ADHD

[amIblue?]

I really appreciate all of your stories. I can't tell you how much I do appreciate the time you spent to share.

My personal approach when faced with a problem is to collect as much info as I possibly can about whatever the issue may be and then come up with a plan of action.

I will not lie and say that the thought of giving my child medication doesn't give me serious and significant pause. I'm not against medications, but I am worried about the effects they may have both in the present and in the future. My child is bright and imaginative and generally awesome, and I don't want her to turn into a zombie. I also don't want her to struggle academically or socially if there's anything reasonable that can be done to help her.

Currently, it appears to be more of an academic struggle for her than anything; ADHD was really not on my radar when we started the whole process. I thought that it was a possibility, but not likely because her behavior really isn't a problem. Maybe once or twice a month at school she'll get in trouble for talking when she shouldn't be or not following directions. I'm sure there are perfect kids in the world, but I think her behavior is typical.

I'm starting to line my ducks up in a row to figure out what our plan will be if I'm not happy with our consultation with her pediatrician and where we'll go next. (I always like to have a plan b at a minimum if not plan c, d, and e.) I will not be OK with a short office visit and a prescription.

I've got some chocolate covered espresso beans, and I'm going to try one this weekend to see if 1. I can get her to eat it and 2. to see if I can tell any difference with her.

Again, thank you all so very much.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by SydneyK

KDCat hit the nail on the head when she said there's no clear right answer.

Absolutely agree.

Originally Posted by amIblue?

My personal approach when faced with a problem is to collect as much info as I possibly can about whatever the issue may be and then come up with a plan of action.

I will not lie and say that the thought of giving my child medication doesn't give me serious and significant pause. I'm not against medications, but I am worried about the effects they may have both in the present and in the future. My child is bright and imaginative and generally awesome, and I don't want her to turn into a zombie. I also don't want her to struggle academically or socially if there's anything reasonable that can be done to help her.

I think your approach and your balancing question are spot on. Just want to throw one more thing in the mix, from our experience. As I said, we resisted medication for a while. When our son did go on it, my wife's comment was "I have my son back!" Rather than making him feel like a zombie, the meds grounded him—I don't know a better way to describe it—and we started seeing the happy (usually), imaginative kid that the hyperactivity had squelched.

Others' mileage may certainly vary, but we've found that over the years, our son has generally felt better with the meds. Doesn't mean we want him to be on them forever, or that he does. But they've been a great help in giving him space and ability to develop other coping skills and mechanisms.

So all that is to say, even after you've made a decision, don't be afraid to revisit, reassess and try something different if you don't like where you are.

[txpacer]

I have three stories, which I'll try to make as short as possible.

1. My husband and his twin brother were DXed ADHD at around 5. My husband took meds until midway through high school, it was really messing with his weight and he was tired of taking the meds. In college his grades plummeted so much that he went back on meds for his last year to make sure that he would pass all of his classes. He has developed a lot of coping mechanisms over the years and has not been on meds since graduation--it can cause some problems every once in a while at work, but he is doing pretty well.

2. My little sister always had behavioral problems and was never able/willing to do her homework/housework/organized sports/anything that required attention. We didn't know what was going on until at 17 her pediatrician recommended her to a psychiatrist to go through ADHD screening. Turns out that they DXed her with ADHD. She tried Strattera first, but that did nothing. Then she tried Adderall XR, and it was really rough on her. Eventually, she got put on Vyvanse and is doing so well--her attitude/personality and grades have completely changed. Downside (though she doesn't see it as such) is that she went from being a size 6 to a size 0. She also moved up from 30 mg to 70 mg very quickly. ETA: I think that if she had been medicated at 6, school and life generally speaking for my little sister would have been a lot easier--but YMMV, especially since I do not believe that would have been the case for me.

3. I was never a problem child and always did well in class. I, however, also spent HOURS on my homework (everything from reading pretty slowly to spending a lot of time changing the font on a document). I love reading, and as early as the age of 5 I would have three books in front of me and read one page of each because I couldn't just read one book at a time. In college I had trouble keeping up with the reading because I had keep reading the same paragraph over and over again. Before I knew it I would have spent an hour trying to read five pages. I found out that if I played an audiobook at crazy high speed while reading in the book, it forced me to read very quickly and stay focused on the content. I procrastinated on papers, but at the undergraduate level it wasn't too big of a problem.

In graduate school, that doesn't work because I am often reading articles and books that don't have audiobooks, and it is just not okay (or healthy) to write a 30-page publishable-ish paper in the wee hours of the morning the day it is due. I was really struggling, especially because the material is interesting to me and I genuinely love what I'm doing. Additionally, research was awful because I would start reading an article and then latch onto something interesting in it and start researching that topic, leading me down a rabbit hole that just didn't allow me to get any writing done because I was spending a lot of time researching interesting, but unhelpful and irrelevant stuff. Worried that I was starting to get depressed, I called my mom and talked to her about it. She told me that after all of her reading on ADHD for my little sister, she thought it would be a good idea for me to get screened, too. After several weeks of testing, I was DXed ADHD at the age of 23. Thankfully my sister already did the medication rollercoaster, so I was immediately put on Vyvanse. It has helped me so much. It is no miracle pill, and at 5' 5" 105 lbs. I have to be very careful to make sure that I am eating during its peak effectiveness (between breakfast and dinner) when I really feel the anorectic side effects. I don't want to be on the pill forever and want to try and take a one-month break over the summer, but Vyvanse (along with developing a VERY detailed daily schedule and using the Pomodoro system) has really been a lifesaver for me. I have stayed at 30 mg for ~8 months now, and although I don't feel the initial "kick" that I felt during the first few weeks I have refused to raise my dosage based on talking with my husband and doing some research. I'm convinced that while I might not get that same feeling, the meds are working because when I make the decision to focus on something I can in a way that I was not able to before taking anything.
Downsides: anorectic effect and I have to be REALLY careful to not get pregnant while I'm taking it (which also means I'm going to have to develop some adequate coping mechanisms for when my husband and I decide to have kids).
ETA: I think if I had been medicated earlier on, my life would have been made marginally easier, but I was bright and able to develop a lot of coping mechanisms on my own until I got to graduate school. I'm not sure if in my case (as opposed to my sister's) being on medication would have been worth the downsides. Just some food for thought.

[KDCat]

Reading material that may help you understand ADHD:

"The Mislabeled Child" by Brock Eide and Fernette Eide. (It's about learning disorders in general, but has a good section on ADHD.)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mislabeled.../dp/1401308996

ADDitude Magazine:
http://www.additudemag.com/

ADDitude Magazine podcast:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/...668174671?mt=2

Science Daily: (They run a section just with the latest research in ADD/ADHD)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/min.../add_and_adhd/

[KDCat]

I forgot the best one! This book is a picture book that has a great explanation of ADHD:

All Dogs Have ADHD:
http://www.amazon.com/Dogs-Have-ADHD.../dp/1843106515

[amIblue?]

Thanks, KDCat and txpacer!

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by KDCat

I forgot the best one! This book is a picture book that has a great explanation of ADHD:

All Dogs Have ADHD:
http://www.amazon.com/Dogs-Have-ADHD.../dp/1843106515

Slight tangent, but there is a great companion book to that one: All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome. We used it as the way to tell our son about his diagnosis; he read it and kept saying "that sounds like me!" and "that sounds like me, too!" At the end, he closed the book and said, "Well, it looks like I may have Asperger's, too."

I wonder sometimes if it's one reason he loves cats.

[KDCat]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Slight tangent, but there is a great companion book to that one: All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome. We used it as the way to tell our son about his diagnosis; he read it and kept saying "that sounds like me!" and "that sounds like me, too!" At the end, he closed the book and said, "Well, it looks like I may have Asperger's, too."

I wonder sometimes if it's one reason he loves cats.

Aw! That is super-cute!

[DrPhil]

This is an informative thread. GC is wonderful.

[AZTheta]

I wouldn't trade my brain for anyone's. Ever. Not that anyone would want mine. I love associational chaining type of thinking (as opposed to linear sequential although I can do the latter, but don't find it at all enjoyable). Flexibility and creativity abound when your thoughts roam.

Thom Hartmann used/uses "the hunter in a farmer's wold" theme. You can check out his writings; he has a web page. At the end of the day, it is what it is. I feel sorry for neurotypical people sometimes - they are so SLOW!

[AOII Angel]

My twin brother and sister were diagnosed way back in the late 80s with ADHD and were medicated from the time they were in the first or second grade. From experience being the older sibling growing up in the same household (I'm six years older), discipline and structure is so important. They do so much better when they have expectations and rules to follow. My family was totally chaotic and it effected how my siblings managed. They could never really have medication holidays because of that dynamic. I always knew when someone had forgotten to give them their medicine because I'd wake up in the summer or on the weekend to them bouncing off the walls. My brother still needs medicine today but is fairly successful working for a tech company in Silicon Valley. I think he takes something non-scheduled like Stratera. My sister doesn't take anything and lives in our hometown.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

I worked for several years at a residential camp, and I had quite a few of the "takes Ritalin during the school year but does not take it during the summer." That's bullshit. If your kid needs meds when he/she is your responsibility, don't dump an unmedicated kid on an unprepared, underpaid, and stretched-too-thin camp counselor.

(This is the general "you," as I don't have any reason to believe parents in this thread are sending their kids off to summer camp like this, it's just a general rant.)

That said, I have intimate knowledge of several kids medicated for ADHD who have terrible eating habits and the like. I tutored a kid who was 9 years old and refused to eat pretty much anything but Pop Tarts. Situations like this raise a serious eyebrow for me...your kid is eating processed sugar six times a day and you are surprised he has a hard time concentrating on his math homework?

That's not to say ADHD doesn't exist, or that it should never be medicated, only that I think it should be a last resort once a kid has a good eat/sleep/exercise routine. Them drugs have side effects (note also that this is my default position on virtually any medication, not specific to ADHD, or even psych meds in general).

[Alex Mack]

I am surprised no one has mentioned Ned Hallowell or the books, Driven To Distraction and Delivered From Distraction. I read the second one when I was 21, recommended and lent to me by a friend with ADHD herself (a sister but moreso a close friend, since we met working as summer camp counselors together, and then I eventually transferred to her college).
That book saved my mental health... it has short, informative chapters, and it's designed for people with ADHD so you can skip around like us ADDers are prone to... but after reading it I realised this was my life written down, and I wasn't alone.
Dr. Hallowell is the preeminent expert on ADHD... he not only has it himself but also suffers from dyslexia (many ADHDers are co-morbid, and will have another disorder alongside the ADHD, or vice versa. I have dyscalculia, which is the numbers equivalent of dyslexia.) and is The Guy who knows the most... annoyingly, his center does not accept health insurance.
I also got ADDitude magazine for quite some time and it helps immeasurably. It's a fantastic resource.
I do advocate meds as long as you can find ones that work for you/your kid. It took me a very long time (mainly due to insurance) to get adderall, which changed my life. I no longer felt dumb... what used to be 3 hours of studying with a small percentile of retention, I could now do in 20 minutes with an extremely high rate of retention.
I know, this reply is all over the place... I'm not medicating for ADHD right now, bc I have much larger fish to fry medically, so it's at the bottom of my pile. If I get back in a situation that requires my attention and focus, I'll get the script again.
Here's the link for the book:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...fp3eaZGB-GkM2w

[MysticCat]

Welcome back, Alex Mack!

[amIblue?]

Thanks for sharing your story as well as the references, Alex Mack!