How gut-health and food sensitivities relate to ‘ADHD’

As before, I’m going to tell you about a case that might give a peek into my world.

I don’t choose the most successful ones, just typical and interesting stories.

Today’s is about F who was 12 when she came. She had ‘derealisation’ which had been going on for a few months.  She’d always been a bit anxious, but not to a terrible level. She’d had some psychology help for poor sleep, but it didn’t really help much.  This depersonalisation stuff had been getting worse. The only other thing was she’d had slow bowel function and some constipation for years.

So, most would see this as part of her anxiety picture and maybe offer anti-anxiety drugs, and I definitely considered that. The other diagnosis to consider might be what used to be called temporal lobe epilepsy, but it did not have a strong flavour of that. But, in my usual nosey way, I wanted to know a bit more about her metabolic set up.

Early on we spotted she had cow’s milk sensitivity and yeast excess in her gut. She then vanished for three years and re-presented with more anxiety and continuing abdominal symptoms. But, she’d been much better and less ‘spaced’ since our earlier work led to her avoiding milk.

Further tests showed she had a lot of other possible food sensitivities and really imbalanced gut bacteria (flora). She went on a restrictive diet for a bit which improved things, but exhaustion was an issue. Work on her diet followed, then some psychological anxiety work.  Slow progress, but struggling with concentration at College where she was by this time. So this was when we did introduce some stimulant ADHD meds in a low dose, and they helped.

Now she uses that intermittently as needed, and continues work on her diet and gut health. It’s ongoing, but it is very clear that her gut and brain states are very linked. She is certain that the turning point was the discoveries of her food sensitivities and reactions. As am I.

Today’s messages: Despite earlier research that food and ADHD (type symptoms…more on that another day) aren’t related, they can be. Work on gut and similar things can reduce the medication needs that go alongside. We are sure her intermittent use now would not have been effective without the other work first. Looking at the whole picture makes more sense than looking at just bits.