Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Regarding the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) condition, it comes with a series of differences in terms of learning processes, behaviors and motivation. People with ADHD easily lose their motivation completing their tasks, objectives, and homework.

When the attention deficit is predominant, they get bored quickly. At the same time, their ideas are numerous, original, and intelligent. Due to the ideational disorganization and the difficulties regarding the executive function, many of these ideas do not reach their true potential.

When the hyper excitability is predominant, the difficulties can be behavioral (the person is impulsive, he doesn’t stay still, is always looking or moving, fidgeting, constantly has something to do) and can be accompanied by sensory processing deficiencies.

It should be considered that these differences appear in the way dopamine – the reward hormone – reaches the areas of the brain responsible for pleasure and motivation.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Looking to ASD (autism spectrum disorder) we will see many different aspects from one individual to another. We can emphasize some particularities on these specific areas:

• Sensory processing difficulties
  -hypersensitivity (a person could be over responsive and needs a low level of stimulation on tactile, vestibular, auditory, visual and proprioceptive sensory systems) or hyposensitivity to stimuli (a person could be under responsive and needs a lot of stimulation on tactile, vestibular, auditory, visual, proprioceptive sensory systems)
• Sensory discrimination difficulties
• Social interaction
  -making eye contact
  -reading facial expression and social cues
  -using body posture and gestures
  -understanding emotional signals
  -building on reciprocity and understanding others feelings
  -initiating social activities

• Communication particularities
  -delay in verbal acquisition
  -difficulties in maintaining circles of communication
  -hard to be in listener perspective
  -focusing on self-needs

• Behavioral aspects
  -focusing on parts and pieces of an object or situation
  -having atypical preoccupations
  -in need for routines and predictability
  -acting through stereotypes in intense emotional moments (flapping, clapping, shaking objects etc.)

People diagnosed with ASD may be gifted with skills on math and music, drawing and artistic activities, spatial-geometrical thinking.

On a general and therapeutic level we can try to look and understand their individual differences and appreciate their unicity. It is valuable and respectful to treat them as a whole. We should follow strategies to help them regulate their emotions with the help of sensory stimulation exercises. It is helpful to join them in their world and interests, be curious and use affection, internal motivation, body language and sit on the same physical level.

Autism Spectrum: The Asperger Profile

Over time, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been described through several sub-classifications, including Asperger syndrome. These distinctions have often been debated, and in recent years Asperger syndrome has been removed from the DSM and ICD diagnostic manuals. Our use of the term here is not clinical but methodological. It allows us to highlight certain developmental differences that may appear in children, so that both in therapy and in play we can offer more tailored support and create meaningful experiences. This description is not meant to label, stigmatize, or exclude any group within the neurodiverse community. On the contrary, our aim is to foster self-awareness, improve communication, and strengthen relationships.

Children and adults with traits once described as Asperger syndrome often show a particular profile across several areas of development:

• Social interaction
  -low non-verbal communication
  -low capacity of making new friends
  -limited understanding of emotional cues

• Verbal language
  -high verbal intelligence and the use of a rich vocabulary
  -tendency to discuss about themselves in one-sided conversations
  -low reciprocal flow
  -tend to understand the language literally

• Other particular elements
  -fascination on specific unusual topics-awkward body language (posture, movement)
  -difficulties on motor-coordination (better on individual sports than in team sports)
  -difficulties in routines and transition
  -difficulties in handwriting

People with Asperger Syndrome have at least an average IQ and very often we can speak about giftedness with a sort of “savant-like” skills in their case. Also they have features of anxiety, depression and ADHD.

Learning Disabilities

Briefly describing this condition, we talk about some signs of learning disabilities:

• Often, a delay in the speech development
• Difficulties in fine and gross motor skills development
• Problems in following directions
• Difficulties In understanding complex instructions and various concepts
• Difficulties in fixing information (like letter and numbers) and literacy skills (like rhyming)

Emotional problems caused by divorce

Divorce creates a break in the ideal image of the family seen from the child’s eyes. It affects the basic beliefs of the child and the perfect life scenario, that contains the presence of both parents in unity and harmonious relationship. This split comes with a strong emotional content, especially if the child witnessed or was involved in a traumatic environment, verbally and physically violent, abusive, full of arguments and accusations, messages of blame and discredit, manipulation and narcissistic attempts.

The lack of support and sustenance, the failure to fulfill the needs of reassurance and emotional security, will lead to the child’s inability to process divorce and the separation from one of the parents. The future absence of the parent will be experienced as a wound of betrayal or abandonment. In these conditions, the child may suffer from depression, anxiety or may unconsciously choose to rebel against life through oppositionalism, school absenteeism and behaviors with a high degree of risk (addiction to games, drug and alcohol consumption).

Emotional problems caused by bullying

Bullying is an act of intentional aggression, of various forms and intensities, and manifests itself through name-calling that harms physical or moral traits, physical aggression, exclusion or ignorance and the posting of derogatory messages on social networks. Because they have low self-esteem, bullies will try to overcompensate the feeling of inferiority through hostility directed towards other children.

Some of the signs, subtle or obvious, that can announce the presence of an act of bullying, can be:

• The child who suffers from bullying can isolate socially, at school, in the family or in the group of friends.
• Low self-esteem is a medium or long-term emotional effect. This can come with the tendency to integrate into the self-image and to believe the insults, the malicious remarks, the ironies to which the child is subjected
• The increase of a continuous state of anxiety and internal agitation with externalizations such as looking down, body stiffness, tremors in the limbs, sweating of the palms. In the long term, psycho-somatizations (headaches or digestive problems) can be encountered.
• Changes of some parts of the personality, of the self-concept and of the physical appearance, intended to please the aggressors and bring acceptance and belonging.
• The appearance of spontaneous fits of anger and aggressive manifestations with the role of expressing the pain and injustice felt in the child’s contact with the individual or collective aggressor.
• Self-harm as a result of depression. This can have the function of releasing the tension and communicating the stress the child is facing.
• Other signs and symptoms, in a depressive state, could be loss of interest in hobbies and social life, lack of appetite, panic attacks, insomnia, general state of sadness and indisposition.

Eating disorder

Eating disorders are psychiatric conditions characterized by some pattern of behaviors like: restricting food intake, binging (rapidly consuming big amounts of food) and purging (eliminating calories through vomiting, laxatives, excessive physical exercises). They appear especially at early ages, in adolescence or in young adult period.

Eating disorders are about the way you eat, not only about the weight . However, most people who experience them are severely critical of themselves and the way they look. They are using eating to try to regain control of their feelings. Often, eating disorders are associated with trauma, anxiety, depression, bullying or a low self-esteem.

In particular the most common forms are anorexia and bulimia. In anorexia, people restrict the amount of food they eat. In bulimia, people recurrently binge and purge.

Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia is a disorder characterized by τηε intense fear and avoidance of places or situations (shopping center, marketplaces, crowded events) where escape might be difficult or where help not be available if something were to happen. Agoraphobia is often associated with panic attacks and it frequently appears after a first panic attack.

The causes can be anxious personality traits, traumatic events or a family history of phobias.

Agoraphobia is manifested by the fear of spending time in new spaces, the avoidance of specific social situations, the feeling of helplessness and  nervousness. At the physical level, the person can feel the acceleration of the heartbeat, profuse sweating, chest pain, tremors, diarrhea, facial flushing, dizziness and a feeling of suffocation.

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a condition characterized by an excessive desire and physical need to consume alcohol.

Alcohol is one of the most widely used psychoactive substances in the world (a part of different cultures for millennia). Long term use causes tolerance, which leads to increasing doses to achieve the same effect. In the absence of alcohol, withdrawal symptoms will appear to be painful and unpleasant on a physical level (nausea, vomiting, shaking, impulsiveness) and mental level (depression and on a chronic alcoholism even dementia). Over time, regular use of alcohol can lead to alcohol dependance with physical and emotional tolls on people’s lives.

The causes of alcoholism can be both genetic and environmental. Thus, the risk factors are linked to a history of consumption in the family, depression, trauma, social pressure and lack of family support.  Studies claim that an earlier onset of consumption increases the risk of addiction.

The symptoms are related to the inability to control the amount of alcohol consumed both socially and secretly, a strong need to consume alcohol, the conditioning of well-being by the presence of alcohol and giving up once important hobbies and activities in favor of alcohol.

In alcoholism, there is an active preoccupation with consuming alcohol, even if it affects one’s well-being. Drinking alcohol can have harmful consequences:  cardiovascular problems, gastrointestinal diseases, mental pathology, metabolic problems and cancer manifestation.