Total Load Theory: Transforming Lives in Autism, ADHD, LD, and Mental Health

About one in six children and many adults are diagnosed with neurodevelopmental disorders. What causes autism, attention, learning disabilities, and anxiety?

Patricia Lemer answers that question with a new paradigm: “Total Load Theory.” This etiology fingers not a single cause, but rather a complex combination of biological, environmental, immunological, neurological, psychological, and toxicological load factors.

Lemer provides an in-depth description of underlying stressors and how they accumulate, causing sensory, motor, language, social-emotional, and other symptoms, leading to a diagnosis. By applying this roadmap, families and practitioners can learn how to maximize function in their loved ones and patients.

Reversing poor lifestyle choices around diet, sleep, exercise, along with returning traumatized nervous systems to feeling safe are all crucial. Next steps include enhancing digestion, and immune and endocrine function. Lemer addresses the role of the sensory processing, with an emphasis on vision. She also looks at improving problematic dental structure and function.

The book moves into enhancing language and social-emotional areas at all ages. How these higher-level areas depend on neurological, biological, and sensory integrity are described in detail. The exciting new use of letterboards for communication can be life-changing.

Several chapters on future planning include options for education, supervised living, employment, and finances. The book ends with a chapter for prospective parents on reducing load factors from preconception.

The future is calling. We must act now, and this book is the perfect guide.

Patricia S. Lemer is a pioneer and an internationally recognized authority on applying a holistic model of care to autism, ADHD, learning and mental health conditions. For over fifty years she has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to identifying and ameliorating root causes rather than treat symptoms.

Ms. Lemer was the first to apply the “Total Load Theory” to neurodevelopmental disorders. This engineering concept postulates that each unique individual, like a bridge, accumulates an overload of stressors that eventually causes dysfunction.

Ms. Lemer co-founded one of the first organizations offering information online. She helped establish the first center for young adults with disabilities in Kuwait. She is the author of four books, including the award-winning Outsmarting Autism (2019) and the moderator of the podcast “The Autism Detective.” Patricia’s ability to weave complex concepts with practical solutions for empowering individuals of all ages has earned her the admiration of families and professionals alike.