Client and Complaint

Asia's mother complained that she does not sleep at night. She was also diagnosed by her physician with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and is on medication. Her mother wants to get her off medication and find some ways for her to sleep at night. Her mother asks me - do you have any herbs that will help her sleep? Are there any herbs for ADHD?


Client Session Journal

I first told Asia's mother that, "Allah did not create any disease without also making a cure for it." However, herbal therapy is not the only step we take in natural healing. In natural healing there are three important factors we must always take into consideration:

The physiological "type" of the person being interviewed is necessary. In Asia's case she was a sanguine type, which has an inherent tendency to insomnia and ADHD. We needed to work with Asia's type rather than against it.

There also needed to be entire picture of the person's problems. In Asia's case she was asking for herbs for ADHD and insomnia. However, the two are related and she really needs only one herbal formula.

A person's health depends on their ability to fulfill their three basic needs of water, food and sleep. In Asia's case she was not getting enough sleep or water and although she was eating enough food, she was not eating enough nutrients.

Asia's physiological type was the sanguine type. This means that Asia had a tendency to be very sense oriented, inconsistent and active. Old medical texts used by Arab healers state that, "the sanguine temperament is marked by quick but shallow, superficial excitability". Even Winnie The Pooh explored the temperaments using Tigger as an example of the sanguine type. Asia was a sanguine like Tigger, and thus it was in her nature to want to explore everything, to enjoy all her senses and to want to be in constant motion. I gave Asia's mother a series of stories and exercises she could share with Asia to help her focus on experiencing stillness and focusing. Asia would need to cultivate these skills to become a well-adjusted sanguine. 

However, I also instructed her mother to make sure that she got plenty of "sense" time after and before school. Television and video games are a sanguine child's enemy as they use only one of the five senses and trap all the rest. This just makes them even more eager to explore the other four senses and leaves their senses feeling hungry or unsatisfied. The best free-time activities for a sanguine are in found nature - climbing trees, gardening, exploring the garden or being with animals or pets outside. In the winter, a sanguine needs plenty of sensual experiences indoors in a room with plenty of art supplies such as clay, wool, crayons, paper and scissors or with plenty of hands-on activities such as building blocks or Leggos®. I told her to keep in mind that the fewer outlets the sanguine has for their creativity, the more they will seek them and this often causes disruption in sleep or at school. It is often common for a sanguine person whose creativity has been stifled during the day to want to "stay up all night" to finish a project. It is also common for a sanguine child to want to play in school once they are "done with their work".

Asia's ADHD and her insomnia were most likely related. Studies show a strong relationship between lack of sleep and ADHD. In fact, ADHD children have a much higher occurrence of sleep disorders than children without the disorder. In fact, that some scientists are treating them as the same disorder: "There may be a common link - a dopaminergic deficiency in the brain that causes both the sleep disorders and the ADHD," said George Walters, who is also at the Lyons VA Medical Center, New Brunswick, New Jersey (Reuters, p. 1).

When we evaluated Asia's diet we found that her basic life needs were not being met. She did not drink enough water every day, she was a picky eater and preferred sweets and chips to her meals, and of course, she could not sleep. Insufficient water in the system causes poor distribution of nutrients in the body and a build up of toxins. The body is like a miniature mail delivery system. The nutrients put into it are the packages, the blood, lymph; water makes up the package delivery trucks as well as the garbage trucks to take away the waste of the package wrappings; and the cells are the receiving stations. Even if a person eats well, the delivery of nutrients is only really successful if there is a good delivery of the "merchandise". 

A dehydrated body creates a situation where only part of the nutrients are reaching their proper stations (the brain being sometimes the last to be delivered to since it is farthest from the source). It also creates a situation where toxins are not being "picked up by the garbage trucks." This situation can create a number of health problems. Asia was encouraged to drink six 6-ounce glasses of water a day (not juice, milk or soda) and was given stricter dietary rules. 

Of course, strictness is not a word any child likes. The diet I gave Asia included some of her favorite foods as well as the healthy foods she liked. However, she was limited as to how much and when she could have them. We planned a menu around Asia's favorite ten foods and allowed her favorite treats after lunch or after school as a snack. All "unhealthy snacks" were stored in a cupboard high above her head. Baskets of fruits and cut up vegetables were left out for her to grab as she wished. She was occasionally allowed to have some chips or a treat after breakfast if she was out with her mother, visiting a friend or at school. However, under no circumstances was she allowed any treats after dinner and before bed.

Asia was also tested for food allergies and it was found she was highly allergic to chicken and strawberries as well as to almonds and soy products. Her mother and I were surprised. More common allergens are milk, eggs, wheat and oranges. However, due to her test results Asia's mother made an effort to use her allergenic foods only once a week at the most.

I also created an herbal tea to calm Asia at night and I emphasized that this tea was not a substitute for learning good life habits. Asia was to first watch her diet, drink enough water and engage in the suitable balance of activities. At the same time she could use the tea as a catalyst to speed up the results of her "program". Her special tea had one part skullcap herb, two parts chamomile flowers, one part fennel seed, one part hops flowers and two parts catnip herb. She was to drink a cup after breakfast and a cup after dinner. She could also be given another cup during the day if she became too anxious. I also gave her mother the name of some resources where she could find these herbs in a glycerin tincture form for her child so if she did not like the tea she could just give her a teaspoon of the "liquid honey" two-three times a day. Since some of these herbs are difficult to find in some areas of the world, so I gave Asia's mother the option of using only one or two of the herbs if she could not find them all.

I also recommended that Asia be give some vitamins for a short-term benefit to her problem. Multiple B vitamins would help Asia with her stress levels and thus promote better sleep and better life management skills. Melatonin and Magnesium are often found lacking in children with ADHD and sleep disorders so I also suggested she supplement with a child's portion of each of these minerals once a day. Asia was to take her supplements after breakfast.

I created an aromatherapy oil for her to bathe in or use as a rub she seemed to be very anxious at night or unavoidably consumed some "treats" or allergenic foods. Her mother was to always use this oil in a calm environment with dim lights, soft voices and/ or music so as to impart a "Pavlovian" reaction to the scent. Over time, if a person relates a scent to a certain atmosphere, all they must do after that is smell the scent and they will "be there". Many studies have shown that the sense of smell is the strongest and most powerful sense we have. Her bath oil was simply five drops of german chamomile oil in ¼ cup of milk added to a warm bath. A large cup of chamomile flowers could also be tied in a muslin bag or cheesecloth and soaked in the tub with her. Asia also carried a handkerchief scented with chamomile that she could smell when she felt she needed to calm down.

Asia's mother was attentive and followed all my suggestions. However, the modifications in diet took them over a year. At the end of that year, Asia was no longer labeled as an ADHD child. However, even after a month, Asia had made so much improvement that she started to wean herself from the medication and was completely medication free by the end of the second month.


Sources: 

Packer, Leslie, PhD. "Sleep Disorders" Tourrettes Website. December 23, 2000. 

Reuters. "Sleep Disorder Rx Helps ADHD." Reuters. April 30, 1998.