What Causes ADD?

 There are many theories.  One is “Family Discord:  a theory that has a lot of support is the family discord concept.  The theory suggests that a chaotic family life or marital discord in the family would cause the children affected by those stresses to become ADD.  In cases where the marital discord is affected by the psychiatric problems of the parents, the same would be true.  Children need a stable environment, predictability, and an element of constancy.  Families that have marital discord lose that sense of predictability, at least that sense of comfortable predictability.  Often the children are left to parent themselves, and all too frequently, the parents are too busy taking care of themselves to take care of the children.     When the noise and chaos in a family reach a certain level, the child is likely to tune it out.  They do this by slowing down their brain–the slowed brain is less alert to what is going on.  It is slow brainwave rhythms that characterize ADD.  When the brain slows down, it is less awake, less alert, and less aware.  In our clinic, we have seen the same slow wave patterns in children who are yelled at constantly, and we have also seen this in verbally abused spouses.  It is possible to conclude that anyone who lives in chaos and discord could suffer an emotional brain injury and would exhibit many classic ADD-type symptoms.” p.31.  Geting Rid of Ritalin.  By Robert W. Hill, Ph.D. and Eduardo Castro, M.D.     Emotional traumas can be just as devastating to the brain as physical.  Neurofeedback can help both.  Drs. Kelsey.