Treatment For Adult ADD And The Addictions
by Dorothy C. Hayden, LCSW
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Ms. Hayden’s approach to Adult ADD is that it is a frontal lobe dysfunction
which produces trouble with the individual’s capacity for "executive
functioning" including disorganization, hyperactivity, impulsiveness,
forgetfulness, attention dysregulation, and trouble in interpersonal
relationships. Treatment gives an individual enhanced "executive functioning"
which translates into the person feeling that he is adequate to meet life’s
requirements (a critical component of self-esteem). Fear and chaos that were
once a part of daily living are replaced with confidence, a sense of control
over one’s life, and knowledge that one can meet the challenges of day-to-day
living. The ultimate goal of treatment is the achievement of serenity, focus,
productivity, more reflectiveness about the consequences of one’s actions,
integration of the personality, better interpersonal relationships and enhanced
self-esteem.
Ms. Hayden focuses on helping her clients to set realistic goals and to meet and
excel in the daily challenges of living with ADD. She provides mechanisms in
goal setting, time management, increasing effectiveness, career advancement
/transitions and work/life balance.
Through the process of ADD coaching, together with the use of Neuro-Linguistic
Programming (NLP), hypnotherapy and proper use of medication, homeopathy, diet,
exercise and meditation, the left and right sides of the brain become
integrated, resulting in the client’s ability to heal trauma-based dissociation,
learn new life skills, increase reflective abilities/decrease impulsivity and
raise self-esteem. In addition, feelings of restlessness, anxiety, depression
and shame often associated with a life-time of living with ADD can be dissipated
with the use of the above mechanisms.
What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)?
The practice of NLP with a certified practitioner gives you in-depth
knowledge of the skills essential for powerful interpersonal and intrapersonal
communication. NLP teaches us how to establish and achieve your goals while
fine- tuning your perception. Discover patterns that will lead to deeper
understanding of yourself and others. Develop skills and techniques for building
communication to your unconscious mind to change unwanted habits and resolve
inner conflicts quickly, without painful reliving of past memories
NLP gives us the tools that change our internal programs that no longer serve,
leading to resourceful, confident and powerful states of mind and emotions. NLP
provides the tools for clearing past traumas and unproductive habits leading to
more consistent states of positive choices and inner peace. NLP helps people
change by teaching them to program their brains. We were given brains, we are
told, but no instruction manual. NLP offers a user-manual for the brain
Anthony Robbins is undoubtedly the most visible graduate of the NLP training. He
started his empire after transforming from a self-described "fat slob" to a
firewalker. Robbins has been called "the nation’s foremost authority on the
psychology of peak performance and personal and professional turnaround". His
work is an off-shoot of NLP.
The areas most commonly treated with NLP include relationship problems, anxiety
and stress, depression, substance abuse and other addictions, self-sabotage and
lack of motivation. The therapeutic goals of NLP include self-esteem and
self-worth; conflict resolution, confidence and self-assuredness; balance and
centeredness and safety and intimacy.
Use of NLP practices also relieves impulsivity, increases the capacity for
self-reflection which decreases behavioral disinhibition, teaches how to improve
memory and concentration, and increases serenity so the ADD feelings of not
being comfortable in one’s own skin disappears. Furthermore, long-standing
family/relationship problems so characteristic of ADD are ameliorated though
learning about other people’s "model of the world" and empathizing with it.
Other rapport building and communication skills can resolve long-standing
conflicts with other people. NLP is, essentially, a pathway to enhanced
"executive functioning" by imprinting life-skills that decrease the individual’s
sense of chaos, fear and low self-worth.
What is Eriksonian hypnosis and how does it help with ADD symptomology?
This skill is based on the revolutionary work of Milton Erickson, the founder
of modern-day hypnotherapy. Through the use of trance-states (which are nothing
more than states of deep relaxation), the hypnotherapist helps the client
identify the ways in which he has been "programmed" to think, act and feel and,
through communication with the unconscious, learns how to free himself from
unwanted limiting habits and beliefs. In this way the client creates more richly
rewarding choices.
Hypnosis teaches how to effectively and efficiently direct thoughts,
feelings, language and behavior to achieve more effective and more rewarding
personal and professional outcomes. Trances can put people in states of deep
relaxation to alleviate the anxiety and restlessness associated with ADD, can
allow the unconscious to find creative solutions to problems and unwanted
states, can increase memory and concentration, establishes an embedded sense of
time management and organization, can help with motivation and procrastination,
can help a person to become more reflective and less impulsive and enhances
self-esteem.
Dorothy Hayden, LCSW, is a New York-based psychotherapist who specializes in the scene, fetishes and sexual addiction. She received her M.S.W. from New York University and her psychoanalytic training at the Post Graduate Center for Mental Health. She can be reached at dhayden@nyc.rr.com
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