Telling Kids about Medication--New Idea

I thought about this long and hard.

There are several suggestions about what to tell kids about why they are taking psych medication.

One school of thought is "tell them it's like putting on glasses to read better".
Well that analogy didn't work for me and I couldn't figure out why. Then I realized that glasses are a mechanical device. A kid might not tell you that line is bullspit--but they might very well know something is wrong with the analogy.

Another school of thought is to tell them it's like insulin for the brain. That didn't work in my mind either because the results of untreated diabetes are obvious. You die. Nobody denies diabetes exists or that you're a geek for having it.

Then a light bulb went on in my ADHD fogged mind

We're telling them the wrong stories.

Here's a new way to look at it:

Every day you have a headache. Now, nobody can SEE the headache but it makes you cranky and life is just that much harder. You can't think straight with your daily headache.

Do you take a Tylenol every day?

Or do you listen to the people who don't believe you have a headache because they don't have one or don't believe that anyone could possibly have a headache every single day.

Yes, you COULD live without the Tylenol. You might even manage okay.

Do you want to make your life to be easier by taking a Tylenol every day and getting rid of the headache?

What do you folks think of that idea?

good idea... It makes sense... i like it, although the first idea you had would work for my 6 year old dd, she's not old anough to figure it out yet that it;'s a micanical devise, so i might actualy use that idea for now!

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