Several doctors now are saying that ADD/ADHD as a disease does not exist. Is that your feeling as well?

You could say that about any psychological diagnosis, right? Because it’s describing a non-organic situation. It’s describing a set of symptoms. So you could make that argument with any psychological diagnosis.

So ADD and ADHD are psychological versus organic.

Yes, although there are many medical researchers who say they are on the trail of looking at neurochemistry that is different in ADD. But it’s a chicken-and-egg question, isn’t it? I mean, which came first, the unusual synaptic responses or the behavior causing those or the diet causing those? What frightens me is the label. Just on Saturday, I was giving a workshop in Nevada, and a man came up to me and said, ‘’Oh, I’m ADD.’’ What I don’t like is when people swallow the diagnosis and then start identifying themselves as that’s what they are. So if a child says, ‘’Oh, I’m ADD, I’m ADHD,’’ instead of saying, ‘’Hi, I’m Robert, it makes it more difficult to let go of those patterns, in my opinion.

Somehow, I was under the impression that there was a clinical, chemical malfunction, but there isn’t, right?

Well, there’s promising research, but my point is—it’s a chicken-and-egg, not a cause-and-effect, result of these studies. You can say, ‘’Yes, there’s a different amount of dopamine in a child who is ADD,’’ but is that the cause of ADD or the result? That’s why I don’t want to look at that research and say this is the answer. Does that make sense?

Yes, I can understand that. Because what if we could automatically transform our world into a different school system and a different parenting mode? What kind of behavior would you get from these children?

Are you familiar with the Waldorf schools? Waldorf wrote volumes and volumes on parenting and raising children naturally. At these schools, you aren’t seeing ADD or ADHD. What you are seeing instead is cooperation and adjustment. The children are treated on a holistic basis. It’s all natural foods. There’s a lot of creative outlets for the children. They get hugs every day and are in smaller classes. It’s very nurturing. If my kids were young, that’s where they’d be going.

So you have a center that you are developing in the future?

Yes, we’re developing an outpatient center in Southern California; one initially, and then we’ll see if we are going to have satellite offices.

The goal for this would be what?

It would be treatment, number one, and number two, research.

Treatment of…?

Treatment of children who seem to be causing problems at home, who in our opinion are Indigo Children. So there would be family treatment educating the parents about alternative ways to deal with problems with their children, and providing supportive counseling for the children so that they will feel better about themselves and not feel judged or that they are different. Also, we would teach them skills to cope with peers who are aggressive.

Well, what can a person do who is not able to get to your center? Obviously there seem to be thousands and thousands of these situations. I’ve seen some of these kids and they are absolutely wild.

Yes, they are.

And their parents are just red-eyed, strung out and…

Well, the first thing to do is not procrastinate, thinking it will just go away with time. It is so much easier to treat this when the child is young, rather than waiting until they are in their preteens or teens and you just don’t have as much space or control. The first thing is that while the child is at home, parents can have a tremendous impact. Parents often downplay how much they can influence a child versus the school system or a childhood friend. The first thing I always teach the parents is that they must be honest with their children. You have to do this in a balanced way so that you are not burdening the child as if they are your confidant. But if Mom and Dad are having marital problems, they can’t lie about it. You can’t lie that Daddy’s a practicing alcoholic. The children feel when there are problems in the house, and if they are lied to and told, ‘’Oh, no, no, everything’s fine,’’ it bombards their central nervous system.

The second thing is, you have to provide creative and exercise outlets for these children.

A third thing we’re finding, based on studies done on violent criminals, is that aggressive people very often have vitamin and mineral deficiencies. So the first thing is to clean up that diet. And I don’t care how much the kids whine. From parents, I’m hearing, ‘’Oh, my kid will hate me if I take away cheeseburgers.’’ Well, you have to take away cheeseburgers, but replace them with veggie burgers or free-range, hormone-free meats.