Educate, Don't Medicate...

Dangerous Solutions for Solvable Problems

“The responsibility of those given power and authority over children is to be helpful and patient to create a safe, nourishing environment to learn and grow. Our constitution dictates the protection of our rights to be free in our pursuit of happiness.

Certainly forcing toxic and addictive drugs upon children is neither nourishing nor productive of a child’s right to be the creative person they are. Surely its time to choose another way that respects a child’s rights“.

THE EDUCATE DON’T MEDICATE CHOICE Complimentary and Alternative Medicine Solutions to Reverse The Symptoms of ADD/ADHD Without Medication The Clear Minded Children’s Program Eleven Case Studies By Dr. Brian Sheen

Surely there must be another way - a first choice that has zero negative side effects. Fortunately there is AND it costs less while bringing about greater family unity and strength that can last a life time to help children function successfully in schools and life.

Currently there is an estimated eight million school children as young as four years old are daily being dosed with Ritalin (a methylphenidate), Adderal and other addictive, cocaine like toxic drugs. Common side effects include insomnia, loss of appetite, loss of creativity, depression and increased risk of suicide.

Children on these drugs have a higher occurrence of stunted growth, Tardive Dyslexia, Turrets Syndrome and Tics. Additionally, due to the social stigmas associated often with ADHD labeled children they are given the message that they are disabled (and often labeled as such by the U.S. Government to qualify for thousands of dollars in Federal Funds), defective and broken, making them more prone to escapism through illegal drugs as they get older.

For over twenty years I have stood by and watched with horror at how this massive drug experiment on our future generation mushroomed. I couldn’t understand why such extreme and dangerous options were chosen without attempts to change the method and system that was providing these educational failures. Over the past 12 years as other parts of the world shunned the use of medicating students, the United States had over an 800% increase in the use of drugs for school children. The U.S. uses over 90% of the world’s production of methylphenidates (Ritalin etc.) and anti-depressants. Our entire country has been hypnotized by a continuous onslaught of pharmaceutical ads targeting different colored pills to make our lives happier. It reminds me of how the cigarette industry brainwashed so many to think cigarette smoking would make us sexier, more successful and help us enjoy life more. Haven’t we learned our lessons from the tens of millions who developed severe life changing illnesses and the millions who died of cancer? Is this tragedy about to repeat itself? After watching this alarming rise of doctor prescribed drug use on many school children, I decided to take a proactive approach and use the techniques I had used successfully with adults for decades and adjust them to work with children and teenagers. In order to address the origins of the difficulities rather then "treating" the symptoms, I developed The Clear Minded Children’s Program (TCMCP). TCMCP takes a totally different approach to dealing with unfocused and highly energized children.

Please note that I do not call children hyperactive, I term them energized. Hyperactive has become a term that associates the natural energy a child can exhibit as a pathological symptom of an illness. This line of thinking turns the blessing of having an abundance of life force into a curse. Unlike diabetes or heart disease, here evidence supporting the diagnosis can be seen in a blood test or X-Ray, “ADHD” presently has no biological indicators. To treat it biologically,with potential dangerous medications should be considered as a last resort and not a first choice. (Until an objective method of testing is created to show specific biological markers that demonstrate this as a “disease“ all those so labeled should have this diagnosis“ deleted from their records).

A human’s nervous system is an intricate and constantly adjusting biological process that seeks to maintain homeostasis balance to ensure the survival of the organism. ADD/ADHD drugs like Ritalin etc.. can reduce blood flow up to 30% to the brain while reducing the amount of oxygen, nutrition and the metabolic rate. These medications cause “brain failure” as part of the brain stops functioning while the neurotransmitter system is over activated to compensate for this shutting down. It’s common to see this result in causing tics, tourettes syndrome, stunting of growth, irritability and insomnia. Imagine causing these effects on children as young as three! Surely this is a punishment that can destroy the rest of their lives. TCMCP enhances and optimizes the brain function building the body’s systems naturally to provide it increased strength and development. Through the constant ebb and flow of information from the seven senses - seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling, feeling and thinking, our bodies learn to adapt to our internal and external nvironments in pursuit of the maintenance of it’s existence. As the hunters and gatherers of yesteryear learned how to integrate the many influences they were faced with in their lives, our children today are also developing their neurological systems to deal with their experiences. We can not ignore the unprecedented speed of information and change that our current generation is exposed to. The fact that there are diverse responses to these influences is a testament to the creative intelligence our mind/body systems posses.

Perhaps more than anything we should view these children’s response as a message for helping our political, social, business and educational leaders to find new ways to create more flexibility, harmony and compassion in the plans they implement. This is why I view each child’s unique way of processing life energy and then provide a safe, non-drug solution to develop healthy and creative ways to utilize it. The Clear Minded Children’s Program addresses the root causes of “ADD”. Some of these causes are an untrained mind, misdirected education that suppresses creativity, acting out due to a stressed home environment, insufficient physical activity to discharge inner energy, a poorly balanced diet or something else.

EDUCATE DON’T MEDICATE We must teach children how to be happy in their bodies and environments; feeling their feelings them and learning how those feelings can help direct them accordingly in life. Drugging children merely masks the body’s needs and disassociates them from the mind/body feed back systems. To demonstrate this point let us look at a stomach ache. A stomach ache quickly tells you to stop eating what you’ve been eating or you’ll feel sicker. Our bodies communicate to us when we’re out of balance and need to make adjustments to get back into balance. Imagine if your stomach never told you when you’ve eaten enough! Our children can be strong and balanced rather than rugged and cut off from their body’s natural feedback system. If we numb children from what they are feeling, how do they learn the true result of their decisions and actions. Overpowering their systems with a potent and potentially dangerous, artificially created substances must be a last resort, not a first choice. TCMCP program is based on the principles of developing children’s strengths and transferring those skills to abilities that are not developed yet. Once children learn how to focus, relax, connect and make healthier choices, they thrive at school, at home and in social circles. They feel good about themselves and don’t walk around thinking they are cursed. I have observed and spoken with hundreds of children diagnosed as DD/ADHD. My observations have been formed from working with both parents and children. My research has clearly shown that labeling children with a disease because sometimes they don’t concentrate or are hyperactive, is FALSE science. These same ADD/ADHD children often sit three, four or five hours in front of a video game, TV or computer. Where’s the research that shows the biological imbalances this disease” causes? Should we start giving insulin to everyone who has a reaction to too much sugar thinking they’re diabetic? Of course not, you say, for that we would require a blood test first to check sugar levels, as injecting insulin can be dangerous!

Different conclusions as to the cause of ADHD/ADD could be deduced if these symptoms were understood as Attention Disinterest Decision. Who doesn’t fidget, get impatient or let their mind wander when they get bored or see no value to what they are watching or listening. Don’t we all get feisty and protest when we are forced to do something that we don’t find useful or fun? We’re creative, intelligent human beings, not programmed unfeeling robots!

I’d like you to consider a different interpretation of the facts: Whenever a child’s energy, interests and natural impulses are held inside or not expressed, this unexpressed energy causes an inner un-ease. Please check this conclusion with your own internal experience when your impulses are given an opportunity for release.

“THE EDUCATE DON’T MEDICATE CHOICE Since children are a voiceless minority without any authority, even over their own bodies’ voices, they are forced to change unwillingly. Since there has been no scientific evidence of the causes of “ADD” or “ADHD” , the prescribed, toxic drugs only affect existing symptoms and create new undesirable ones like insomnia, stunting of growth or depression! TCMCP addresses the underlying causes of the attention deficit through education, skill development, resolving harmful family conditions, training and validating what is right about these gifted children. There is no question that speed, uppers and other cocaine like stimulants can create artificial focus and energy and this is what Ritalin, Adderall and other methylphenidates do. The primary principle I began this program with was understanding that with dangerous “side” effects occurring in such a large percentage of students (often forty percent or more), I strongly believe that a safer way, at least as effective, should be considered first! I would love to compare side by side the results of TCMCP with those of long term medicated children. Recently a nineteen year old college student who has been on ADD medications since she was three years old (16 years!) came to see me. She was now taking Prozac to deal with the unwanted “side” effects of pulling out her hair her Adderal was causing (common side effects). When she heard I could help her be medication free she got excited to finally feel what her body was really like (although scared about the withdrawal symptoms from 16 years on speed). It is very common for children taking ADD/ADHD medications to be on two, three & four different medications in an attempt to relieve the long term effects the toxic drugs they are taking create. She already had tics in her face from her long term addiction: As she could only see me only once before returning north to school I suggested she begin TCMCP CD series. She quickly agreed and was very excited at the notion of being drug free. Later when her mother came to pick her up, her mother got angry she’d even considered being medication free as she declared this was an illness they both had (mom was also on medications for 16 years)! After doing a regression with this young lady it was obvious her mom used their “illness” as a defense against acknowledging the war like environment she placed her daughter in, as she and her husband were always yelling and screaming at each other, putting their daughter in the middle. By blaming her daughter’s imbalance on some pseudo-disease called ADHD (and one she said she was being treated for as well) she wouldn’t have to face the effects she and her husband caused. It was also apparent that the daughter was still in the midest of this war, even as the parents divorced 15 years ago as the mother used this “illness” to get financial assistance continually from her ex-husband. Drugging millions of school children with cocaine-like drug effects should be a last resort, NOT a first choice. Children need to have a clear mind and drug free body to build a productive future. These drug solutions cloud, mask and numb their minds poisoning them, while predisposing them to a drug dominated existence. STICKS AND STONES Most of us remember the rhyme “Sticks and Stones”. It reminds us that “names can never harm you”. Unfortunately in life, the experience of being called derogatory names does harm most people and can cause life altering consequences. The names many of the ADD/ADHD labeled children are given by other kids, teachers and parents are devastating. These labels include freak, idiot, Ritalin boy, pill pusher, trouble maker, learning disabled and anger management kid. It doesn’t take much intelligence to know any one of these labels is enough to harm anyone’s self image and therefore their ability to reach effectively into the world with confidence. A HEALTHIER SOLUTION I believe our attention should first be focused on the educational system itself. Schools should provide information that is relevant and useful. Any curriculum more than five years old must be updated. It’s time we stop cramming useless facts and figures into children’s heads to which hand held computers give them instant access anytime. Adults should help provide useful information on living in today’s service and information oriented era, while being willing to listen to the students on how to do this as they are the ones experiencing this. We should help students learn to think in new ways that enable them to sort through the flood of data to distinguish importance, priorities and relevance. A few examples would include: teaching children to obtain meaningful insights as to the causes and effects of events and history, while considering creative alternatives that could have changed the harmful outcomes. Doing an exhibit of projects, art, poetry, music, dance, theatre community service. Less fact memorization and more using what is being learned in focused and fun ways that create “joining” and shared interests. Helping children learn choices that can bring them inner peace is certainly more valuable than memorizing dates of what war started when. Understanding motivations for historical events, the effects of contrary belief systems and influences of vested interest groups can strengthen our children’s ability to reason, to evaluate and arrive at peaceful solutions that brings us together without dragging us in to a deeper conflict. Perhaps creating educational teams who work at their own pace to achieve a curriculums purpose can help students move in their natural rhythms and not get bored or feel rushed. It’s time to acknowledge – there must be a better way and giving dangerous medications to robotize our children only acknowledges that those educating have failed at being successful educators. This is a reflection on the incompetence of those in charge not on the children themselves. Our Approach The Clear Minded Children Program (TCMCP) helps families develop greater concentration, greater abilities to adapt their way of processing information in the world in useful and comfortable manners while learning to be able to function in a variety of life situations in a more coherent and productive way. Through meditation, yoga, bioenergetics, psychoneuro-immunology, hypnosis, neuro-linguistic programming, Quantum Psychology, Choice Therapy and other alternative modalities of transformation, my staff and I help children and their parents build and develop new abilities to relax, focus, participate and feel good about themselves. Children, parents and staff alike join in the goal to develop effective skills and be medication free! We believe today’s youth, combined with parental involvement, are smart enough to learn and change if they realize it is to their benefit. TCMCP capitalizes on people’s deepest desires to be free and happy, to feel inspired to live a fulfilling life in whatever way they choose without needing to take dangerous and toxic medications. A child’s mind is a proverbial blank slate when they enter this world. Like a computer they accept whatever input they are given without evaluation, as their programmers (family, friends, etc.) input their beliefs, values, attitudes and approaches. Consciously or unconsciously, they model themselves after their care givers and surrounding influences without the ability to analyze the quality of the information received. Substantial portions of this input comes in the form of fictional stories that are passed on from generation to generation without any thought given to what the metaphors mean and unconsciously begin to construct in a child’s mind. I’ve never understood why we sing a song to help a baby to sleep that invokes the imagery of rocking a cradle on a tree top whose “bough breaks” to have the cradle fall so “down will come baby cradle and all”. Visualize that in your mind and see if it comforts you and helps you to feel safe going to sleep. And don’t we all know someone - waiting for their knight in shining armor to come whisk them away from living in quiet desperation? When we remember that the ages between birth and five years old is the most active period of developing our core self, we can learn to be far more careful about the stories, home environment, and interactions between caregivers and children, aware that the child is using all their seven senses to mentally construct their self image and their perception of the world based on what they hear and see. Children are wonderful hypnotic candidates as they are trained to focus on the imaginary realms in video games, cartoons, movies and TV. Our job as caretakers of the next generation is to communicate positive and loving dreams with meaningful purpose to extend their creative and heart felt talents. The lessons we teach should help children access their own divinely given talents. TCMCP utilizes group sessions for the children and parents enrolled in the program. Small groups are created based on students energy levels and maturity. In these group sessions we do meditation, yoga, bioenergetics, masking, art, sculpting, play therapy, theatre, dance and singing to develop and encourage existing outlets of expression and discover new ones. All of these have now been put in a special CD series so anyone can learn to do this (go to www.clearmindedchildren.org). Our approach is simple: work with the generation of today to learn how they like to learn and express, while teaching parents/teachers how to pace the child’s energy to guide them both to be better focused, connected and able to make helpful and connecting choices. Pacing Is The Key Pacing is a process of building rapport by working in the rhythm and intensity level presented by the student. The preposterous idea that we artificially manipulate a students life-force to get them into the school system’s rhythm is not education but a process of domestication that one might do to an animal (though I’m sure effective animal tamers don’t even go to these extremes.) Do we really have an effective and relevant school system if it needs to drug eight million kids into submission? Frightenively (this number could easily double if Teen Screen is permitted to used (see appendix). We must keep in mind children don’t suffer from attention deficits, they suffer from Attention Dis-Interests from being forced to learn irrelevant, useless information in a confining jail like atmosphere. Every child I’ve ever met can spend hours playing sports, watching TV or instant messaging. They have all the attention they need when they are interested. Forced learning with the only purpose of passing some state based test like FCATS - is IRRELEVANT! Knowledge is not information, knowledge is a useful understanding of something that can be used to produce a result. Mobility and processing huge streams of information electronically and mentally to sort out the levels of importance are the major themes of our generation. It’s vital we all learn not to become overwhelmed with spam. Today it’s a world of mobile phones, MP3 players, satellite linked computers and WI-FI. Mobility must be integrated into our educational structures. Daily releases of energy are essential through PE, recess or creative classes done phonetically or with exercise. We need to UPDATE our learning system to recognize what IS and not try and force children into a system developed when NONE of the aforementioned inventions even existed! Perhaps Kahlil Gibran said it best when he said, in the Prophet “You may give them your love, but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls. For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you for life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday“. Through parental involvement a strong bond is built as both learn helpful new ideas and develop new abilities to work together as a supportive family unit. Pacing lets us learn from the next generation how they are learning to deal with this future shock that would make even Future Shock author Alvin Tofler and Megatrends author John Nasbeth gasp! The internet has changed the way we live forever…and it’s only a decade old! Educating children to move with the current flow of life and helping parents adjust is vital to obtain a balance emotionally and homeostasis physically. It’s imperative we keep the sixteen to twenty years of school education relevant. Because of the advent of the computer every five years there is more information generated than had been previously generated in the entire history of man! The internet is the best yardstick for this growth. Google any topic and you’ll quickly see this for yourself. We are leaping forward at the speed of DSL! THE PULSATION OF LIFE A foundation principal of the TCMCP is that when there is a build up of impulse within an organism that is not provided a healthy release, it builds anxiety, frustration, anger and depression. Soon the body-mind builds defensive armoring to either numb itself or cut itself off from feelings building in their body. Sometimes this pressure builds so high it is finally released in a rage that can be very destructive. I utilize much of the research of Dr. Alexander Lowen, in Bioenergetics to teach kids to feel their bodies and use them as a feed back mechanism for making better decisions. This is a great problem with people on psychiatric drugs as most recipients feel wooden, numb or disassociated from their bodies’ feeling. THE SCOPE OF THE BOOK "THE EDUCATE, DON’T MEDICATE CHOICE: Complimentary and Alternative Medicine Solutions to Reverse The Symptoms of ADD/ADHD Without Medication Using The Clear Minded Children’s Program

Eleven Case Studies

I have written this book to describe eleven specific cases focusing primarily on the child‘s process. Parental involvement will be discussed in detail. The first subject is “The Troublemaker”, a ten year old boy who had been taking Strattera due to an ADHD diagnosis. The second history is a twelve year Ellen who had been on both anti-depressants and methylphenidates and had a “devil” inside her. The third case study is Ken, an eight year old boy who was on Ritalin, Zoloft, Risperdahl, Strattera and finally Adderal. In Latisha and her unstoppable smile, your heart will be warmed and inspired. Jessie is the fifth case study subject. And an excellent one in which to see the intricacies of how a family’s dynamics contribute to a child’s mental state. Roslyn is the sixth case study who, although not completing TCMCP due to a continued unhealthy family situation, she was still able to achieve success in becoming medication free. The seventh story discussed is what I call “Richard and the Angry Tree.” This example shows the complexities of family systems. The history of Natalie and her “inappropriate” behavior demonstrates how well a high schooler can turn herself around. The Journey of Justin - whipped, broken and repaired will probably bring tears to your eyes as you read it. The report on Ricky and his new possibilities shows how even in loss, great gains can be made. In each case they were successfully weaned from their medication and given new skills to practice in order be successful and stay medication free. Lastly is the study of Harold - from D’s and F’s to straight A’s while experiencing the disintegration and the start of a new reformation of his family system. Through this entire book individual child or family names have been changed to protect the privacy of these families. The newly released Clear Minded Children’s Program CD series takes you through all the phases which are in these case studies and many more that aren’t in this report.

This is howthe book THE EDUCATE DON’T MEDICATE CHOICE Complimentary and Alternative Medicine Solutions to Reverse The Symptoms of ADD/ADHD Without Medication Using The Clear Minded Children’s Program Eleven Case Studies