ADHD treatment without medicine

[jerryred069 0]

Can ADHD be treated without medication?

[Hickory Jane 0]

The short answer is yes, and I'm basing this on the response from my doctor (I had the same question when I was diagnosed as an adult 5 years ago). Although I'm on Ritalin and it works for me, I try not to be on it all the time. In case it helps you, here's what my doctor shared with me:

#1: Diet, exercise, and sleep (probably a "duh" for most people). Since I was hoping for a quick fix to avoid my uncovered meds at the time, I wasn't initially too excited about this. But these 3 things have helped immensely. For diet she stressed a LOT of lean protein and omegas, limiting intake of sugar/carbs in general, and avoiding diet triggers like refined sugars/carbs and anything artificial like dyes (in food and in other things like toothpaste and OTC meds) and preservatives (like sodium benzoate, which seems to be in everything unfortunately). Exercise of course, which she recommended getting in as much as I could. Sleep is a huge factor - my doctor said people with ADHD actually need a little more sleep than a "neurotypical" person, simply because their brains need more fuel to function at the same level.

#2: Vitamins: She stressed B12, D, and iron (I think zinc too). She recommended a blood test to make sure I wasn't deficient in any of these, and also using this test to check for thyroid issues. 

#3: Mindfulness: I started a class on this, based on her recommendation. It was fine, but I struggled with it and didn't continue (some ADHD'ers rave about it though).

There are a ton of other things online that I've found, but it's tough to find advice that's backed by solid science.

Good luck to you!