Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, your source for science, psychiatry, and social justice.

Hello, and welcome to the first Mad in the Family podcast. I'm Miranda Spencer, editor of Mad in America's Parent Resources

section. Today we're going to talk about a different approach to helping children with

behaviors that often get labeled as ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

That's the kid who can't sit still, who disrupts the classroom, who has trouble concentrating, who never seems to complete tasks, and who can be very impulsive.

Our guest is Dr. Craig Weiner, a licensed psychologist based in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he specializes in the treatment of children, adolescents, and families.

In addition to over 30 years of private practice, he is an assistant

professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of

Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Weiner is the author of three books, most recently,

Parenting Your Child with ADHD, a No-Nonsense Guide for Nurturing Self-Reliance and Cooperation.

Earlier this year, he debuted his three-part video series, ADHD, a Return to Psychology,

which appears on the Mad in America website and also on YouTube.

Today we're going to have him summarize the approach that he talks about in the videos,

which is a new way of looking at ADHD-type behaviors and steps the parents

can take to help their children, which he says are more effective than the standard

medicalized treatments. Welcome.

Uh-huh.

So let's look back a bit to get started. How did you come to be interested in ADHD in your psychotherapy practice?

And when did you realize that the standard way of viewing ADHD type behaviors was problematic?

Well, I did a postdoctoral program at a youth guiding center, so many of my clients were

diagnosed with ADHD.

And I had been trained in a more classical way

...