Remember that in mental health diagnoses, the label is a description of the presenting behavior, not a sound analysis of the causes or drivers of that behavior. In a sense, it leaves you no further ahead…or behind. It just describes what is, on the basis of a specific list of criteria.
This does not change your course of action, which should be to continue to pinpoint the drivers that underlie the presenting behaviors and challenges. We want to look at the development and organization of the brain itself, which is addressed by NeuroDevelopmental Movement®. We want to consider inflammation in the brain, which is caused by inflammation in the gut in response to allergens, overuse of antibiotics, ibuprofen, and other medications; we want to check the child’s neurotransmitter levels, which can be done in several places, one being Neurogistics at neurogistics.com. We want to look at possible underlying viruses or infections in the system; we want to consider Lyme disease, PANDAS, parasites. We want to consider environmental allergies to synthetics, to cleaning products, scents, etc.
A diagnosis does NOT mean that your child must proceed along a specific growth trajectory, but it’s simply a way of describing presenting behavior. The future is still an open possibility if you are looking at underlying causes of that presenting behavior.