Sunday, September 11, 2011

ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD)

When my son was only 2 years old, I saw strange symptoms. He could hardly control himself and when he was in anger it could last for hours. Later on I knew that it was called Tantrum. I decided to take him to a pediatrician and neurologist.
The pediatrician gave him some vitamins and since I didn't understand what they were all about, I ended it after the second or third bottle. The same pediatrician also found out that my son suffered from bronchitis and was infected by worms beside a severe nose bleeding (mimisan). Later I knew that all the symptoms led to anemia. The prescribed vitamins was basically zinc to support his brain development. The doctor has never told me that he suffers from ADD, but indirectly he said, whatever you call it, he has problems with his left brain development and we need to create balance out of the two brain hemispheres.
Then I took my son to the neurologist who at the beginning said that nothing was wrong with my son. He's perfectly okay. That was the news that every parents would love to hear. And that news also contributed to my decision to stop the vitamin from the pediatrician after the second or third bottle.
As five years have gone, I saw stronger symptoms that last longer than before. So I took my son to the same pediatrician and neurologist. The same pediatrician gave my son medication and the same vitamin. I only gave my son the vitamin. When I went back to the neurologist, he sensed something is wrong with my son and suggested me to take him to the psychologist.
I took my son to three different psychologists even before the neurologist asked me to do so. When he was 2 years old, the psychologist told me that there was nothing wrong with him. Again this is the news that put me in the comfort zone and made me unaware of the long term impacts of my ignorance. However, the inner me was a bit disturbed for the symptoms were still there and I decided to get a second opinion and went to another psychologist. This time she suggested me to have an IQ check and gave me an address for my child to have a fingerprint test. I didn't know what it was and took my son to have one. The result didn't answer my main questions but then he gave me a series of information about my son, what he's good at and what kinds of potential he has. With this, I decided to stop finding any further information about my son's health for the symptoms were slowing down (I should have said dormant). However there was a time when I took another psychologist home to observe my son and she gave me the suggestion to put my son under a hypnotherapy. I didn't believe her and decided not to continue with her.
The last psychologist was suggested by the neurologist. She observed and talked to my son for almost an hour and arrived to the conclusion that my son suffered from dyslexic problems.
There are many mixed up feelings. I went to some literature on ADD and Dyslexia and quite confirm that my child was having a brain development problem and I felt guilty for not knowing it earlier. His lack of brain development impacted his behavior and indicated ADD symptoms and impacted his learning ability, specifically his reading ability and therefore he was sentenced as dyslexic patience.
I have learned many things through the process of understanding my son's health. To begin with, I felt sorry for some professions that are driven by commercial purpose and prescribed patience to follow programs that they probably get a particular percentage out of it. Other human life is affected by their decisions. It disturb me a lot and I regret this facts, however life has to go on. Finding solutions for my son is more important than thinking of their irresponsible actions.
I have decided to find out my son's strength and develop them further rather than focusing my effort on turning my son to be just like any other ordinary children. People are categorized by those who hold the power , according to Foucault. Profession is just one of those people who has the power to categorize others. The fact that they could not explain why ADD people like Einstein and Galileo could flourish out of their creativity, is ignored. The potentialities of ADD children are ignored, and they focus on their shortcomings.
My son, you don't have to be like any other children, you can be yourself who could be better than any other children.

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