I'm not sure where the appropriate place to post this is (I started to put it in alternative medicine but I think my question is more generic). Anyway, I took my DS off of meds for the summer (first time off meds since he started 7-8 years ago). I did some dietary changes as well (Fiengold). I'm curious about what it is like for kids who are hyper - my DS complains at various times during the day that he feels hyper but he DOES NOT feel hyper all of the time. I always thought that if you were hyper you were hyper all the time. I haven't given his comments much thougth, I just figured that was his "normal" hyper but now I am wondering if these off and on feelings are due to something in his diet. Hope my question made sense.

Can it be that what you perceive as hyperness is actually anxiety? Maybe he's feeling anxious at times? Just a guess because I do know that off medication, dealing with the struggles of ADHD creates a lot of internal anxiety for these children and others may not see that and perceive it as just being hyper. Off medication the child is constantly trying to compensate for limitations which ultimately can cause extreme anxiety. Children with the hyperactivity component do settle down when they are hyper focused on something but for the most part they are pretty hyper for a big part of the day. I don't see dietary changes causing this but then again that's just my opinion. Hope this helps :)

my son is very hyper but he cant explain how he feels yet. he is turning 7 yrs old. i have noticed that he is more hyper when there is more going on around him. more kids more noise more stimulation. he isnt very hyper when he has one on ones or is playing his video game. sometimes i have wondered if it has anything to do with his diet but i really dont think that it would change him to not being adhd. but this is also just my opinion. i know otheres that swear by that diet. its worth a try. i bet for some kids or some types of add or adhd that it really helps them. i cant wait until my son can exlain how he feels through out the day and with and without his meds. then i will have a way better understanding of all this.

As a child i also was not "hyper" all of the time, although i was still more active than others around me, and the other 3/4 of the time i felt like i had absoulatly no control over what i was doing when i got realy restles i felt like i was fibrating and about to burst through my skin if i did not move, this was very different to the anxiaty that i felt. i took myself of rittalin at 15 to prove to myself that i could function without the meds i had been on since age 4 it was a long and dificult road but i definatly made it, i still get the same feelings of "hyper" but i have learnd how to channel them better (most of the time) it is only over the last couple years that i have become able to describe some of my feelings. how old is your son. maby his being able to recognise when he is feeling hyper compared to not is the start of him learning to recognise it before hand and learning to channel it and one day controll it without the meds.

im 21 now and people who dont know me on a realy personal basis do not belive that i could ever have ADHD, now its realy only with people that i feel safe around that my ADHD realy shines through and they love that part of me.

I was very resistant to the diagnosis with my son because he is able to focus on things he is interested in, and he is not "hyper" all the time. At home I find it very managable, as a matter of fact. I can "control" his behavior by keeping him on a schedule, making sure he's eating right, monitoring when he is getting more active and switching his activities at that time.

So, no, kids aren't hyper all the time. But they do recognize the differences, and if you have a kid who has a wind-down period, it makes the hyper times stand out even more. For instance, at school - he'll start getting jittery, and that's a major disturbance, but if he had been kind of jittery all day, it wouldn't have been so noticable.