Issue #8

2000

By Mary Ellen Dunbar

I am not a practitioner. I have a corporate/entrepreneurial background. About 9 years ago I found myself in a situation with a teenager who had been scientifically diagnosed as having ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and Conduct Disorder. Traditional medicine wasn’t working and I wasn’t satisfied with the answers the professionals were giving me. As a result, I was referred through a friend to a Complementary Health Care practitioner and over the course of the next 8 years explored almost every complementary treatment that was available. I did research here and in the United States and was determined to have a success story for both of us.

The research was extensive, it included talking to people who had had success with particular treatments, contacting associations and speaking to experts in particular fields, reading published journals, books, magazines etc.

What I learned was that each of us is different physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and each individual reacts differently to different stressors in their environment. There was not one solution to the situation. We quickly came to the understanding that the treatment that was right for my son or myself may not be right for someone else and what worked for someone else may not work for us. Each treatment we tried moved us forward to the next. Each one provided its own level of success.

The most critical of all was that there was CHOICE and I was free to pursue whatever treatment I intuitively felt would benefit each of us.

As I found on my quest there are volumes of information available on Complementary Health Care from many sources and included in those sources you will find many success stories. Those success stories happen when individuals do their own research, make their own choices and pursue treatments that they believe are right for themselves personally. In doing this they take charge of their own well being and it is as a result of this that so many of these success stories have occurred. It is where ours occurred.

Today, the teen is an adult and happily employed. His behaviour created a major learning opportunity for me and resulted in significant personal growth as he pushed every button I had and some I wasn~t even aware of until I reacted. I thought in the beginning it was about him. Today I understand that it was more about me and my quest for wellness and success. Now that he is an adult it is up to him to pursue his own quest while I continue mine.

Mary Ellen Dunbar is the Creative Director of the Canadian Holistic Health Group

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