Alternative Medicine-ADHD:
Utilizes Many
Types Of Alternative Medicine

Many children are finding alternative medicine-ADHD is beneficial because of their continuous struggle to control the stress and expended energy used to cope with daily life. Therefore, many parents and educators are being given the tools to use, through the use of different types of alternative medicine and through education, so these kids can be taught some simple ways to help promote a calm and relaxed mind and body. Other than the obvious advantages of having a more relaxed child in his environment, it also teaches them self control techniques which they can utilize themselves in a stressful situation.

Some common teaching techniques used in alternative medicine-ADHD are:

• Laughter Is The Best Medicine

  Ever hear this one before? Anytime you are able to spend some time with your child enjoying a funny movie, a fun book or funny pictures, your body actually releases chemicals through laughter which promotes less pain and tension. Also the opportunity of just being able to spend some time with your child helps to promote a bond of friendship and trust. Often laughter is not only the cheapest option, it can be one of the most profound alternative medicine-ADHD solutions there is.

• Measured Breathing Exercises

  Teaching the importance of slow measured breathing helps relax tight muscles and can reduce many a stressful situation. This form of alternative medicine-ADHD relies on you taking control of your breathing.

  For some easy beginner's lessons, explain and work with your child to learn measured breathing.

  Inhale very deeply through the nose, listening to the sounds of the air filling up your body---now very slowly let it all come back out through the mouth as if you are trying to blow out the candles on a birthday cake. The important part is to "slow down" and feel every ounce of air as it enters your body and fills your chest cavity. Then as you release the air, feel the emptying and shrinking of your chest as the air slowly flows out.

  The next step is a little more difficult and will take more practice. Remember though, the actual time being used is just as important as actually doing the exercises correctly. Practice will make the exercise perfect. Time spent though is to be used for bonding and fun.

  Now the next exercise is actually teaching your muscles to relax on command. This gives your child the self-confidence to know if he does get stressed out, he can actually have control over his emotions physically to calm himself down.

  The starting position is by laying down on the floor on your back. Tense up your body and curl the toes on your left foot as you breathe in air. Then as you breathe out, uncurl the toes and let them "flow" out to their starting position pretending in your mind as if they can float away they are so light and free. Keep doing this exercise working all the different body parts, one section at a time. Move from the toes to the calf on your leg, the knee and up. When you finish one leg repeat the same process with the other.

  Keep adding a different body part, using the hand, wrist, arm, chest, neck, face and on and on.

  With repetition and practice, your child will start to realize that each of his breaths in any stressful environment can be "blown away" releasing the stress, anger and resentment so that he can gain control of his own emotions.

• Relaxation Techniques

  Alternative medicine-ADHD also uses visualization and Guided Imagery to help your child gain greater control over his environment. Visualization and Guided Imagery is the ability to take familiar sounds, thoughts, smells, colors, aromas or feelings to evoke vivid images, usually of a calm, peaceful restful atmosphere. This in turn helps promote good memory skills, a greater learning capacity, good social and coping skills when in an unfamiliar environment plus it eases the healing process during any illness.

• Finding Your "Special Place"

  Everyone has a "special place" in their mind. This is where they feel calm, in control and relaxed. By tapping into these "happy" feelings this place evokes, visualizing the feeling of achievement or contentment that your special place allows, let that contentment and relaxed feeling envelop you. With time and practice you can now evoke that calm into other areas of your life on demand.

  Again you must start small with your child. Start at day one just talking about the special place. Find out where and what is their ideal place in their mind. Talk it up, make sure he can understand the excitement or the peace that place evokes in his mind and body. As the sessions go by, keep adding small pieces of the visualization process. Eventually start adding stressful situations in your visualizations so you can work through the stress in his happy place. As situations do arise in the future, visualization techniques will give your child the confidence to realize he can solve this problem himself. When the child feels like he is in command, no matter what the obvious stressor, you have just taught him the means to remain calm and relaxed even in the most adverse situations.

• Music Therapy

  Another means alternative medicine-ADHD has of working with this child is through Music Therapy. This program also continuously shows remarkable improvement in a child with ADHD.

  Mood music to most people evokes the feeling of elevator music, a slow continuous type of music which calms and soothes frazzled nerves. On the opposite end is the loud and thumping, wild and frenetic music which makes the senses stir and the blood pump and heartbeat soar. Music can stimulate the brain in all different ways depending on the form of music. Many people use music as a sedative for "calm and sleep". Then high-pitched, loud, fast and furious will get the body moving, dancing, singing or create a party atmosphere.

  Use each of these as a stimulus depending on the type of mood you are trying to evoke from your child. With your encouragement, you can train a hyperactive child to use music as the stimulus to either turn off or turn up the energy level as needed.

• Exercise and Sports

  After positive results are being obtained from some of the above alternative medicine-ADHD therapies, a continuous exercise or sports program will increase blood flow and allow the child to expend some energy in a controlled environment. By now it should be possible to channel that energy into a program where he can obtain some social, mental and physical skills for better health.

  Remember though, some sports do move so slow. You are working with a hyperactive child. Do not enroll them in a program that can not hold their attention because of the slow environment. Try to pick activities that have movement and activity that will hold their interest.

Although working through an alternative medicine-ADHD child can require long hours, slow progress and many setbacks, time, energy and patience will eventually lead this child to a much more controlled environment. By allowing them to learn to control their own environment, this leads to better control of the emotions with less mood swings.

Many times, parents have come to realize, after trying one or more of these ADHD natural treatment programs, what a special child they do have. By removing most of the disruptions consistent in their home life, the son or daughter has had the capability of growing into a valued member of the family. All of this was just not evident before the beginning of their alternative medicine-ADHD therapy program.

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