There is another, more difficult type of ADHD that you should be aware of. There are no Winne the Pooh characters for this type of ADHD, as the creator of these children's stories would never have created a character with these challenging, difficult traits. This type of ADHD can be very severe, and will require significant treatment, and great patience on the part of the parents. It can involve dark moods, and intense anger.
People with Temporal Lobe problems and ADHD can be very hard to live with. They can have gigantic mood swings, get very angry for almost no reason, and be nearly impossible to live with on a daily basis. The key to look for with this type of ADHD is anger outbursts for little or no reason, and that seem out of control.
Brain scans show that the temporal lobes are the problem. Decreased activity in the left temporal lobes causes problems with temper outbursts, aggressive behaviors, and even violence toward animals or other people. Temporal Lobe ADHD is characterized by:
Individuals with this type of ADHD are often treated with a combination of stimulants, like Ritalin, and anti-convulsants.
You can see that this type of ADHD looks very much like Bipolar Disorder. See our discussion on ADHD vs Bipolar Disorder. Research shows that about 15% of those diagnosed with ADHD actually have an early onset bipolar disorder. Physicians and therapists must be very careful in making their diagnosis.
For someone who wanted to try an alternative treatment approach to this type of ADHD, or an "additional treatment" approach, we would recommend considering the following - but don't let things get out of hand. Try it for 30 to 45 days and if it doesn't work, do something else. Some situations require strong medications.
Using the VAXA nutraceutical product line, our recommended protocol would look like this:
Two capsules of the ATTEND contain GABA (33mg), and DL-PA (16mg) for mood stabilization, plus L-Tyrosine (67mg), Ginko (33mg), Phosphatidyl Serine (0.5mg) and other phosphatidyls (200mg) and DMAE (33mg) and Pregnenolone (8mg) for learning enhancement. There are over 70 total ingredients in ATTEND to help with learning, performance, and mood.
Four capsules of NEURAN contain GABA (240mg), and DL-PA (32mg) for mood stabilization. Consult your healthcare professional. As you can see, using the Neuran along with the Attend can enhance the mood stabilization components without adding either St. John's Wort or Hypericum, two ingredients that some experts believe could make the problem worse.
Together the Attend and Neuran can also enhance learning and memory, and therefore school performance or work performance.
This type of ADHD is very difficult. It may be early onset bipolar disorder in children, or bipolar disorder in an adult. It may be very serious, so please get a good diagnosis, be careful, and if you need to just skip to medication because the situation is so bad, do it. If things are bad, just do what you need to do to stabilize the situation.
Back to "adhd DIFFERENT types" index
This book section: The Different Types of ADHD
Douglas Cowan, Psy.D., MFT is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Tehachapi, CA who has been a counselor to children, teens, and adults helping them to overcome ADHD, find relief for depression or anxiety, and solve other problems in life since 1989. He served on the medical advisory board to the company that makes Attend and Extress from 1997 through 2011, and he is the Editor of the ADHD Information Library online resource at http://newideas.net/. His weekly ADHD Newsletter goes out to 9,500 families. Visit his website at http://DouglasCowan.me for more information on achieving greater health, personal growth, Christ-centered spirituality, stress management, parenting skills, ADHD, working out the stresses of being a care-giver to elderly parents and also being a parent to teenagers, or finding greater meaning in retirement years, Dr. Cowan can be a valuable resource to you.
Counselor counseling Tehachapi for ADHD, depression, anxiety, and more.
Douglas Cowan, Psy.D., MFT
27400 Oakflat Dr.
Tehachapi, CA 93561
(661) 972-5953
Temporal Lobe ADHD
What is the worst "type" of ADHD to have? Can any of the "types" be treated alone with alternatives? If I do not wish to medicate my child, what is the best alternative to go with? Please reply, I'm working on reserch paper; as well as information for my own children.
Thanks for writing to us at the ADHD Information Library.
What is the worst "type" of ADHD to have? I guess the "worst type" would be what I call the "troubled type" or what Dr. Daniel Amen calls the "Ring of Fire" type. (Or else it would be whatever type YOUR child has ;-) Any "type" of ADHD can be serious, or slight. Any type can be just a mild problem, or a severe problem. Think "spectrum".
But there is no question in my mind that when a child or teen, or adult, has ADHD with Temporal Lobe involvement that creates tremendous problems for that person and his family. Dark moods, angry outbursts, and other impulsive behaviors characterize this type of ADHD.
Can any of the "types" be treated alone with alternatives? Any of these types, except for the "troubled type" could be treated alone with alternatives. I just wouldn't recommend it for "Temporal Lobe type ADHD" as the alternatives take longer to work, and typically this type needs to be stabilized as soon as possible. If you insist on only using alternative treatments, we discuss this on the Temporal Lobe ADHD page. But please be very careful. Some situations just require medications.
If I do not wish to medicate my child, what is the best alternative to go with? I recommend (1) determining what "type" of ADHD is involved, (2) using our eating recommendations, (3) using the specific treatment recommendations with the VAXA formulas for they "type" of ADHD involved. If people can afford it, I also like EEG Biofeedback training, with talented providers, as another effective alternative treatment. And, finally, homeschooling is a great alternative treatment option if families can do that as well.
Good luck with your paper. Let me know if there are more resources that you might need, and feel free to use whatever is on any of our websites:
http://newideas.net
http://www.addinschool.com
http://www.add101.com
Doug Cowan