You might like the book "The Explosive Child" by Greene. It describes how to help children who "melt down" or lose control of themselves. However, if the rages are caused by a drug I'm not sure if the book would help.
You might also be interested in Warwick Dyer's method. See the article about him linked from http://www.ncf.ca/~an588/par_home.html
I know that summer will be crazy, it will be harder because I work 8 to 5 and well, who will want to deal with my son, from 8 hours a day for 4 weeks : (
I will not give up trying until I find some help for my boy. He is so wonderful and I think that I might look into a children's hospital near by.
I have to agree with smallmom and oldermom here, Tina.
The Adderall could be making him worse. For him to be calm, then explosive, then calm, then explosive, could be something much more than ADHD.
You may want to start keeping a daily journal of your son's behaviors. Positives and negatives - especially with the rages. This will not only help you, but the psychiatrist or neuropsychologist you see in the future.
My son was originally dx'ed with ADHD - and unfortunately, the stimulants (he's tried them all, plus the Adderall, the Strattera, we've been thru them) did not cease the aggression, the rages or the violence. It turned out later to be Bipolar Disorder.
I wish you alot of luck on your journey with this. It's certainly a tough road.
Janna
Adderall can definitely cause the aggression your seeing in your son. If he was like this before the Adderrall though, I would personally stop seeing the ADHD Pediatrician and take him to a more credentialed professional who does NOT specialize in one disorder because it sounds like a lot more than ADHD, unless it's the med causing it. That sort of behavior is more like early onset bipolar, which is very often first misdiagnosed as ADHD/ODD, but stimulants don't help--in fact they can make it much worse. I'm going to leave you a few sites to look at. Bipolar kids do not act like bipolar adults, and have "good" weeks/days/hours and bad/weeks/days/hour due to cycling. I wouldn't punish him at all for any of his behavior. I doubt he can help it. I would either take him to a NeuroPsych or a Child Psychiatrist. Specialists who claim to specialize only in one disorder will see that disorder in every child. Yes, we've been through all that with my son. I wouldn't trust a pediatrician with this sort of behavior, whether or not he claims to be a specialist. Since your son's behavior is worsening/regressing, I think a second opinion is wise.
Good luck. I'd explore this further. Stims can actually make certain disorders much worse.
I agree about the second opinion. Sadly its hard to find good help in my town. I wish I had a better income to help my son with everything but for now we will make do with what we have.
He is aggressive with or without the meds. Actually with the meds, he is actually alittle more calm, but can explode if he feels provoked.
I wish there was a magic wand that I could wave and make my son as normal as other kids. So he would suffer or feel depressed or feel inadequate.
Thank you all for your support.
Have you checked into getting SSI for him?
My son has ADHD/ODD as well and he is 6 yrs old.We have no problems with him sleeping though the night.
But lately he has been very disrespectful to everyone, talking back to us,and even sitting and jumping up-n-down on his 3 yr old brother's head.
The dr said this is the ODD that makes him act out like that.
We will take things away from him to punish him for his behavior.
momto3boyz38846.5707291667When I read that you miss your son, I had to write a quick note. Don't know if you are open to alternatives but homeopathy gave my son back to me. I recommend reading Ritalin Free Kids by Dr. Ullman. Same Dr. wrote Rage Free Kids. I hope you find what works and you get your ds back.Adderall XR can cause the kind of agression you're describing in your son. I'd seriously consider trying another med.I am from a small town (under 2,000) and am on Medicaid because hub's job has no insurance. University Hospitals, even if you have to travel, and Children's Hospitals have NeuroPsychs and they're excellent diagnostitians (spelled wrong). Normally they take Medicaid. There are long waiting lists, but it's worthe the wait. They run a lot of tests on the kids. If he rages badly other things should be looked into beyond ADHD, although Neuropsychs are excellent at diagnosing ADHD too and run more than the normal amount of ADHD tests. My son had 12 hours of testing in two hour increments. He is on the autism spectrum, rather than ADHD/ODD as first suspected. He did awful on Adderrall. It made him very aggressive and he's not. None of the stims really helped him. As far as attention went, we didn't see a difference. His behavior improved with interventions, not meds. Now, when we tell people he was once thought to have "extreme ADHD", people are shocked. He's a couch potato who is the opposite of hyper! He still has a poor attention span, but that's part of autistic spectrum disorder too. He needs special ed and has an aid, and is making really good progress. Good luck!OlderMom38846.6607291667
I know you said he is aggressive with or without the meds, but he has been on meds for 2 years (do I have that that right?) Alot changes as boys grow.
I thought the same thing about my son, however, when I look back the aggression was different with the meds. Without the meds, he would push and shove or grab something away from someone else (things I called aggressive). However, on the meds he would "explode" into a punching fight. It was different. One time when he was angry he started running and didn't stop for about 1/2 mile. I had to get in my car and chase him!
I too thought the aggression was part of the adhd, however it stopped as soon as I stopped the stimulants. His aggression now is goofy. He is still physical, loves to wrestle and play tackle football (ALL boy I say), however he doesn't explode into anger. Before I stopped the meds I really truly feared he would end up in prison. Now I highly doubt that will happen. He hasn't had a fistfight since I stopped the meds 12 mos. ago.
I agree with you to try natural things this summer. But be prepared, coming off stims is very hard. He will probably have about 4 weeks of super hyperactivity. You will need alot of patience. However, it should get better after that point, and then the next 4 weeks of the summer you can see how he is.
I took my son off last May, and while it has not been perfect, looking back it was the best thing I ever did. (please believe me that I don't dislike meds...I just disliked my sons reaction to them).
Is he on stims for the ADHD?
Yes, he is currently taking 20 mg of Adderall XR. You know something, I miss my son. I miss not noticing his hyperness, I miss not worrying that he would act up somewhere, I miss just hanging out with him. We always had fun. 2 years ago, he started to change, he would not do his work, but he was still a ok to me. In school, he could get nothing done, academically the medications have helped him so much, but in other aspects I worry so much.
I want to try alternative medictions in the summer, such as the Omega 3's and magnesium.
I feel your pain my daughter too has ODD along with the ADHD and is the most non-violent sweet girl but at times she too goes through stages where she is nasty miserable and defient to the point of I want to scream. My daughter is 6. Read my nightmare life post will describe it all. It does go in stages she will have a few days of being a bear then back to my sweet girl and as far as the regressing she does all the time. I also understand seeing a specialist is costly we too have financial difficulties and I too stretch it for her. I am in process of getting her into a university study where everything will be covered for 3 years and they will follow us closely and the school. Our current psychologist I like and does mostly phone consult however we are seeing him in two weeks and he does that to help us I think.
As for punishment I was taught by our psychologist bad behavior needs to have a make up so to earn her Gameboy back she has to either show me good behavior and I decide the when so not for just one day or she can choose to do a chore (so I am not the total bad guy her decision on how long punishment will last), I choose the chore and she decides how long it takes her to do it. Then when all is calm and we are snuggling I bring it up and discuss with her how to better handle the situation next time and praise her for doing the chore or whatever she decided to do. For rudness to the teacher have him make her something or get her a card an apology. Good luck and I too worry about the teen years. PM me if you want. Jill
ThanksHe is seeing a pediatrician in town, this doctor specializes in ADHD disorders in children. He also referred me to a psychologist, but my damn insurance co-payment is huge. : ( I can't seem to afford to send him, but now with this, I don't care if I have to give up my car, his college savings money. I know now that he needs help. We talked last night and he said that he feels terrible when he gets mad, that he can't control himself, and that he feels it isn't normal.
I feel so scared for my son, he will be 10 next month and hopefully will be promoted to 4th grade, but the kids in school get meaner as they get older. I am scared that he won't be able to hack 4th, 5th, even middle school. Does anyone else feel this way?
My husband who is not ds's bio-dad appears to resent my son's behavior sometimes. Especially the midnight calls from my son......... You know, I did try benadryl for awhile, it worked great. Both my son and I slept better than we had in a long time. I think I might have to resort to giving him benadryl again.
have both of you considered melatonin,it is not a drug,it is an hormon or a natural supplement,my 4 year old takes it.he used to be up at 7 in the morning and that was him until 10 at night,and he used to be up 4,5 times a night.since the melatonin,he goes to his bed at 8 then falls asleep 15/30 mns after then he sleeps until 6/7,sometimes he is up at 5.30 but it is a lot better than it was.some others had better results or some neede something stronger.we are happy with the melatonin.we find him not as aggressive with a good night sleep.
like i said not perfect but it is an improvement.
We expierience the constant waking up at all hours, he gets up at like 3 am 4 5, all hours of the night, some night he might sleep through until 5:30 or 6 but I have never seen him sleep past 6, I don't know any advice as far as that goes, but he does wake up often through out the night as well. To keep him from sneaking out, we have a door between our bedrooms we leave open so he'll come there and we have a shelf infront of his door so he can't just walk out into the living room or kitchen on his own. He is pretty good about coming and waking me or his mom up before anything else, though he has snuck past us and gone in the living room at 3 am and made phone calls thinking it was ok, and waking up his grandparents, and he snuck outside, luckily we became aware and have had to go to more extreme measures of keeping him from being able to go outside by putting stuff infront of the door and locking the storm door....When your son sleeps does he ever have episodes where you can hear him talking in his sleep but not a normal talking in sleep like very CLEAR, and almost sounding frightened....? Should you wake them up at this point? I don't know we are affraid if we wake him up he won't be able to go back to sleep and will be tired for school the next morning, he only goes on for about 2 or 3 minutes and is back to what seems a peaceful sleep. If he gets so much as a 5 minute nap he will not sleep at night, do you expierience this too?This is a natural supplement we can purchase at a pharmacy or GNC? It doesn't affect the stratera he is on?i know several of the girls on this board who have their kids on both.there is several threads about it here try to go back 2/3 pages. then it is also on the alternative medecine board.Tinardz05, what kind of doctor diagnosed your son? What kind of doctor is treating him? Is your son on any meds, and if so, has the rage behavior worsened on meds? The kind of rage you're describing goes beyond ADHD and needs looking into. I personally don't think he needs a consequence for his behavior; it is very likely part of a disorder and something he can't control. You first need to get to the bottom of what's going on with him.Hi Everyone,
I need some simple parenting advice. My ds is 9 yrs old. He is ADHD/ODD....He is the most wonderful boy in the world. But I am growing concerned in his erratic emotional outbursts. He can have the scariest rage episodes. Just yesterday, he was asked ... please note asked to stay after school to finish some work. He flew into a most violent rage...he never hits anybody but goes uncontrollably crazy. He throw his backpack against a wall, this almost hit someone....(he did not intend to hit anyone). He disrespects his teacher who is a saint for putting up with his behavior. The afterschool director said she had never seen him so mad, it frightened her. I am so worried about him. He doesn't always have rages......actually we could go days without a single type of disruptive behavior............but then we can have crazy weeks.
One thing of concern is that ds had stopped calling for me in the night. He was actually sleeping through the whole night and has started calling me out again. Why has he regressed to doing this I don't know. But it is worrying me so much now....my ds complains of having nightmares often, but he doesn't wake up freigtened anymore.
I felt I needed to give him some kind cosequence for his behavior. I don't think it was adequate enough but I felt us bond because of it. What kind of consequences have any of you used?
Have any of you experienced the sleep distruptiveness?