreams that need to die. It’s not the most pleasant thought, but holding on to a dream that will never come to fruition holds us back from realizing the dreams that can and have already come true. It can’t happen until you let that dream die.

A new great relationship can’t happen until you let your old relationship die. You’re tied to something dead.

Your dream job might be right around the corner, but it’s hard if not impossible to get to it if you are holding on to your dead job.

What’s in Your Life that Needs to Die?

This Easter, and periodically afterwards, I want you to examine what is it in your life that needs to die. Maybe it’s a fantasy. Maybe you’re holding out for the perfect person and you’re missing so many other terrific people because you won’t let that fantasy die. This Easter is all about resurrection. Let what is dead go so that you can make room in your life for everything that is waiting to be raised.

Easter represents the the new life we all can find by living in the truth. Let what needs to die die so that this Easter Sunday, and everyday forward, you can be free to be all you were meant and born to be.

Uncategorized

“April”: A Quick Case Study (or more like a synopsis)

by Torey C. Richards, LMHCLeave a Comment on “April”: A Quick Case Study (or more like a synopsis)

Every three months as part of my grant we have to do a report and in that report, besides asking for numbers to validate and show evidence of my value, we have to write about one client that has improved over those three months. I decided to share that client with you.

 “April”

April  (17 year old female) lives in a group home where she has been for about five years after being removed from her family because of neglect and ongoing sexual abuse.

When I met April she was having a hard time focusing in school, often walked off campus and ran away from her group home. Her grades were very poor and she was prone to emotional and angry outbursts. She was brought to me initially by another counselor after she had threatened to punch her school bus driver, walked off the school bus and went missing for twenty four hours and was later found by local authorities.

I begin working with April (using mostly cognitive behavioral therapy) on controlling her emotions as well as working with her group home and guidance counselor to make sure all of her needs were being reasonably met. I put her in a life skills group which initially she was reluctant to join because “I don’t get along with other people” and met with her once weekly in private sessions, often helping her process her anger and fear about her family and about her future. I encouraged her to keep a journal and to write down everything she wanted to say to her family (no communication with her family in almost five years was her biggest issue). I also worked with her teachers to make sure that when April was having a “bad day”, they knew how to appropriately handle the situation and not escalate it or send her out of class which usually led to her walking off campus.

As a result, within a few weeks April stopped walking off campus and running away from her group home as she learned how to self-regulate her emotions. Her attitude improved and the number of referrals for classroom disruptions fell to nearly zero. Her grades improved and her number of “emotional breakdowns” during class fell to zero, as she was able to express her emotions in private sessions with me. She became a very active member of her group and her number of group home infractions also fell. She begin getting positive attention and positive rewards from both her group home and school staff and is a much calmer person today than she was when I first met her.

Because she is much better at regulating her emotions, we are able to spend more of our private sessions processing her feelings of abandonment by her family and working on (in conjunction with her independent living counselor) becoming more self-sufficient in preparation for the day she will turn eighteen and transition out of the group home. In an individual education plan meeting I attended with April a couple of weeks ago, she was highly praised on her many improvements in both academics and behavior.

-April really is one of my favorite clients. She is labeled “emotionally disturbed”, and while she is 17 and functions more often like a 12 year old, she’s grown a lot since the first day she set across from me as a very angry young lady with no respect for authority. She could have been diagnosed at that time as oppositional defiant,  but she had enough labels and I didn’t see the need to label her any more and as she has improved, i’m glad I wrote her initial diagnosis as “deferred” despite the constant push by insurance companies that “everyone gets a diagnosis”. Oh gosh, that is another whole post for another time.

Popular Psychology

Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder: A Quick Primer

by Torey C. Richards, LMHCLeave a Comment on Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder: A Quick Primer

Taking a Closer Look at ADHD

Attention Deficit/Hyper Activity Disorder (ADHD) is defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV (DSM IV) as a composite disorder including two major syndromes which are inattentive and hyperactivity-impulsivity which may occur independently, starting before the age of 7 and cause some impairment in two or more settings (i.e. home and school).

Types of ADHD

The DSM goes on to break the diagnosis down to four types:

  • Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; Predominately Inattentive Type
  • Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Predominately Hyperactive-Impulsive Type
  • Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; Combined Type
  • Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Not Otherwise Specified

The diagnostic criteria for ADHD is fairly broad. Most of us at some point and time could theoretically meet the criteria for ADHD which brings me to the reason for this post. Is ADHD a real disorder?

Controversy

ADHD has been a controversial disorder since the 1970s. Most of the controversy surrounds the questions of over diagnosing the disorder, using stimulants such as Ritlan, Adderal and Tenex (which are chemically similar to illegal drugs such as Speed and Cocaine) to treat the disorder, especially in children and even over diagnosing the disorder in minorities and poor people for financial gain (we’ll explore this in another post). Common side effects we know from using stimulants include:

  1. Psychosis
  2. Addiction
  3. Nervousness including agitation, anxiety and irritability
  4. Trouble Sleeping
  5. Decreased appetite
  6. Headache
  7. Stomach ache
  8. Nausea
  9. Dizziness
  10. Heart Palpitations
  11. Slowing growth in children
  12. Seizures
  13. eyesight changes or blurred vision

These are all serious side effects that need to be taken into consideration when prescribing stimulants to anyone, especially children, but often these things are ignored in the medicalization of deviant behavior.

Most healthcare providers in America recognize ADHD as a legitimate disorder, although in the United Kingdom the disorder isn’t as quickly diagnosed or treated with stimulants due to no one really knowing the long-term effects of using these stimulants due to there not having been any long-term studies on them.

I personally believe that ADHD is a real diagnosis. I’ve diagnosis children as well as adults with ADHD and feel confident in my diagnosis. I currently work with three teenagers who I have diagnosed with ADHD and none of them are on medication although they are prescribed medication. In there cases, I personally believe that medication would benefit because when they aren’t on their medication they don’t seem to be in control of themselves and their grades and behavior suffer. However, I have evaluated nearly one hundred students this year for ADHD and I’ve only diagnosed three. The others have some signs of ADHD, but I truly believed that most of their “deviant behavior” stems from a poor educational system and poor parenting. I do feel like it is over-diagnosed and over-medicated.

A lot of the signs and symptoms of ADHD are just children being children, products of their environment, poor parenting and poor educational systems. Not everyone who meets criteria for the disorder should actually be diagnosed and then subsequently medicated with stimulants which can cause undesirable side effects.

If you have a child you think may have ADHD then get them evaluated by a school psychologist or another qualified healthcare/mental health provider. If your child is diagnosed with ADHD, see about natural remedies such as changes in diet, vitamins, supplements and cognitive behavioral treatments. WebMD has a good page on some Home Remedies to help with ADHD. Always question your healthcare provider before just taking the prescription for stimulants and getting it filled. Ask about non-stimulant medication such as Strattera and other alternative medications if medication is recommended. Always educate yourself, your child and your family and be active members of you and your child’s mental and physical health.

Taking Control of Your LIfe

We are Living Magnets

by Torey C. Richards, LMHCLeave a Comment on We are Living Magnets

Thoughts, Feelings, Behaviors
A Prelude

You are a living magnet. You attract into your life people, situations, and circumstances that are in harmony with you dominant thoughts.

Those words are inscribed on my sister’s wall to wall chalk board when you enter her home. I don’t know where that particular quote came from, but it sounds a lot like The Secret and The Laws of Attraction which I 100% believe, not in a pseudo-new age-science sort of way, but in a we manifest our own destiny way.

I truly believe that for the most part, we design our lives. We are natural architects of our lives, CEOs and CFOs of our lives and it all starts with our thoughts.

We have to constantly be aware of our thoughts. Our thoughts create our situations. I listen to people all the time say things like, “I’m bad with money”, “I suck at math”, “I have no luck with relationships”, etc… We have to be careful of what we say and think about ourselves because those thoughts become reality. It’s that simple , yet I’ve found that its hard to get most people to see, believe and start to change their thoughts. Even I struggle with that often enough that it has caused me to read a handful of books on the subject.

This will be the first post of several that talks about thoughts, feelings and behaviors because I believe that it is such and important and powerful part of creating the life we want and not just being passive participants or even worst, seeing ourselves as victims.

In my next post on the subject I’ll do a brief overview on rational emotive behavioral therapy which I think is a great foundation to starting to understand the way thoughts, feelings and behaviors are all connected.