fears of drug dependence | ADHD Information

Of course not all non-medicated ADHD kids will become addicts.

It is just as rediculous to assume that just because you take medication as a child that you are more likely to become an addict later in life.

For untreated kids I believe a lot do try to self medicate through either recreational drugs or alcohol. Do all of them of course not. It also greatly depends on how severe there adhd is. If you are a pretty high functioning ADHD adult you are a lot less likely to participate in these behaviors. If you have a more severe case that greatly diminishes your life then it is a lot more likely.

This is not just the case for people with ADHD. Look at other disorders such as people who are bipolar disorder or people that are suffereing from depression. Most people who abuse drugs or alcohol are suffering from something that they are not being treated for so they use these things to make themselves feel better and escape reality.

 

Will taking stimulants make my child more likely to abuse drugs later?
It's a common misconception that children with ADHD who are treated with medication are more likely to abuse alcohol and other substances later in life. In fact, the opposite is true: Taking medication to control ADHD in childhood reduces the chances of later substance abuse. In a joint study by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, boys with ADHD who were treated with stimulants were less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol when they got older. Dealing with attention-deficit symptoms is difficult. Without treatment, people with ADHD are at high risk for depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem, which could lead them to abuse alcohol or drugs or drop out of school. "It's terribly frustrating for these kids not to be able to keep up with other kids. So they start to look for something else to make them feel good," says Alan Levine, a child psychiatrist and assistant clinical professor at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Drug treatment, especially when combined with behavior therapy, gives kids with attention-deficit a better chance of staying in school, making friends, and controlling risky behavior.
http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/refcap/bigkid/gspecialnee ds/67397.html

Children with untreated ADHD usually engage in disruptive behaviors that ultimately result in rejection from their peer group. Adolescents and young adults with untreated ADHD have high rates of comorbid substance abuse disorders. A 1999 study appearing in Pediatrics found that boys with ADHD who were not treated with medication were significantly more likely to abuse drugs than were boys who received treatment (1999;104[2]:e20). The risk of substance abuse for boys who took medication was virtually identical to the risk for boys without ADHD.  http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p020801b.html

There has also been concern that long-term use of stimulants, which are chemically similar to cocaine, might lead to substance abuse, with one study showing a small correlation. The other 11 studies conducted on this issue found just the opposite, however: that ADHD children medicated with stimulants were less likely to engage in substance abuse. Two studies published in the January 2003 issue of Pediatrics, one that followed 146 children for 13 years, should put an end to the debate, with neither finding any greater risk of substance abuse in children who used stimulant medication to treat their ADHD. http://www.ivillagehealth.com/library/nwh/content/0,,215912_ 226979,00.html?arrivalSA=1&cobrandRef=0&arrival_freq Cap=1&pba=adid=11465558

If you would like I could spend more time & find more supporting data, but I truely believe in my heart that unmedicated leads to self medication. 

Its ironic that you should mention the alcoholism.  I have been wondering lately if there might be a link, based unfortunately on some family stuff past & present,  between untreated ADHD & alcoholism since, I think, both are genetic.  It would make for a very interesting study............

csmommy38280.3510532407[QUOTE=MafiaKiddo]

Most people who abuse drugs or alcohol are suffering from something that they are not being treated for so they use these things to make themselves feel better and escape reality.

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Thats a very good point.  Once my son was diagnosed & I learned more about ADHD Ibecame so much more comfortable with who I am.  The more I learned, the more I understood that there was something different about me, that I wasn't bad, lazy, or dumb.  AS I kid I experimented with drugs, but being the control freak that I am , I wasn't able to give myself over to them. 

I became a bit annoyed  I guess, because I am sick of hearing about the chances of ADHD kids becoming future illegal addicts - it is too confronting.

My theroy is

i would rather worry about today and if i can sort out all the todays, then tomorrow will sort itself out.

 

[QUOTE=Rae70]

How many of you on this forum have claimed to be ADHD and diagnosed as adults.  Did you all become addicts prior to being medicated?

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I was diagnosed as a child but my mother disregarded the diagnosis, she said there is no such thing as ADD and it is a bandwagon diagnosis they use when a kid is just unmotivated.  I received treatment for only one semester of school.  And yes - when I became a teenager- I did use drugs.  I don't know if I was self medicating or just being wreckless and stupid.  If I was self-medicating it was for depression not ADD because I didn't do drugs during school hours.

 Not trying to discount your theory- just thought I would share my experience.

Yeah it is getting old and has been so over exaggerated that adhd kids will become addicts or that we all will participate in other risk taking behavoirs.

Did you know that adults that are diagnosed with ADHD have to pay a much higher premium on life insurance then their non-add peers because they are viewed as a high risk group.

All of these statements aggrivate me because there is no proof to back any of these claims. Yet we are put at a disadvantage because of them.

The discrimination against ADDers starts early and seems to last forever

Thanks Mafia, my ambition regarding my ADHD son is to try an change the stigma attached to get him the help he needs and perhaps even a friend.  Less negative crap and more positive would be a wonderful journey.

 

Okay maybe it is just because I am in denial but I think all this theorising about

 

Rae70....for me it is not a theory, it is what I live. My son is a young adult now and he never drank nor did drugs and has no desire to do so in the future. My decision to medicate from age 7 was the best decision I ever made and it was the right one for my child. While life always has its daily challenges for him, as a young adult he feels is CAN succeed in life because medication and behavior management allowed him to see his true worth as a child. My decision to use this treatmentplan afforded me the opportunity to undo some of the emotional damage incurred early on because given the fact that my son was constantly alienated and ridiculed by peers and was told by adults, including teachers that he was lazy, stupid, a waste of life, a bad boy and one that would never amount to anything, the odds that he would go on to self medicate were very high. While the emotional scars will always be there and I still cry a river when I reflect back and think of the emotional pain he endured, he is resilient enough to bounce back today and meet those daily challenges head on. This is not a sales pitch to promote use of medication and it is only one story but it is a success story. The decisions I made early on set the tone for his future and it was his future that concerned me most because the present was a good indicator of what might happen in the future. As parents we have to decide what the best course of treatment is for our children but if I had to go back and  do it again, I would still make the same decision.

Rae, we are all on a very long journey in what seems like a dark tunnel with no idea the outcome of our choices for our wonderful children.  You are in an ambiguous state because you just recently made a huge decision & are very nervous of the outcome, we all are.  Some days I feel I will join you, & then something happens that for me, lets me know that I am currently where we need to be. 

And if I need to take this scary journey, I am happy to be sharing it with you & all the wonderful, intelligent, compassionate people I have meet here.  You all are my extended family.  We are able to bring our different backgrounds here with a common goal, & even if we differ in our ways of combatting this THING, we all pray for each other & these wonderful, amazing children God has intrusted to us.  You all have helped make me strong.

Our families are the guinney pigs, so to speak.  We are more vocal & more tenacious then any other generation about finding the safest most effective way of handling this. 

Without all our give & take, none meant to hurt anyone, we all can make the best decisions for our families.  I am proud to stand with you as we make this journey. 

Thanks Luv and cs, it is hard and lonely journey and very alienating.  I called up a boy in my sons class, mother the other day for a play date - they make every excuse to avoid us.  I probably look like a nut, due to the stress and he certainly behaves like one, so i dont blame them.  But it is demoralising. 

I am having our new peditrician appt tomorrow, but what these professionals keep telling me is - go ahead, try all that alternative stuff, and when it doesnt work, come back to us for some meds.  So patronising. 

If I wasnt a strong person I probably would have caved after the 2nd day, but I think I have a couple more weeks left in me yet, before my heart breaks for him again and I want to give him the releif that only the meds seem to give him.

But on the positive, I have enjoyed having my Real Boy back.  As difficult as he is I recognised him and remembered him and adore him regardless.  Off meds he is difficult, but not deliberately, but he is also so much more loving and creative.  He has discovered at 7 that he loves gardening and cooking, unusual things for a 7 year old but very creative.  On meds, he had no interest in creativity.

I love him off them more, but he is easier on them.  If I was a healthier and more patient person, I would consider homeschooling.

But I know me and I know that is not an option for him.  I would not be able to be patient or organised enough for this.  And I am not critising myself, it is just what I have come to accept about me.

And also, I want a life too.  I want to remember who I am, what I enjoy, have some time for me.  My youngest is off to preschool next year, for the first time in 13 years I will have time for myself.  This is hard to sacrifice.  I am so looking forward to it.

I see a lot of comments from parents afraid that adhd/add meds are going to lead to their child getting hooked on drugs.

My brother Scott, now a 40-year-old drug addict, went untreated his entire life for ADHD/ADD. When I get fearful about my son being on meds - he's 8 and currently taking 27 mg of Concerta - I remember the problems that my brother had and that makes me more determined to deal with my son's disorder.

In the 1970s, my brother got swats at school on a daily basis during a time when much less was known or accepted about childhood disorders. The school system labeled him a delinquent. He hung around with kids like himself and dropped out of school in the ninth grade. He got into drugs and alcohol at a young age. Today, he is disabled, an addict and alcoholic, and on the verge of worse, I'm afraid. It's heartbreaking. As a child, and an adult, he was diagnosed with ADHD and his symptoms are classic. But like addiction and alcoholism, there is a denial factor.

My parents, bless their hearts, did the best they could with the knowledge they had, and it wasn't much. There were not as many resources available to them as there are to me.  My parents, who have never had enough money to even pay their own bills, have financially enabled my brother in his diseases due to the guilt they feel about his untreated ADHD -  Ritalin made Scott "feel funny" as a kic and that scared my dad, so they took him off meds.  They blame themselves Scott's life circumstances.

It's a very sad story, but one that I believe is helping me to help my son. I have the tools today to make a difference and for that, I am grateful.

 

 

 

Toni, thats how I feel. 

There were kids in my high school that claimed they couldn't study, or remember anything w/o snorting cocaine.  I always thought they were full of it, now I know differently.

If our children with ADHD aren't helped, I truly believe they will self-medicate.

There have been studies done showing that children who are treated for ADHD do not abuse drugs & alcohol, while they counterparts that do not get any help do.

When my doctor prescribed a stimulant for daughter's ADD I asked about addiction because alcholism/addiction runs in my family.  He said it (Concerta) is an addictive narcotic but kids with Ad/hd who go unmedicated are at greater risk for drug addiction (and other risky behaviors) than those who were treated with medication. 

I pray every day that I made the right choice.

Toni your brother sounds exactly like my 19yr old son although in his case ADHD is just a symptom of fetal alcohol effects. He was on ritalin briefly but refuses to take it now because it interferres with his drug and alcohol addiction.  Sadly FASD kids do become addicts easily along with the ADHD, bipolar, aspbergers etc. I do often wonder though if there would have been any difference had he been diagnosed and medicated when he was younger instead of only end of last/early this year. 

 

 

toni wrote:
It's a very sad story, but one that I believe is helping me to help my son.

It is a very sad story but an all too familiar one. My fear of my son self medicating down the road was far worse than my fear of the side effects of the medication. Thanks for sharing your story as its very insightful.

The kids who get addicted to drugs are usually the ones that are not on them as a child. When your kid is "forced" to take a med (for ADHD or another problem) everyday as a child by the time they reach their teens the excitement and taboo of experimenting with drugs that a lot of kids feel just isn't there. It's kind of like a been there done that situation. For the most part kids on meds for ADHD don't become addicted to drugs. The ones most likely to become addicted are the kids who really should be on meds but aren't for some reason. They self medicate with illegal drugs or alcohol trying to feel good or be able to function. Untreated ADHD kids are at the greatest risk.

Okay maybe it is just because I am in denial but I think all this theorising about, if we dont drug our kids, then they will drug themselves is bull.

How many of you on this forum have claimed to be ADHD and diagnosed as adults.  Did you all become addicts prior to being medicated?

It is not true that unmedicated ADHDer's have a higher chance of becoming addicts, we could also argue (based on some of the posts on this forum) that medicated people become abusers of their legal drugs.

There are not enough statistics gathered as yet to prove either of these theories.  These are only your own personal experiences, and not relective for non-medicated ADHDers.

My son is ADHD and my father, his father, all my uncles were all alcoholics.  Do you believe that they were all non medicated ADHDers - this is a possibility.

But it is also 'claimed' that alcoholism has a gene all its own.

So as far as scientific studies and statistics are concerned - NONE OF IT REALLY REFLECTS ANYTHING.

(I am a little sensitve today - did you notice )