ADHD/RLS connection?

[Guest guest]

ADD, like RLS is (or, would it be correct to say, " can

be " )hereditary. Medicating for ADD is like anything else. It's different

for different people. No one needs to feel like they HAVE to medicate

for ADD. I believe my son benefited greatly from it, during the time

(1st - 5th grade) he was taking it, but when he chose not to take it,

and I could not really see any " plus " with it anymore, we discontnued

it. He is now a freshman (whoops, sophomore now) in high school and took

it a couple of times since 5th grade for " t-cap " testing. He recently

took it, during an Algebra & French final & said he could not tell that

it made any difference at all. He ended up with A 4.0 this term, so I

think he's doing very well. Years of working on " his way " of getting

things done and spending hours EVERY night assisting him in getting

through schoolwork have certainly paid off for him. You can not imagine

what an accomplishment it was for him to actually keep up with an

Algebra and French notebook. That sounds like such an easy thing, for

those that don't understand how the word " notebook " can send someone

into sheer terror. As a young girl in the 7th grade, I can still

remember wondering if it wouldn't be better to take my own life than

have to admit that I wasn't able to keep my social studies notebook

together. I started taking Ritalin as an adult and must take it in order

to have any semblance of order in my life. Like RLS, I have looked for &

found different drugs for it, and keep coming back to the old " standby " .

This is

" non-rls " , so sorry I strayed for so long. On my

ADD Women's list, they would find that quite normal though (Ha,ha).

Ninette

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

My nephew and Godson, who is 10, is an ADHD child and was diagnosed 2 years

ago. Due to some pressure from school teachers, he took Ritalin for the

duration of each school year.

I could swear on a stack of bibles, the child has RLS just as myself and his

grandmother. But the medical community disagrees. If indeed they are to

begin studies on this, I would be very interested in the results, and will

be keeping track.

Merci Bernard pour l'information!

However, my sister has successfully kept the hyperactivity at bay during

the summer months without the meds. She has changed his diet dramatically

and introduced manganese, iron & zinc supplementation. Along with chamomile

at bed time and occasionally, licorice root and primrose oil. He seems to

sleep better on this regimen than on Ritalin. Don't be thinking my sis is a

believer in Homeopathic medication, because she is not, however, medicating

her young son is also a route she does not want to take further. My sister's

biggest complaint, is that she is unable to get him up in the mornings while

he's on Ritalin, and in September she is going to keep up the regimen

without Ritalin and see how it works out. The stress factor of school is

important if all of this works out, as he also has LD.

Maybe my " hormone imbalances " (as posted previously) as a kid was really ADD

and was not properly diagnosed (?). Things seem to stem from our childhood,

eh? if not, it's hereditary.... what a life....

Nonetheless, an interesting theory.

Ana Casinha,34

Woodbridge, Ont.