Hi. I’m a first time poster who was diagnosed with ADD at the age of 14 and at that time my mother refused to have me placed on Ritalin. I am now 28 and I am looking for a natural remedy to help with my concentration. I have led a fairly successful life; however, when I have to do something that is not interesting I procrastinate until the deadline and then freak out and rush to accomplish the task. I am also afraid when driving. I frequently zone out and go into autopilot mode in the car. I’m worried that someday I’m going to hit someone while my brain is vacationing in la-la land. Has anyone had any luck with herbal treatments?

Thanks!
Christa

I know just what you mean, the procrastinating, the zoning out...

I tried Ritalin recently but even though it helped me just enough at a very low dosage I did notice a slight increase in anger/aggression. When I was diagnosed with Essential Tremors I went off it completely, trying to get anything unnaturally stimulating out of my system.

I tried Ginkgo Biloba briefly and I liked it a lot. I had a lot of focus and energy with it. However, I don't know enough about herbal remedies to know how it interacts with other medications, or if there are any negative side effects. One of those herbs I just tried casually and researched later. (Not my most brilliant hour.) It's an easy google search, lots of info out there on it.

Thank you for the info! I am spending this morning researching different avenues of treatment. On a side note....I should be working at the moment, but this is me and my "productive procrastination." Just not productive in the area that I need to be focusing on.

you could try Emu oil...I sing it's praises a LOT!!! full of all the good omegas..3-6-9

L-tyrosine and L-phenylanine are two amino acids that are useful for two - three week periods, but if you take a week or so off, it'll help again, DMAE is another thing sold in stores to help focus.

I quit drinking coffe in the afternoon, I now have a cup of Yerba Mate tea. Yerba Mate gives you higher alpha but doesn't throw you into hectic beta like coffee does (I think that's the correct explination).
The one I like is organic orange blossom Mate by Guayaki and it tastes great.

coffee before noon. energy drink between 3pm-4pm (monster lo-carb). beer after 8.

omega 3 fish oil or prescribed lovaza omega-3 + vitamin C +vitamin E, and/or L-tyrosine

St johns worth. I found hypericine extract mainly working on dopamine, while hyperforin extract on serotonine.

The extract with mostly hypericin made me more focussed while the hyperforin made me more happy but spacyness