Please Help!! | ADHD Information

We are parents of an 11 year old boy who is starting his first year at Grammar school next week. He is a very bright boy but his behaviour is deteriorating so much! The last few weeks have been really bad for us. Andrew seems to think that it is ok for him to be rude and cheeky to us and his brother all the time. He cannot leave his brother alone and any time he goes near him he kicks or shoves or says something to him. He is also so defiant to us and just does what he likes and says things like i don't care, so what, No, I'm not doing anything etc. He has also resorted to making animal noises when we are talking to him to be rude! Andrew takes Ritalin three times daily as we have found it is the only medication that works with him he goes to a psychologist once every few months but she is useless. She spends most of the time chatting to us and not much time with him and all she seems to be good at is dishing out meds to him. We have no support within the family so we are dealing with this on our own and there are no local support groups either. The only way we can discipline him is to shout, yell, or resort to smacking which sometimes is the only thing that will bring him out of his nonsense. I do not think that any of this does him any good especially not the smacking as he gets over it quickly and goes back to what he was doing in no time! He can become very aggressive too and if we put him in his room or outside he throws things, yells, screams and bangs. This can go on for hours and we just don't know what to do. We would appreciate any help from anyone out there as to how to deal with the behaviour we are getting. ThanksIs he on meds? What is his diagnosis? Therapy sometimes helps, but it seems it may be hormonal due to his age. You have to be consistent with discipline, and set firm limits.

Hi thanks we are very consistent with the discipline but feel as though it has got to the stage that he now ignores everything we do. He has ADHD  and Mild Tourettes and is on Ritalin. We tried Concerta & Straterra but no good we have not been told about any therapy we can get for him as I said, Psyhologist is not very good we went to our GP but he just referred us back to the Psychologist!! I feel that where we are there is just not enough support or no-one wants to deal with it properly. If it is hormonal than do you think that a change of meds might be the answer If so what else do we try?

Thanks Heather

Thanks for that we may look into an alternative med for him but as for getting another consultant there will be no hope as it took us almost 2 years to see one in the forst place! Will look out for that book we will give anything a try you end up feeling so useless and helpless and go round and round in circles and feel as though everything is your fault .Have you tried any other stimulants? There are several different types here
in the US - Daytrana, Vyvanse, Focalin, etc.. I am not sure what you can take
with the Tourettes diagnosis. You need to find a new doctor that has
experience in ADHD, Tourettes, ODD, etc. Maybe you need a new evaluation
and medication. The ritalin might not be right for him. A book called
"Transforming the Difficult Child - the nurtured heart approch" is very
good.   You might find his approach will help. Hang in there, you will figure
this out.