I have been impressed by the number of parents who are taking their
children off the drugs and switching to more humane remedies. I
wanted to share a little of our experience, for whatever it will be
worth to others.

My son was diagnosed with oppositional defiance disorder at 4, Adhd
at 5, asperger's at 8, and developed "tics" at 8.5. We gave him all
the traditional drugs that his doctor's consistantly informed us are
the only realistic treatments, as others are not accepted in the
medical community and are only placebos for desperate parents. I
struggled with this for years. I felt wrong from the beginning but
followed like the good little sheep. But, I was desperate.

He would just be. What I mean is my son was just there. Not
drowsy... he was up and around doing what I guess kids do but he
lacked real happiness. He had been on meds since 5. I hardly knew
him any other way. So it went on until I finally said no more. I
didn't look for anyone elses approval except his (after all it was
his mind we were messing with). I told him that we would try
something different, something more logical. I had recently read a
statement by a doctor that had truly inspired me. It was something
like... There is no such case of a child being medicine deficient.
This made alot of since to me. It was so simple.

I was not under-read about alternative therapy for adhd and autistic
spectrum. I was already leaning, I'll admit. But, I just needed a
mission statement for my quest. So, without the doctors approval I
weaned my son off the drugs over a months time. At first, I thought
that I had made a mistake. He was wild. He made little sense in his
conversations. He was destuctive, hyper, uncontrolable, never slept,
ate like a horse (this was a plus), and at times I thought I would
die of exhaustion, frustration, anger at him and the people who, at
times, looked on with disappointment for how I "mismanaged" my child.

But, I went on to try everything I had studied over the last 4 years.
One therapy after another; sometimes in combination with another. My
son is nine now. We are not done, yet. But, so far we have had at
least a 70% improvement without all the dangerous drugs. The main
improvement came with the removal of red#40, Yellow#5,6 ...well we
just took out all dyes out of our diets after reading the ingredients
from a petroleum-based food-dye company on the web.

The second largest improvement came when we finally gave in and
said,"All right,Mr. Atkins, we'll do it and do it right!" No
carbohydrates from breads, fruits, sugars (we switched to stevia
sweetener because it had a 0 glycemic index); High protein all the
way. This worked and I have lost 10 pounds I might add. We also
switched to soy...just say no to milk.

We take multi-vitamins, Vitamin b complex, and an extra niacin dose
(no flush formula), magnesium, and alot of vitamin C. I feel the
vitamin b6 and b12 and added niacin(vit. b3) do help alot. Whether
Vit. C and magnesium help the adhd, asperger's, etc. , I admit I
don't know but I do know that we are two of the healthiest people we
know. Never a cold, flu, virus, ear ache, anything. Not anymore, at
least.

I would like to point out the reason I said WE on all of the
treatments. I changed my diet, too. I take these vitamins, too. I
work on all the things that I expect my son to do. How lonely it
must have been to be treated so diffrent for so long. Always the one
seeing a doctor, always taking the drugs that made him feel funny,
always treated a little from his brother. Always wondering what is so
wrong with the way he is. Even with my stongest efforts to normalize
as much as possible, things were still a little different for him.
Not anymore. I was right there with him all the way and I feel
better for doing it and not just physically. I feel closer to him in
a way I thought he would never have let me before.

My son is much calmer now. This is no placebo effect. We have
received several positive comments from former critics. He goes to
bed at between nine and ten. No problem. His conversations and humor
are a little strange but, so are my eight-year-old's, my ten-year-old
nephew's, the boys' from down the street that come to play. Yes, we
have friends, now.

We still have a little work to do, though. We are working on small
behavioral issues now. In fact, normal 9 year old issues. His speech
needs some work. He still has a few movements that are what we find
annoying, not devastating anymore. That's it! We can live with
this. We can live with him...happily...normally...without drugs ever
again.

I would like to apologize for the length of our story. I needed to
get this out and hope that it may help another family that is going
through a similar situation. Good luck to all.

Jenglish