Where Did I Leave My Keys?
Attention Deficit - Hyperactive Disorder - Alive and Well in Children and Adults

Have you ever noticed you keep forgetting where you put things? Or life seems to be rushing by in a flurry of activity? You are more behind with your list of "to do's" than you were yesterday? Do you have trouble following conversations, zoning out without realizing it? Or keeping things organized in your home or work place? Are you late for or completely miss appointments? Do you make decisions on a whim, easily distracted from what you said you would do that day?

If so, you might have a mild or moderate version of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) without realizing it. If it's affecting you, there's also a good chance your children have the same problem. School is starting and many parents are concerned about their children and their performance. If they have ADD/ADHD they have a much harder time concentrating and staying focused in class.

There is help now. We offer an ADD/Focusing Shield that literally pulls the energy back towards the core of your energy field, instead of allowing it to float 30 feet or more out from your center. Sounds strange when you think of it, I know. If you could see and compare the energy fields of people with and without ADD, you'd see that those with ADD have a very diffused energy field, and are literally "all over the place". The ADD Shield focuses the energy field and provides incredible assistance. Even if you have never been diagnosed, if you have any of the behaviors we list below you or your children may be helped by the ADD Shield.

Terry Matlen, MSW, ACSW, says estimates are that 5-7% of all school children have Attention Deficit Disorder, popularly known as ADD, or ADHD if there is a hyperactive component to the behavior.

Up until the mid-1980's, it was felt that this disorder would simply resolve itself as the child became an adult. We now know that simply isn't true. Over 4% of adults are suffering from ADD. You may have had undiagnosed ADD as a child, and now as an adult, your life is feeling out of control. In an excellent article , Ms. Matlen, briefly describes symptoms associated with adult ADD, and several resources for those who think they may have this condition.

Her list of symptoms includes:

• Distractibility
• Impulsivity
• Inattention
• Difficulty staying on task
• Having many projects going on at one time and rarely completing any of them
• Irritability

My Interest in ADD/ADHD
For more than twenty years, my specialty was the treatment of children with sensory processing disorders. Sensory Integration Therapy treats children diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, autistic, language impaired, and cerebral palsy children. One thing stood out in the hundreds of children I treated who were ADD/ADHD: they were overwhelmed with their environment. Just try to imagine not being able to turn the volume down on life - everything feels too loud, too uncomfortable, too "much". They are literally bouncing from one activity to another, unable to settle down and get anything accomplished, reacting to everything, unable to filter out what's relevant to the task at hand.

What's it like to be ADD/ADHD?
People who have ADD/ADHD write about the experience, at the extreme, they say it's like you are on a speeding train, jumping from one image to another, never able to focus long enough to get much done, or even understand what you are seeing. Dr. Halloway has written an article about ADD that sounds like either he has the syndrome, or has treated so many people with it, that he has a very good idea of the experience.

Dr. Halloway says the best way to help someone with ADD/ADHD is anything that turns down the noise. Getting a Shield will help. Here are some other practical actions that you can try.
� Just being diagnosed helps turn down the noise of guilt and self-recrimination.
� Build certain kinds of structure into one's life can help a lot.
� Work in small spurts rather than long hauls.
� Break tasks down into smaller tasks.
� Make lists.
� Get help where you need it, whether it's having a secretary, or an accountant, or an automatic bank teller, or a good filing system, or a home computer, anything that helps you stay on track.
� Apply external limits on your impulses.
� Get enough exercise to work off some of the noise inside.
� Find support. Get someone in your corner to coach you, to keep you on track.
� Medication can help a great deal too, but it is far from the whole solution.

The good news is that treatment can really help.

More Practical Suggestions from helpguide.org
� Practice some organizational skills: keep your appointments in one place - a calendar or appointment book; break up tasks into smaller steps and complete one step at a time - maybe using a timer to work in 10 or 20" spurts; be patient with yourself - it takes time to change
� Develop some social skills: listen intently without thinking of what you will say next; listen without interruption; think before you speak - others may be done with the conversation and you will know it if you watch their body language
� Seek support - see if there is an ADD support group in your town or online

The Story of the Two ADD/ADHD Boys and their ADD/ADHD Focusing Shields
In the early years of running this company, I struggled with some regret of having left a full-time job treating children. I knew how tough life was for them, and felt torn between my mission to share the Shield with others, and my earlier mission to help these kids. One day I received a call from the parent of not one, but two ADD/ADHD boys. She wondered if the Shield could help them. It bothered them so much that they had to be heavily medicated just to function somewhat normally. They told her they didn't like how they felt taking Ritalin because it dulls down everything and makes life feel blah and tired. At my request she sent me photos of the boys, so I could show them to our energy consultant.

If you aren't aware of this, you might be interested to know we work with a family of healers who have been born with the ability to see auras, i.e., energy fields around literally everything - be it people, plants, buildings, objects, etc. I asked one of the consultants, who I will refer to as Virginia F., if we could modify our Shield crystal matrix to help these boys "turn down the volume", i.e., reduce the amount of distractions that made it nearly impossible for them to focus on any task all the way to completion. She worked on this issue for several weeks, and at the end of the time, provided us with a crystal matrix that included additional gems in it that would specifically focus the energy of the person wearing that type of shield. She also told me that we needed to make them with the silver with gold tab style, not the brass tab style, because the gold was a better conductor of the energy from the matrix - and ADD is such a strong energy pattern that we needed to override it with a very strong shield energy. We made 2 of them and send them to the boys.

The boys responded quickly and positively to wearing these Shields. They loved them and said that they found it so much easier to focus on their work. They eventually reduced the amount of medication they took, which helped them feel more normal and alive.

The Bank Teller
We were in London doing a 10 day show. One day a young woman bought one of our focusing shields, claiming her job as a teller required huge concentration on her part, and she still made mistakes because she couldn't stay focused. So, off to work she went with her new focusing Shield. Two days later she returned to tell us that her "whole life had changed because of that Shield!. Wearing the Shield, she was able to stay focused and received compliments from her manager several times in 2 days. He was amazed, and quite frankly, so was she. It's amazing how great life felt for someone whose self-esteem had been low because of her ADD issues, and suddenly she was receiving compliments for her work.

Adults wearing the ADD/Focusing Shield
As time passed, we traveled to trade shows and gradually adults who knew they had a focusing issue started to try these Shields. Again, very positive reports returned to us - and this included people in tears of gratitude because life became so much easier for them. We eventually decided to make an all silver ADD/Focusing Shield for those people who felt they had an issue with focusing, but just couldn't afford the gold tab style. To this day, we still recommend the gold tab style, but if you feel you are mildly ADD/ADHD, you may find the all silver ADD/Focusing Shield to be very helpful.

As our culture has added the internet, TV, texting, cell phones, more people suffer from this problem due to the constantly bombardment of stimuli. In the coming months, I will address the ADD/Focusing issue with more information and suggestions.

Virginia Bonta Brown, Occupational Therapist
Founder, BioElectric Shield Company

Terry Matlen, MSW, ACSW, is a psychotherapist and consultant in Birmingham, Michigan specializing in AD/HD in adults. She is the author of "Survival Tips for Women with AD/HD ". Terry is the director of www.MomsWithADD.com, www.addconsults.com, and www.myADDstore.com. She is also the co-founder of www.adhdConference.com. A popular presenter at local and national conferences, Terry has a passion for raising awareness of the special challenges for women with AD/HD and the unique issues parents face when both they and their children have AD/HD

Order now