ADHD with Anxiety, Worry, Hypervigilance
Nervous, Anxious, Hypervigilant, and ADHD
Piglet is a great friend, but sure scares easily...
Piglet is that small, almost frail character from the Hundred Acre Wood. He is a great friend, and very loyal.
But he is always worried, nervous, and startles easily . Sometimes he is so nervous that he stutters. So it is with some kids with ADHD.
This style of ADHD is very similar to the Rabbit style, except that with "Piglet style" the child's mid-brain is so over-aroused that the child is hypervigilant and very easily startled.
He may be talking all of the time, and is probably touching everything in the room. And, this child is nervous or worried, or anxious. He has trouble shifting attention from one activity to another, and he frequently "gets stuck" in loops of negative thoughts.
He can be obsessive, and very inflexible.
In this type of ADHD some stimulants, and too much use of L-Tyrosine to increase dopamine production can actually make the problem of over-focus worse. So be careful.
Alternative Treatment Strategies for Piglet style ADHD
- For best results use our Eating Program along with the nutraceuticals recommended below. But don't use as much caffeine in the protein shake as we recommend for other situations.
- We also strongly recommend using Essential Fatty Acid supplementation (Omega Oils) while using the nutraceuticals below.
In addition, we recommend for Anxious, "Piglet" style ADHD the following for adults. Children can take less:
- ATTEND for ADHD symptoms, take 2 capsules per day
ATTEND contains GABA, DL-Phenylalyne, Ginko, Pycnogenol and Grape Seed Extracts, 5-HTP, pregnenolone, DMAE, and more.
See the ATTEND ingredients list here.
- EXTRESS for symptoms of impulsivity, temper, restlessness, and anxiety take 4 or more capsules per day
EXTRESS contains GABA, DL-PA, 5-HTP, and St. John's Wort.
Together these two products give the best combination of homeopathic medicines, amino acids, vitamins and minerals, essential fatty acids, lipid complexes, and more, for the alternative treatment of Piglet style ADHD.
Order ATTEND and EXTRESS here on the secure shopping cart directly from the manufacturer - online. Adjust the quantities of the products according to your needs.
Or phone VAXA directly at 1-800-248-8292 during business hours on the east coast. They are located in Florida. Ask for Daniel, the supervisor in customer service. He is a friend who will give you great service. Tell him that Dr Cowan said "hello."
When you order directly from the manufacturer (VAXA International), either online or by phone, you get the freshest product (it hasn't been sitting in somebody's garage for a year or so), which means that the product will be the most powerful available. The order is professionally processed and shipped out to you quickly. Plus you get VAXA's 1 year money back guarantee!
Try Attend Risk Free! VAXA offers a great guarantee of satisfaction. Attend either works for you, or you get your purchase price back. See the details of their money back guarantee here.
Blood Test for Anxiety Disorders?
When the Detroit Tigers placed pitcher Dontrelle Willis on the disabled list last Sunday (3/29/2009) with the diagnosis of "anxiety disorder" it was very interesting to me for two reasons:
First, because my nephew Casey Fien was trying to make the Tigers as a pitcher and we had just recently returned from a trip to spring training to follow the Tigers and watch Casey pitch (Casey was just assigned to AAA Toledo a few days ago), and we have started following the Tigers very closely; and
Secondly, because of the reports that although Willis had not reported any symptoms of an anxiety disorder, he was diagnosed solely through the results of a blood test, according to news reports.
I must confess that I had never heard of a blood test for anxiety disorder, so I began looking around the internet for information to see if this was true, or if the Tigers were just trying to find a reason to put Willis on the DL so that they wouldn't have to pay all of the $11 million owed him for this season.
Here is what I discovered, and it may be helpful to you if you or your child with ADHD also has symptoms of anxiety, panic, rigid thinking, or OCD...
While WebMD doesn't know about any blood tests for anxiety disorder, they write: "Although there are no laboratory tests to specifically diagnose mental illness, the doctor may use various tests to make sure something else isn't causing the symptoms. If no other illness is found, you may be referred to a psychiatrist or psychologist, mental health professionals who are specially trained to diagnose and treat mental illnesses."
Our local family practice doctor doesn't know anything about a blood test for anxiety disorders either.
However, over three years ago (January, 2006) a research team from Hebrew University in Israel announced the development of a blood test for anxiety disorders. The blood test looks for abnormally high levels of the neurotransmitter Acetylcholine (ACh) by measuring the levels of related enzymes. According to the website, "(the) team found more than a 90% correlation between people who were diagnosed with higher than usual anxiety by a psychologist and people with abnormal AChE, BChE and PON levels."
The entire 2006 article is here: http://www.isracast.com/article.aspx?ID=45 and it is worth the read. There is also a 2005 report on the research here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=47
Hebrew University, through Yissum Research Development Company, which is the technology development company of the University, then applied for a patent on the blood test in April of 2006. They were just awarded the patent on February 24, 2009, which would mean that the test would be commercially available soon if not already.
The patent award is here: http://www.pharmcast.com/Patents200/Yr2009/Feb2009/022409/7494783_Anxiet... and it gives very detailed information about the test. How do you buy stock in this?
As of March, 2007, the University of Iowa was also developing a blood test for anxiety disorders based on the genetic profiles of individuals that they hoped would be commercially produced. Their study was publishes in the American Journal of Medical Genetics, and according to reports, "The team compared gene expression in lymphoblasts (immature white blood cells) culled from 16 participants with panic disorder and 17 participants without the disorder. The study found many genes were more expressed in people with panic disorder than in people without the condition. Similarly, the study found many genes were less expressed in people with panic disorder."
The entire 2007 article is here: http://psychcentral.com/news/2007/03/06/blood-test-for-panic-disorder/66...
Other blood tests focus on thyroid functioning and adrenal levels, both of which, if not functioning correctly, can cause anxiety related symptoms.
It will be interesting to see what 2009 will bring in the development of improved technologies to diagnose and treat anxiety disorders, as it will be interesting to follow the career of Dontrelle Willis. We wish him well.
ADHD and Anxiety - our old page
Worry and ADHD
This is our old page on this type of ADHD.
Please see our new page on "worry" "anxiety" and ADHD.