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ADHD: Alternative Treatments Main MenuADHD: The Fact and the FictionThis project is intended to make connections between media portrayals of ADHD and their impacts on alternative treatments such as neurofeedback, behavioral therapy, parent training, and diet-alteration therapy.ADHD MedicationsToday, the use of ADHD medications such as Ritalin and Adderall is still the most popular treatment method for ADHD. Let's explore the adverse side effects of the medications, which are a reason alternative treatments have been gaining more attention recently.Common MisconceptionsHow YOU Can Avoid Parent ShamingThis page is designed to promote an active learning style for parents to avoid feeling shamed by media surrounding ADHD. The media often uses fear and anxiety to shame parents into trying treatments they are not comfortable with or spreading false information. I will teach you how to spot these things and avoid them!NeurofeedbackBehavior TherapyBehavior therapy is the most common alternative treatment for ADHD. It is currently recommended as a supplement to drugs but some parents believe that this treatment alone may be just as effective as a supplementation.Parent TrainingDiet RestrictionDiet restrictions are gaining popularity as an alternative treatment for ADHD. The Feingold Diet has stood out as a diet that improves behavioral issues with manipulation of diet.About MeKaty McCarthy52d4dc2d6cf99de1642c9855dd2bae6c30ec3e42
12017-04-17T18:24:42-07:00Parenting Mediatization2plain2017-04-17T18:29:02-07:00Parenting style is undoubtedly the most criticized cause of ADHD or ADHD-like symptoms in children. In debates on alternative medicine treatments, I have found that a majority of the audience feels that ADHD is something that can be “parented out” of a child. In my dataset, 63% of the articles I explored discussed parents as a contributor to childhood ADHD. Ayurveda, an alternative treatment page on Facebook, contained comments from followers on the laziness of parents today, their lack of interest in their child, and their desire to get benefits from their child being on medications. These where three of the ideas I observed repeatedly in my survey of social media debates on alternative medicine (7).
Even educational websites such as ADDitude are targeted at mothers to help support their child. Blogs on this website have parent clickbait titles such as “My son hates how different he is”, or “How I am recovering from my ADD-induced mom guilt”, displaying that this website, while promoted as a tool to educate the public about ADD, is actually drawing in one specific group with their strategic advertising (12). Online magazines such as ADDitude are a perfect representation of how the media may be using fear and anxiety to target parents to think about the possibility of their child having ADD. The page has bright orange tabs with subjects such as “better parenting”, “what NOT to say”, and “five parenting secrets”, suggesting that you can “parent” the disorder out of your child by attending parent training sessions or enrolling your child in a behavioral therapy class (12).
