ADD Life: When Meds Aren't Enough

In our journey on dealing with my son’s attention deficit disorder we have experimented with two different medications (so far) and each of them at various doses. The most recent medication seems to be the best fit we can hope for, and it’s definitely a great fit during the school day. However, we were finding that more often than not homework time was still a struggle. Like most kids, he is tired after school, and wants to do anything BUT more school work! He has two to three hours of homework some evenings, which also told me that while things seemed great during the school day, there must be some concentration issues that are contributing to how much work was not being finished during the day.

Finding the perfect balance for your family when it comes to medication is a lot like walking on a high wire. People can give you advice, and they can tell you what works for them, but that doesn’t mean it will translate to your family. It’s a trial and error process that can very easily drive you crazy if you let it. It’s more about finding a solution that’s good enough, more than finding the perfect solution. That doesn’t necessarily sit well with me, I want my kids to have the perfect solution.

Since we were satisfied with the lack of side effects with this current medication, and I didn’t want to head down the road of adjusting meds yet again, I started researching what else we could do. I read that diet often effects ADHD, but the problem there is my son is an extremely picky eater. Like, EXTREMELY picky. Dinnertime is already a fight, I didn’t want to go straight from the homework battle to the dinner battle so I put that idea aside for now.

So, cue me turning to the Internet, and friends and family, even some experts in their fields to ask for advice. I had a friend who mentioned essential oils. She had researched them and heard positive things from friends and family, but ultimately decided they were too expensive for her family at the time. I put that in the back of my mind.

Another friend mentioned that there had been successful studies around using a fish oil supplement in ADHD kids and adults. My nephew sees a psychologist who recommended a mega dose of fish oil daily to help with his ADHD And ODD issues. He can’t swallow pills though, so my sister had to find chewables for him which can be pricey!

After doing some more research, I started my son on a supplement. This wasn’t an easy sell, the pills are BIGGER pills, they’re challenging for some adults to swallow. But I was lucky enough to find some that didn’t cause the problem a lot of people complain about, burping fish taste. Yuck! After a few mornings where he argued that he didn’t want to take them because they were too big, he told me he knew for sure they were helping him during the school day and he stopped fighting about taking them! Huge victory!

Then, the essential oils came back into my life. My cousin in Texas posted that she had started using them and then started selling them because they worked so well for her family! I made the leap, I ordered the Premium Starter Kit and ordered one oil that said it worked well for people with ADHD. It claimed to help them to feel more grounded and focused. Sign me up!

At first, my ADD kid wasn’t impressed with the scent of the Vetiver, which was the oil recommended for ADD. I also wanted to try the Cedarwood, and a few others, but I’m not one to jump in with both feet right from the start, and I had a budget to consider.

Diffusing the Vetiver in the home diffuser made an amazing difference during homework time. By “amazing difference” I mean we got through homework in a reasonable amount of time and there was no yelling, no crying (from either of us!) and I didn’t have to once tap on the book in front of him and remind him to focus on what we were doing. In my world, this constitutes AMAZING!

After some experimenting, I discovered that if I mixed the Vetiver oil with another scent, for example Citrus Fresh, then my son not only doesn’t mind the scent of the oil, he likes it, and his friends are asking him why he smells so good! Also, I can apply it to the bottom of his feet and he doesn’t even notice the scent at all there (and not just because he’s got the feet of an 11 year old boy).

I also put the things I learned to work in my household for my teenage daughter who doesn’t have ADHD, but can’t we all benefit from an improved focus during certain times? I’ve added the Fish Oil Supplement to her daily diet after learning that it also helps with things like mood stabilization… and, well, she is a teenage girl! The oils happened to arrive just before she was scheduled to start taking the final exams of her sophomore year in high school, she eagerly applied Vetiver every day that she had a test, and applied and diffused it while she was studying/cramming for finals. Normally, school stuff comes pretty easy for her, but this year she’s feeling a little overwhelmed by her Honors Chemistry class. After using the oils she was able to study for four straight hours and cover everything that she wanted to study, and she did extremely well on her test! In her words, the oils let her study for so long she actually forgot to eat and go to the bathroom.

So, long story short (too late!), both the fish oil supplement and the essential oils are now a part of our daily arsenal to deal with ADD in our house. If you’re interested in anymore information about either one don’t hesitate to let me know. Of course, I’m not a doctor, or medical professional of any sort so this is just my personal experience that I’m sharing with you not a medical recommendation of any sort.

• Full Disclosure: I became a Young Living Distributor to get the products at cost.

Angela is a social media and online community professional who has always dreamed of being a writer. Blogging combines two of her passions, social media and writing! She blogs about anything that strikes her fancy and is always thrilled (and a little surprised!) when someone lets her know they enjoy reading her work. You can find her on her blog www.writermomblog.com, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.