New Member | ADHD Information
I agree with what has been said above. I would ad that you really owe it to yourself and your family to seek another opinion if you are not satisfied with your present doctor. I have a 17 year old who has ODD, and we made the mistake of believing a professional from whom we sought help for our son when he was much younger. He would not listen to us, and believed what our son told him. He basically reinforced with our son that he did not have a problem, and that the rest of us did. We withdrew him from treatment and tried to manage him for several years, during which he grew progressively worse. We even tried to take him back to this man when he was in his early teens, (we live in a small area, and there are not alot of mental health professionals to choose from) and received the same treatment. At about the same time, a new psychologist and child psychiatrist both came to town. We took him to the new psychologist, who completed some testing, and referred him to the psychiatrist for medication, which has helped somewhat to take the edge off some of his more violent behaviors, although the basic personality problems remain.
By this time, our son was nearly 16 years old. Our family had been stressed to the max all of these years due to his behaviors. He had assaulted several people at school and in the community. His two younger siblings have lived in fear of him for years, and it has impacted their mental health. He has alienated us to the point where we will just be glad when he turns 18 so that he can move out (although we are still concerned about what will happen to him, as he has already said that he will go off his meds). Although he has not been open to counseling, and still believes that he has no problem, I have often wondered about how his life and ours would have been different if we had more aggressively sought appropriate help when he was younger. Ogram is right, the doctors and counselors are our employees, and if we are not comfortable with their services, we need to find someone who we can feel comfortable with. Good luck!
Well said, Steppingstone.Hello to anyone who may understand.
My name is Becky. I am the mother of four wonderful boys...
Ryan, 7, ADHD; Alex,5; Quinton, 4; Michael, 11 months; Also 18 year old stepdaughter Meghan.
I am going to pull my hair out! I cannot get my son's doctor to listen to a word I say and in the mean time Ryan is getting more and more violent. I feel as though we have exhausted all our resources and are getting nowhere fast.
Help!!!!!!!! I don't know what to do. One more violent outburst and I feel as though I will explode. We try to stay calm and keep our heads when we deal with him but I am to the end of my rope...
Any suggestions..... I am desperate...
I suggest you re-evaluate him with a NeuroPsych (a Psychologist with a degree also in Neurology). Another option is a Child Psychiatrist (the guy with the MD is far better than a Psycologist, Social Worker or Counselor). NeuroPsychs are good however and usually test extensively and can see ADHD and beyond. Violence is not part of ADHD and it is likely he was either misdiagnosed or more is going on. ADHD meds can make certain disorders even worse. I strongly advice a Neuropsych and not accepting ADHD as the final diagnosis. I have a few sites you can check out. Maybe something will ring a bell. On the Childbrain site, you may want to look at PDD/Autism (there is very high functioning autism and the kids often rage). Another dx. to look at is childhood onset bipolar, espeically if mood disorders, substance abuse or suicide attempts are on either side of the family tree. Both Autistic Spectrum kids and bipolar kids are very hyperactive and inattentive. Here are a few links I like.
Good luck!!!
OlderMom38824.7311342593Welcome!!!
Motherwolfx6, first let me tell you that you are not alone! We are here to help in any way we can. But we need a bit more information. Has his dr diagnosed him with any thing? if so, what. Is he on any medications? Have you gotten a second opinion. If your son's dr won't listen, you need to change drs. you are employing the dr to preform services, if you are not satisfied, please let him know or find a different one. 
Welcome....
My 9 year old is ADHD as well; however, I am blessed that he is not violent. My heart does go out to you though, especially dealing with one that has issues and three additional ones. Oldest ones set examples and in his case, probably not the best for your younger ones. I agree with the above comments in that it sounds like your son has addiitional issues other than ADHD and I hope you explore this with a second opinion, or with your current doctor, if you trust him. Best of luck.
I started a month ago to post on this site and have met wonderfull people,they keep me sane when I want to blow up.welcome and I hope this site will help you tooThank you to all of you who have responded. I appreciate all the support I can get. His doctor has tried several different drugs all of which have made the violence worse: adderall, d amphetamine, celexa, ritalin none of which has worked. All of this time he has had him on risperdal as well so that he will sleep. As of yesterday he increased the risperdal and took him off all other medications for 30 days and then said we can try reintroducing the ritalin. I am not happy with his diagnosis of ADHD but without insurance do not know where else to take him. We are on a limited income and we cannot afford more extensive testing from a specialist. If anyone knows how to get the testing done I would appreciate it. He has also been diagnosed with OCD which runs in the family, but I have read lately that that is very closely related to Autism. If you know anything about this please let me know. I need hard facts to take to this doctor to make him listen to my ideas about what I think is going on with my son.
Any words of wisdom or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all.