ADHD disorder has now reached epidemic proportions in America and Europe is not far behind. According to U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, ADHD is "one of the most common neurobehavioural disorders of childhood." The only consolation is that Europeans have a slightly different conception of ADHD disorder and tend to treat it less with psychostimulants. The burning question is if we are using the ADHD label to give our failure as a society to rear our children, a certain legitimacy?

The first misconception is that it is not really a disorder or certainly not a mental illness. It is just children behaving very badly. But children with ADHD disorder have brains which are about 3% smaller than normal children and certain neurotransmitters are defective. This affects their sensory perception. If I am listening to you in a street talking to me, my brain is able to filter out all the sounds which are unimportant and I can concentrate on what you are saying to me. The ADHD child is unable to do this and in such a situation he or she is likely to suffer from a sensory overload with all these sounds coming at him and he is unable to filter out the trivial ones. Staying on task therefore becomes an enormous challenge. Hence all the classic symptoms of distractability, restlessness and inability to focus.

The second misconception people have is that bad parenting has caused all this. If that were the case, we would just give parents the medicine ! Good parenting skills will be a great asset though, once ADHD disorder is diagnosed and the best thing to do is to find a ADHD parents support group near you. This may be organised by a local church or education authority. By attending such a group, you will get more solidarity and support and also find out how to access resources and how to benefit from any special facilities available and get up and coming ADHD info.

The third misconception about ADHD disorder is that ADHD medicines will cure it. Although the Internet is flooded with ADHD info, many parents are maybe suffering from information overload. The medications, which range from blood pressure drugs, amphetamines to anti-depressants are really just keeping the symptoms under control. There is no cure for the condition and there are very serious doubts (shared in part by the FDA) about the gravity of side effects which range from risk of cardiac arrest, hallucinations and depression, just to mention a few. An alternative ADHD therapy for this disorder is to consider a homeopathic one which blends in very well with a combination therapy where diet, exercise, parenting skills and proper school support all play important roles. You can find out more about how easy, cost-effective and safe these ADHD homeopathic medicines are by clicking on the link below.