Need Advice - DS threatens students | ADHD Information

Background:
My ds, R, is 7 and in 2nd grade.  He was diagnosed with ADHD and Disruptive Behavior Disorder in the spring.  Thanks to advice from this board, we requested a child study which lead to an IEP in September.  The IEP has behavioral goals in addition to his academic allowances.

R sees his counselor twice a month. This Saturday, he starts taking a low dose of Adderall.  The delay in starting the medication is because his psychiatrist wanted to have lab work and an EKG done first due to strong history of cardiac issues in the family.

Situation:
This morning, I received a call from school stating that R had threated to strangle another student when he was not allowed to be last in line because the other child was already last in line.  He is spending the morning in the principal's office.  This is not the first time he has threatened or acted out physically towards other students.  It is an infrequent occurance and always results from him being angry over something.  For example, he threatened to "have words on the playground" with another student when the other student took an item from R's desk.  Last year, he did choke a student with whom he was irate.

He does not exhibit this behavior at home.  I suspect that is because he is currently an only child.  That is expected to change soon as we hope to add a much younger (foster to adopt) sibling to the family.

I spoke with him after this morning's incident and let him know that he made a very bad decision.  I plan to bring up today's incident with his therapist in next week's session.  In the meantime, what advice can you share to help us work with him?  What would be an effective discipline for such an incident?

He refused to eat more than a few bites of breakfast this morning.  Could that have played a part in this?

I appreciate any and all insight you can provide. 

Is this typical behavior for your son? Do you think he started off in a bad mood from the morning and it carried over into school?

Two things come to mind, first one is his meds. Do you feel adderall is working for your son? My son couldn't handle adderall - it made him agressive, psychotic, he looked "high" with his eyes all dialated, etc. It was really horrible for our son. He literally freaked out in the doctors office, where I brought him that day. The doctor immediatly switched him to concerta and it has never happened again.

The other is bipolar or depression. Do you have any family history with this?

I bet your son is suffering inside as well. Any changes in social at school, does he have friends? Any feedback from teacher when this all started?

I would call the medication prescribing doctor ASAP and tell him/her what is happening. I wouldn't wait for the therapist appointment.

That sounds like a page from our story. My son did choke a child in first grade, stabbed a kid in the eye with a pencil, hit and screamed at people when he got angry. At the time he was only on tenex - he came to us from foster system on that. We waited to medicate. tried alternative therapies due to the adoption transition.

 When we finally got the dx of ADHD he had already developed ODD - oppositional defiant disorder. He was so angry at times, moody, not able to see the positive about anything. He wouldn't do much of what was asked of him.  He threaten to commit suiside (although I don't really think he knew the severity of what he was saying), he hated himself and this family. It got so bad so quickly that I was beside myself. Then we started him on Concerta - one med dose change and now it is great! NO ISSUES at school AT ALL. A few off tasks or talkative days but trust me that seems normal and I don't think anything of it except that he is a normal 8 almost 9 year old boy!! Meds worked for us and trust me I fought it but he needs it!

Good luck!

Don't beat yourself up over this, but believe me I completely understand. I was the same way until we got our son on meds and he was at the right dose.

Just an FYI for Saturday, when you start you will probably be at the lowest dose, which may be fine for your son, however, you may see no change in anything due to him needing a higher dose. Our doctor wrote a new prescription everytime he needed an increase, even if it was daily, while we were leveling off.

It took us almost 6 months to level off, where he stayed for over 3 years before he was increased again. It is worth the effort, it really pays off. You will see your awesome son differently with meds once you are where he needs to be. Our son's doctor believes that when our son is on meds that that is the real person, not the one unmedicated and hyper, impulsive, silly, goofy, immature, etc. The meds help that much, once you are on the right med and right dose. And they are success based, not weight or age based, except for a few - one being strattera.

Please post any questions about the meds as well.

R is not yet on meds.  He starts on Saturday.  We are starting him on the weekend because we want to observe him and watch for any negative reactions.

So, this behavior is without any influencing substance.  This behavior is infrequent.  In 7 yrs, he's responded physically when angry only about 4 times.  He's made verbal threats only twice this year.

He has a few friends and he's never threatened or been physical with them. 

Honestly, he's a great kid who made a bad decision today.