ADHD Thrive Institute

LazaroFilm@lemmy.world to ADHD@lemmy.world – 29 points –

My wife brought ADHD Thrive Institute to our attention to help with our child (and me). We spoke with them over the phone but I’m getting a bad feeling about it, it feels very sales-y with their 3 step program, and they own brand of supplements etc… has anyone had experience with it?

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I was diagnosed nearly 30 years ago and have never heard of that place, if they are selling their own alternative treatment I would stay away. Best case they are just grifters, worst case it’s some crazy alternative medicine cult. The only people you should seek treatment from are doctors, psychiatrists and neurologists.

Edit: After briefly scanning over that website I’m even more sure it’s sketch. If you don’t already have a specialist for treatment you should talk to your general practitioner, ask for a referral

Agreed. I had a serious bad feeling about it but I promised my wife I’d ask my “ADHD group” about it.

I’m sure she’s just trying to help, which is one of the things that make groups like that are so potentially dangerous.

This is the correct answer

Good luck, man, avoid those scammers.

It would feel rather strange to pay for something like this when you can instead pay for actual adhd meds that demonstrably help most people

As for supplments, i would never buy anything particularly fancy, there's not much you can do to improve a nutrient pill.

Anywhere that sells both advice and supplements is suspicious. True advocacy and medical organizations rarely sell their own supplements. If it's a legit place it will sell you advice and let you buy your own meds elsewhere. Even the optometrist and the veterinarian will give you a paper prescription to buy elsewhere.

I recommend finding a neurologist who deals in ADHD. They are shockingly common and way easier to deal with than psychology and psychiatric practices, in my experience. Neurologists treat it as the neurological difference that you can medicate and cope with, not a mental illness or inadequacy. Such a refreshing experience!

If you have to be convinced something isn't a scam you should avoid it.

I will preface with the honesty that the people at that "institute"lack; I'm not a medical professional. I'm very good with philosophy, though, so I generally have a good bullshit detector.

I took a look at the website. These people are quacks and actively harmful. There was a self-described "doctor" that was accredited by the same scam company of "alternative medicine" back in 2003 that killed a kid with bone cancer by giving him an infection from the injections of 'treated' blood. They collect all these bullshit "certifications" to make it seem like they're legit, many of them might even legitimately believe this bullshit. First red flag for me was seeing them trying to treat ADHD(a neurodevelopmental disorder) primarily through nutrition. Then I'm seeing buzzwords like "treating ADHD naturally", fake ass degrees from places like some quantum holistic school of alternative medicine or whatever, and loads of meaningless "coaching" certifications like "epidemic answers health". I won't mince words; these are predatory shitheads that actively harm people with their made up bullshit. Stick with legitimately licensed professionals and adhd coaches. You should even be careful with adhd coaches and keep in mind the primary premise of them being supplemental to psychiatry and therapy.

Unfortunately, I'm quite familiar with evil predatory grifters that start shit like this. I've found in my own experience that many of these programs tend to start as corporate seminar pageantry that move the grift into the medical field. I have all the disrespect in the world for the assholes that start this bullshit since they actively make the world a much worse place and demonstrably KILL people with their intellectually dishonest bullshit.

By all means, don't take my word for it. Read the about section for these assholes and look up the programs they display as their accreditations. If you have any questions or objections about my assessment of these people, please ask and I will provide my evidence. These are bad people and I'm 100% ready to die on that hill 1,000 times out of 10.

Adding on to this: if you've had negative experiences with psychiatrists in the past, first off, do not let NPs be the primary managers of your care, and secondly, consider seeking out a DO physician psychiatrist. I'm currently a DO student, and while the medical education is equivalent to an MD program, the philosophy is more "person" oriented than "patient" oriented. There's a strong emphasis on treating your patients as whole people and taking advantage of the body and mind's abilities for self-regulation and healing. A DO will absolutely prescribe medications when necessary and DO's are not "holistic" quacks, but they do have more emphasis in their training on helping you find non-chemical solutions if medication is not the best answer to the question or if you are hesitant about medication.

You should ask on the adhd subreddit. You will touch a larger audience. Then fighting "naturally" adhd sounds wrong to me. Sure, it is possible that some diet helps to lower it. But at end you deal with brain chemicals. So "natural" way to improve this sounds weird.