VYVANSE | ADHD Information

its not depression
its the vyvanse
i'm a 15 year old, i've(/my parents have) known that i was ADD since i
was 3 and i've been on medication since i was 6. i work with young kids
who have ADD, just as a big buddy or someone to talk to because for
younger kids its harder for them to get over the idea of being ADD, and
its harder to accept yourself.
i work with a girl, who HATES that she is ADD, her mother was my jr high
homeroom teacher. Claura, the girl i work with, was on vyvanse, like i am,
for some time and was doing great. but then her mother talked to me
about her attitude problems and how she refused to do simple chores
and hit other kids at school. since i am on vyvanse, i like to know what
i'm putting into my body, so i know quite a bit about it. i told her about
depression side affects and Claura's mother and she eventually got her off
vyvance. Claura's improvement is slow, she's on Adderoll now, but she's
definately improving.
try starting to put your son's medication into his drink in the morning,
break the capsul. dont worry its safe to do! over the course of 2-3 weeks
slowly reduce the amount of vyvance you put in his drink, but make sure
he doesnt know. many kids, myself included, become dependant against
their will on ADD medication, and will themselves to do worse at work
when they know theyre not getting as much medication as they could be
getting. so just slowly reduce the amount of medication you give him.
SLOWLY. meanwhile talk to a psychiatrist about your problems, even a
hotline could work for now. try not to take your son completely off
vyvanse but reduce his medication by a half or so. i recommended this to
Claura's mother and for her the improvement started after the 2nd week.
Claura started doing her chores again and stuff like that.

good luck to your child and best of luck to you and finding a medication
that works for your son!

-sydneyWell we got in last night to the pdoc and he LOWERED the dose of Vyvance back down to 30mg. If that doesn't work we will be on to something else. I pray this calms the situation down.My 10 year old DS has been on Vyvance 30mg and Zoloft 25 mg for eight months. He was doing great! Last year at school ,I didn't have to worry he was doing great. his grades were all high in a gifted program.  Then in August, the meds seemed to be not doing anything so we raised them to Vyvanse 50mg and Zoloft 50 mg. It never did a thing. he is horendous to everyone, thinking he knows better, the teacher did the  connors scale and it was bad. Enven the zoloft  has worn off, and he is very anxious. I am scared and do not know what to do. the child Psychiatrist is the only one we can go to , on our insurance. I already have a 6,000 a year deductible. I can't pay to go to anyone and this guy came highly reccomended by several doctor's. Anyway thanks for the vent. I have to try to get in to the psych next week, if I can.Vyvanse didn't work for ds. Made him moody and irritable. He is on 50 mg
Zoloft and 20mg Daytrana w/ short acting focalin when needed. Sounds like
you might need a med adjustment or change. How about trying Adderall XR
since it is the same class as Vyvanse?Hey willsmama- good to hear from you! The Vyvanse definatly had alot to do with the anxiety and attitude at home. He really thinks he knows everything yet he knows nothing of what he speaks. He takes it all out on us. He manages to get by in school without the meanness but he is sooo behind from not turning in or bringing home or to school homework. Now that he is back on the 30mg His behaivior at home is better but not good enough,very disrespectful.He is still on 50 Zoloft which I hace heard is a problem with the Vyvanse???? anyway it is not helping the anxiety like before. I think the teacher is the biggest problem. I am going to call a meeting and bring in documentation for an IEP with suggestions for modifications from his pdoc.Very frustrated and just don't know what to do.

I feel for you... I really do.

ANd the attitude thing is still going on here.  It's the time of year where he really falls apart.. I almost dread the holidays with him.

I am trying to NOT give him his meds today to just see how he does and possibly EAT something.  He's brother is gone all weekend to birthday parties so I thought we might try it and see what happens.  It'll just be me and him so maybe we can both survive.

I don't know anything about the Zoloft.  Will takes Depakote, but I can't say it's really doing anything..  He's ok in school too, he's a natural charmer and the ladies really love him.  He gets in trouble a lot for talking, not sitting down and all of the other typical ADHD stuff, but no one has ever complained of him being disrespectful.  He saves that all for us!

Hi Spamula, Sorry things are going well.  I'm sure you remember Will and your son started Vyvanse at about the same time.  Will is still taking it, along with Depakote, but I'm really torn at continuing it.

You wouldn't believe, or maybe you would, the bad attitude he has more or less constantly!  But.. it's the ONLY med we have found that works for the length of time this one does.  It gets him thru school (mild behavior problems with talking and not staying seated, but charms his way out of bigger problems) and I like the slow release in that I can't really tell when it wears off exactly and the rebound isn't as bad as some..

Yet, the attitude is so rotten..

Good luck, and keep us posted on how he does.  I'm considering doing something else, but I just don't know what yet...

i just wanted to say that my son also takes vyvanse 30 mg. it worked wonderfully for a few months and now it just seems to not work as good. he gets very hyper in the evenings and he has the attitude problem that all of u are talking about. he doesnt seem as happy as he used to be. although he doesnt give me the impression that he is depressed. he is still emotional more than b4 vyvanse. its not as bad as when we first started it but he does cry  over little things still. if u do something he doesnt like he will stomp his feet or yell at u. its like an outburst of anger. he is not at all aggressive and he doesnt hurt ppl so thats good but he will slam things down and say mean things now when he is mad or doesnt get his way. i had a cinference with his teacher this past week and he is being impulsive and has trouble paying attention. at the beginning of the yr all of this was under control but now not so much. im glad she doesnt see so much of the hyperness. she did say he does his work though. he also interupts and blurts things out. he doesnt wait his turn for things and he loses alot of things or misplaces them. so it seems as though this med isnt doing its job to the fullest. i will say though that he would be so much worse without it at all. it does control alot of the adhd compared to b4 meds. im torn on whether to try something else or to stay with this a little longer. we have not had luck with anything in the past and have had some nasty side effects so it worries me to switch him. i was wondering though, besides the attitude prob, how many 7 yr olds act like him in 1st grade? i keep thinking a med isnt going to make him sit still and act like a grown up. so i wonder how much of his behavoir is a 7 yr olds and how much of it is adhd and how much is a side effect of this med. it so much to think about! its hard to know if u are doing the right thing sometimes. i do feel like if i switch his meds that i should try to wait for summer so i can monitor him better. i hate to send him to school on a new med and not know how he reacts. i feel like the weekend is just not long enough. it also seems like the meds are good for about 2 months and then lose their effectiveness. i also feel like a higher dose of this will not help him. he already has tics that he is taking tenex for so i dont want to increase. i dont even know what med to go with after this one since most ppl seem to have gone to vyvanse after the other meds failing. why cant his be easy?! well, just wanted to let u know u are not alone. seems like they all have the moodiness in common. sometimes i wonder how picky the teacher is. she hasnt seen him without meds and seen how much of an imporvement they make on his behavoir. i dont know what to do right now.

kim

thanks hanginginthere, Since we lowered the Vyvanse back to 30 ,3 days ago, The only thing I have noticed is he is less angry less argumentative(I let him do more than his father, who is out of town right now), says he had a better day yesterday. he went to the teacher to find out how to set-up a major project She was so busy she says, It isn't your time to be here (at her desk) now leave, to my son, while I was standing there. Last year our teacher who was phenomenal, passed him with A's and B's and worked well with him.This year I am getting tired of him being pushed off like the problem child. she did a Connors Rating Form and boy was it bad, worse than he has ever had. At least things are getting better at home, although we will probably need a med change as the dose hike went terible. The Vyvanse was great for a year then things wet Haywire. I somehow think the teacher has xomething to do with it. As far as the Zoloft, We kept that at 50mg and without the extra Vyvanse, It seems to be doing the job.

Hi Spamula,

Sounds like we have similar issues. My 8 yr old son is ADHD/Anxiety/gifted (but not in program). Hope your son had a good day today. Here's my story (sorry so long) - any ideas?

He has been on Vyvanse 30mg for about a year and has done very well. Last year it really probably worked too much - he was super quiet and focused and lost his personality - never ate and hard to fall asleep. This year, despite that he hasn't grown much at all, it appears to have a lighter effect, which we liked b/c barely any side effects. But we also realized his anxiety level was so high that he had to be put on Zoloft. The signs were always there but we just didn't pick up on them I guess. 25mg Zoloft didn't do much but when we bumped it to 50 mg it made a big difference. He was smiling and much happier - felt like I had my kid back. However after a month we still had some issues of small panic episodes and not wanting to sleep alone and the Psychiatrist said we could try upping it to 75 mg of Zoloft.

So we started that Monday night. But the next two days he has gotten in trouble at school and he said the teacher signed his conduct sheet. He says they were for small things and that teacher is overreacting - but something doesn't add up. I'm thinking he is oblivious to his conduct? Either that or the teacher is overreacting. I sent her an email to get her take on things.

Could it be the Zoloft adjustment? Or could it be we need to up the Vyvanse? I was reading on some threads and it sounds like there is a pattern of Vyvanse and then anxiety. I wonder if we should go back to Concerta...we liked that last year but switched to Vyvanse due to side effects, although Vyvanse wasn't much better. Anyway, figures we had our f/u appt. last week with the Dr. and told him all was fine. Its never fine a few days after the appt. - why is that? Uugh! Thank goodness about the argumentative/angry stuff improving for you! I think that's the worst part of all this. My son takes it all out on us at home and my husband doesn't handle it well, he isn't as patient. My son wont stop until he gets me to the point where I shut down and cry (which is a few times per week). My husband will just snap and yell and spank him. I hate it so much because the poor kid just feels worse. I think his anxiety is still pretty high - which is what kept him from testing well for the gifted program. I just want to get him in the right place before they re-test him in Feb.

His teacher replied to me that he wasn't doing anything too bad - just talking and being silly. But she blamed it mostly on who he was sitting next to so obviously he is overreacting to getting in trouble. His teacher last year seemed WAY more strict than his teacher this year, yet he thinks this year's teacher is A LOT meaner. I don't see it. But maybe she isn't handling it as calmly?

I guess I will ask the Dr. about the link between Vyvanse and anxiety. Maybe we should go back to trying Concerta again?

I definatly think the teacher this year has something to do with his anxiety level this year. She is not nice and nuturing like last years teach although she was strict in her class. Hope things work out for you, I do not know what we will do? spamula39758.6358333333

macmeprettyX --  Wow!  how fortunate the youngsters are that have you as a resource!!  This notion that the only environment kids get to discuss their ADD is with a big towering grown-up in a clinical setting makes me cringe.  It also makes me a bit thankful that I wasn't diagnosed when I was a little tyke (back in the 60's, I shudder to think what I might have been subjected to!).

Anyway, the world needs more, many more, like you!!