“Your child is not sitting still!”

“Your child is struggling with reading!”

“Your child will not pass his EOGs (End of grade testing)!”

How many times have you heard teachers say this about your child? How many times have you seen the note or report card and found yourself in a panic? Maybe you are anxious over your ADHD child for a number of reasons.

Over 70 parents come to my monthly parent talk to gain understanding about ADHD and find a positive path forward for their ADHD kids. 95% of parents that attend, sign up and stay with us through the years, and 84% of the kids with ADHD go from problems in school to A/B honor roll.

I actually do not believe in “treatment,” like a disease needs treatment, because I do not believe ADHD is a disease. It’s a gift. We at FastBraiin believe in developing a sense of care and finding a pathway of success for kids with ADHD.

A few observations to help you as you parent ADHD kids

Think quickly, what do you want for your child? Nearly 95% of the mothers want their child to “be happy!” 86% of the fathers want their child to be “successful.” Do you fit into this group? If you do, you are normal.

How do you want this to happen? By medication?

Of course not! Nearly 99% of parents do not want to use medication when they first come to see me! I agree! What about programs that tout non-medical “treatments” and “cures” for ADHD? First, no medical university backs a medical computer treatment for ADHD. Although you may see this type of treatment and therapy advertised, the genuine evidence for significant, lasting change doesn’t exist. I even heard an advertisement today for a “franchise” opportunity to treat ADHD and Asperger’s syndrome.

They are way off base! Imagine the number one mental health issue in children and adolescence being “treated” and “cured” by anyone who can put a child in front of a computer!

Of the thousands of patients we have seen, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one where there was not a sense of panic.

“My brain is going 75 mph.” –  7-year- old

“There must be something wrong with me.” – 15-year-old cheerleader

“I totally feel overwhelmed at work and at home.”  – mother with ADHD and a parent of a kid with ADHD

These issues have us all running for the latest and greatest “promise” of a cure, and without medicine. First and foremost, we want to use programs and “therapy” that have good evidence and good studies that show a change in one’s ability to improve their productivity, behavior, and feelings of success in life. We also want to utilize the studies and experience from those that are “in the game” and work with patients on a daily basis. We don’t just give “good ideas”, we give you methods that work, and that have been built on years of clinical experience.

FastBraiin is a paradigm shift in that we have developed a complete method to successful management of ADHD.

Our method has three key pillars

1. Positive

   From start to finish, our belief is that ADHD kids are to be valued. We value their identity as FastBraiin and our method includes constant positive reinforcement.

2. Comprehensive

   We treat the whole individual. This means we treat from a medical, behavioral, and educational perspective. We take into consideration everything from nutrition, to learning techniques, to psychological and physical markers.

3. Integrative

   We don’t stop with being comprehensive. It’s not enough to have a medical or a behavioral analysis done separately. They have to be combined. You know the frustration of having your teacher say one thing, and your doctor say another. At FastBraiin, our doctors and teachers and counselors talk with each other in forming a unified and efficient pathway for your child’s success.

That’s one reason why computers simply can’t cut it. People want the quick fix without the hard work and perseverance necessary to see true lifestyle change. You can’t just throw $5,000 – $12,000 at a computer program and think it’s going to reprogram your child. Neither can you count on medication, never mind the long list of side effects, including “changing one’s personality!”

Effective care is complex and must be approached from a variety of perspectives and disciplines.

Why are ADHD kids the future?

FastBraiin knows that these individuals do not need to fit into society, but actually have a society and way of doing things all on their own. If you think ADHD is a huge disadvantage to society, guess what? ADHD/FastBraiin makes us our society. It is what drives our society and makes it work.

FastBraiin individuals have a unique brain structure which provides all kinds of benefits. It is what supplies top athletes with the ability to hit a baseball in 1.1 seconds after being thrown, or a quarterback to find a receiver in under 2 seconds as 6 guys over 300 pounds try to get him, or a hockey goalie responding in lightning speed to catch a puck flying at 100mph.

It’s what provides architects and engineers to build the impossible, “out of the box,” building. It’s for the inventors such as Steve Jobs who kept asking crazy questions such as: “Why does this phone have an on off switch?” (the Apple phone has one but it is rarely utilized), and when someone asked the head of Hewlett Packer what their company did, the response was, “build computers.” When someone asked Apple, the answer was, “help people communicate!”

ADHD/FastBraiin individuals are the risk-takers, the imaginative ones, creatives, the competitive, passionate, go-getters, that find success in all types of channels.

These individuals are fidgety and cannot sit still, and some didn’t even go to college, yet they find themselves very successful in life. Their “fidgetiness” got them somewhere!

There is no correlation between 3rd grade end of grade testing and the prospect of running a large internet corporation! As a matter of fact, studies looked at those individuals that graduated from IVY league schools, and found that few actually owned their own company.

UNC Charlotte, not “near the school” of an IVY league school, turns out more successful entrepreneurs than any of those “other” schools! We will examine why in later conversation, but this is the reality of America.

The future is in the ADHD kids, your kids that are “all over the place.” They are the future. They are the influencers and one’s who will shape our society. We do not need to look for “cures,” we need to look for pathways to let these kids grow into their potential.

ADHD kids grow up to be ADHD adults, and that’s great!

In 2016 there were more adults taking ADHD medication than adolescents, and the reason is the fact that once one has the issues with ADHD, over 40% keep them throughout life. That is not a problem, it is a good thing!

When you say a football coach has ADHD, is that bad? Not at all, it’s why they are successful. It gives them the ability to hyper focus and adapt on the fly.

The main reason we ADHD adults can be successful, however, is that we believe in ourselves. This likely came from the belief our parents and peer groups have given us, or from our training. The wonderful thing about my medical training is I did not get my grammar or handwriting marked off when filling out a patient’s chart, and I did not have to do it in a foreign language. The grading was in line with the goal. Why do we hold back a kid for handwriting when they are potentially going to be one of the world’s leading surgeons!

I actually have good handwriting, but the reason most doctors write so you cannot read it is because we cannot SPELL! Medical school taught me to figure out the fluids needed to give a patient using a calculator! When I was called as an expert witness, the opposing attorney tried to discredit me with some medical questions that had nothing to do with the case. I calmly pulled out a 1200-page medical book and started to look up the answers, even though I knew them, I was making the point that I could look up any knowledge that is out there! Now I would just use Google.

Why School Needs To Change

The school “system” is still being taught with a boss (teacher) and responding to the corporate whistle (the bell) like it was in the early 1900’s. Today, school is not a program that teaches us how to understand and use the phenomenal amount of information that is available on the internet, and exponentially increasing! The school system is set on stuffing our kids with the information they think is best for them, and grading on those standards, which doesn’t allow the child, especially the ADHD child, to follow his or her passions.

We do need school for basic skills, but beyond that the goal should be to support passion, creativity, and individuality, not crush it. Ask a group of kindergarteners if they are artists, they will all raise their hands. Do this again in fifth grade and only a few will raise their hands. Only a couple make it through high school. Somewhere along they way the system crushed their creativity. They internalized failure (which was an illusion), their identity changed, and so did their whole outlook on life.

The FastBraiin Revolution

FastBraiin will become the answer to your questions, and it will prove to you the importance of
believing in your child as you both, together, develop a pathway to success. Having kids with ADHD is a great thing, and you should look forward to a future of wonderful things. We will teach your child how to learn, and we will assist you in getting through the “bad” stuff, the “notes” from the teacher, and share the importance of lifestyle education for success later in life, even if the education system isn’t perfect.

Our multi-integrative approach encompasses medical evaluation (iron, vitamin D levels, neurologic exams, developmental and processing issues), educational evaluations (how someone learns, IEP/ 504 plans, school and homework accommodations, how to work with the school), counseling (especially helpful cognitive behavior training (CBT) for those with ADHD and really helpful for those 3-6 years of age), developmental evaluations, understanding ASD (autism spectrum disorder and Asperger’s syndrome), and use of FastBraiin methodology with exercise, nutrition, sleep habits, screen time, and mindfulness.

We study the latest in neuroscience as professionals now can map the brain, determining where and how we think and process information.

There are 1,000 connections between our prefrontal cortex (learning, memory) and our emotional center. That means that while there are important left and right brain differences, it’s all connected! Kids with ADHD have real connection issues. Their brains are developmentally three years behind control groups, which gives them trouble assessing information, processing, and making right choices.

Helping ADHD kids is a relational process

I am FastBraiin, and my staff “are” too! We are not a computer test, and we deal with all types of patients everyday, the positive and the negative, the fun and the difficult. One day I had a first patient meeting with a struggling 12-year old, African American kid. I later apologized to the mother for not getting him to speak and talk very much. The mother quickly responded, “As soon as he got into the car, he told me, ‘I like Dr. Jim, he understands me! He gets it!’”

That child ended up receiving a scholarship for college!

We believe in speed! Speed in learning, in reading, and utilizing the gift of our brain that loves things in short hyperfocus moments. Who said a meeting should be an hour? Who said a class should be an hour? Who makes the rules? It’s not the FastBraiin folks! But get ready, us FastBraiin folks are the future.

Bring in your kids with ADHD and join the FastBraiin Revolution!