A Non-Medicinal ADHD Treatment

One method Dr. Weaver uses to treat his clients with ADHD is Cognitive Dissonance Therapy. This is a simple and elegant therapy that creates a dualism in the client's mind between the disability and the person. Through creating a persona for their disability, people with ADHD are able to view the disability as the antagonist in their life undermining their efforts to be more attentive, organized and productive. Likewise, they create a protagonist to represent their selves fighting to overcome the effects of this disability. For example, people have created antagonists such as Cruella deVille, Darth Vader or Dr. Doom, and protagonists such as Ariel, Yoda or "Eggplant" -- they can be whatever one wants as long as it keeps him or her focused and motivated. The dissonance between the two different identities detaches the problem from the person.

Next, the person begins to recognize the characteristics of their antagonist -- what makes this character so powerful and what negative influences need to be fought with new and effective strategies to change and better control their own behavior -- such as: Darth Vader makes the person sit on the couch when he should be doing homework, and that the antagonist is most powerful when the client is bored. The person with ADHD then develops strategies that the protagonist can use to stop the antagonist, such as to break down a task into tiny tasks and then put all of one's energy into completing each one of those tiny tasks, one at a time. Through the internal conversations that are created because of these two characters, the person with ADHD has an easier time changing and controlling the effects of his disability.

Dr. Weaver teaches Cognitive Dissonance Therapy through one-hour weekly therapy sessions. He says that usually after 4-6 sessions, the client sees improvement in their ability to address and overcome the symptoms of ADHD. ​