ADHD Symptoms or Low Latent Inhibition or Conditioned Attentional Avoidance?

From the moment a child is diagnosed with ADHD of any type, parents begin to research. Nobody wants to medicate their child, but for some, there appears to be no alternative. We seem to make progress one day and have it taken back the next. My situation is no different. A few years ago my youngest child was diagnosed with ADHD, primarily the inattentive type. Through changes in nutrition and brain exercises he seems to be on the right track, but is still underachieving in school. He shows no signs of ADHD symptoms at home, but his grade 6 teachers tell us he is inattentive in class and has become a little defiant, often ignoring direct instructions.

I came across some intriguing and enlightening information during my latest round of ADHD research. For instance, Low Latent Inhibition appears to me almost identical to ADHD PI. A person with reduced capability to ignore the constant stream of incoming stimuli is thought to have Low Latent Inhibition. Are children getting labeled with ADHD when the description should be Low Latent Inhibition or perhaps they are one and the same?

On my quest for the difference between ADHD PI and Low Latent Inhibition I found myself at one of Dr. Lawrence Weathers’ websites where there is plenty of information on what Dr. Weathers says is the cause for ADHD. Dr. Weathers describes what causes ADHD in children in great detail using sound logic and psychology. His Conditioned Attentional Avoidance Loop Model suggests that ADHD behavior could be the child’s own mechanism of avoiding stressful situations. In short, the child conditions himself to avoid stress by using inattention or even hyperactivity. The child finds math class stressful so he or she disappears into the world of his imagination or acts out to avoid the stress and avoid the class. It’s classical conditioning; only the child is conditioning him or herself to avoid stress. Could a stressful situation spawn ADHD symptoms much the same way as a traumatic event and cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Dr. Weathers’ theory of Conditioned Attentional Avoidance explains why a child with ADHD can play complex challenging video games for hours, and show no ADHD symptoms. In my case, his theory explains why my child does his homework without supervision and show no ADHD symptoms, while he apparently struggles with attention in class.

If Dr. Weathers’ theory is correct should there be a resolution to ADHD that involves psychological therapy? Dr. Weathers’ resolution involves reconditioning the child to longer feel stress or negative emotions when they think of school. From what I have read, the child is placed in a soundproof isolation chamber or CAER (Computer Aided Emotional Restructuring) and while the child is asked to think of his stressful experiences in this calm, tranquil place, his negative emotions towards school are replaced with positive emotions he feels from the soundproof chamber. In theory, the child will then think of the stressful experiences and remember the nice feeling he had in the CAER machine, thus eliminating the tendency towards inattention or hyperactivity.

Is there an easier way to implement this reconditioning to see if this Conditioned Attentional Avoidance Loop theory is sound? The skeptic in me doesn’t want to pay for a magic elixir that may not work.

In comes the work of Dr. Alain Brunet and his work with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder patients. Dr. Brunet asks the patient to write and read a transcript of the event that is causing the PTSD while under the influence of the non-selective beta-blocking drug ‘propranolol’. The patient returns once a week to read his or her own transcript of the event while taking ‘propranolol’. After five weeks, the patient begins to disconnect the traumatizing event from their emotions and no longer suffer from PTSD.

If Dr. Weathers’ theory is correct in that, ADHD is caused by the child’s avoidance of a stress, then the child should respond in a positive way to treatment similar to Dr. Brunet’s treatment for PTSD. I am not suggesting we drug our children with ‘propranolol’, but perhaps we could attempt to alter the child’s perception of the stressful situation by having the child discuss the issue while in a suitable enviroment, perhaps while they are playing their favorite video game. If we can alter the child’s emotions towards the classroom, we should see a change in the child’s Conditioned Attentional Avoidance.

Children are labeled with ADHD as a result of a questionnaire filled out by a parent and a teacher. We need to find out what ADHD is and determine how to respond to it. Is ADHD another term for Low Latent Inhibition or is it the result of a Conditioned Attentional Avoidance Loop? It seems to me that while doctors make money prescribing drugs or selling books and treatments, we as parents are left confused. We need a diagnosis that doesn’t involve a questionnaire and treatment that involves understanding. In the meantime, I see no harm in attempting to recondition the response of the ADHD child to the classroom from avoidance to engagement in an attempt to see if Dr Weathers theory is correct. Any comments or help would be most appreciated.