Hi everyone! I am hoping this message board is for me. I was reading the stories above and they were mostly about adults finding out they were ADHD. I would like some advice/input regarding my situation. I hope this won't be too long, but it probably will. Sorry...
As a baby, my daughter slept and ate well. The only issues that stand out to me now are that she didn't like to be held or restrained in any way (carseat, high chair), she was extremely active and persistant with things. For example, she could wriggle out of her high chair and be standing on top of the tray by the time you turned around. (Hence, the nickname Whodini!) When trying to roll over, she would literally try for hours at a time. As she progressed into her toddler years, discipline was difficult. We had to hold her in time out because she would not be cooperative. Going anywhere public seemed to be disasterous. We would have to go back to try to get her picture taken numerous times because she was hyperactive and oppositional. She was shy around people and would not talk to them. She was clingy and experienced separation anxiety. She had many ear infections which led to tubes in her ears and she became fearful and freaked out by anything touching her ears or any loud noises. We could definately NOT go to the fireworks on the 4th of July like other families.
As she grew older around 4 and 5, this became more pronounced. I remember the teacher trying to get her to say hello, but she would not. She seemed to experience more social anxiety than other kids. At birthday parties, she would cling to me, and become angry and oppositional. She would not participate with the other children. I put her into gymnastics thinking this would help her socially and energy wise. All of the other kids would come up to her and ask her why she wouldn't talk to them. It was painful to watch and she could never verbalize her feelings. She progressed to a more advanced class, but started becoming so oppositional about going that we had to stop. I think the transition to a new class was more than she could tolerate. The new class was on a Saturday and it was loaded with people. I
n Kindergarten and First grade I got called in for conferences because my daughter just stopped talking for no apparant reason. I told the teacher I suspected ADHD because she was hyperactive at home. I took her to her PCP and what do you know. She was diagnosed ADHD and put on Adderall and Clonidine since the Adderall would affect her sleep. On Adderall, her attention improved, too much! She was so focused that she spoke even less. She would go off by herself for hours and put together puzzles. I would also find her writing lists of words over and over again. Increased agitation in the form of picking at herself and twirling her earrings constantly were another concern. When the med wore off, look out! The temper outbursts and oppositional behavior were horrendous! Some time that year as she grew, the anger and mood fluctuations became more severe. Her Adderall was increased and things returned to how they were previously.
In second grade, when she shut down verbally again the school decided to test her for a speech problem, thinking that this could be interfering with her ability to communicate. Of course, nothing was found. By the end of the year, the reaction to the med wearing off became severe. My daughters temper outbursts were more like rages and we had to restrain her often. One morning on one of the worst days of my life, we drove her to the hospital as I was pregnant and at this point she was a danger to me. We waited in the E.R. for 12 hours in this tiny room while my daughter hit and kicked the walls and my husband. After this, the ambulance drove us to an inpatient mental hospital. She was seven, about to be 8.
While in the hospital, they tried to keep her off the Adderall and increase the Clonidine. After seeing her 5 minutes, the psychiatrist, announced that she was PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder, autistic spectrum). I will never forget the day that they allowed us to take her off the hospital grounds to see how she would do. Thank God, my parents met us for lunch. My daughter had the most seizure like rage that she attempted to run out into a busy highway. My parents had to hold her down in the backseat while she shouted out curse words that to this day I have never heard from her mouth and never had previously. I think she was having withdrawl from not being on the Adderall. On the second worse day of my life, we had to take her back to the hospital. I just wanted to get her out of there so I called the doctor and begged him to put her back on Adderall. He did and she was well enough to go home.
At home, she was still not stable because the mood swings were still present when the med wore off. Now she was having more intense separation anxiety problems and would flip out when I tried to leave her at summer camp. I had to take a leave of absence from work to get her stabilized. I took her to another psychiatrist who diagnosed her with EVERYTHING and stated that she was probably Bi-polar too! He put her on Risperidol. She gained 20 pounds in afew weeks. He switched her to 900 mg of Lithium and some Prozac for anxiety. He eventually changed her ADHD med to Concerta because I kept telling him that the Adderall was no longer working for the ADHD. Duh? Lithium calmed down her anger outbursts. The ADHD meds seemed to be working better. As for the Prozac, a few days after being on it she announced that she would go down the street and ask the little boy to play. I was shocked as this had never happened before. Of Course, I hated the idea of her now being on four medications, but for the first time in a while I could take a breath.
Third grade came. She was in a new school and had been referred to the Gifted and Talented Program. The first two terms came and went without any problems. Then the phone calls started. Not paying attention, not turning in homework, making tally marks every time someone says a word with a certain letter in it, bringing toys to school and lining them up on her desk, not working well in a group, not participating, crying when she gets hit with a soft ball in gym. Trips to the nurse for various reasons (this was not new) She didn't earn enough points to go on a the school field trip with all the other children. Her teachers felt she may be a "safety concern" if she went because she might run off or not follow directions. She went to school and sat in another classroom.
Fourth Grade and current: The first week of school, she bit another child's jacket when the other child snapped her head phones against her ears. I knew the problems were not going to skip two terms. Same ol' Same ol' I finally told the teachers that maybe she needs an IEP or 504 Plan because I didn't know what else to do. I had tried punishment and incentives and nothing seemed to improve things. One teacher actually criticized the incentive I had chose stating that she would not be motivated by ice cream. This same teacher brought up medication twice. Perhaps she needs a fifth med? A couple of days ago, I went and spoke with the principal. I had never wanted to tell the whole story about my daughter for fear that she would be stigmatized as "that child with major problems." I did it anyway. I wrote a letter requesting testing and so forth so we'll see what happens. In the meantime, my daughter is now 20 pounds overweight. There is a part of me that just wants to take her off the meds all together. It seems like things became worse since I started on this roller coaster ride of meds. The psychiatrist does not want to this. I know that I need a second opinion so I am looking for another evaluation.
What's your opinion?
Thanks for listening! I promise that I will never write a post this long again. I just needed my situation to be known to be a part of this group and so that others know where I am coming from.
Welcome to the forum!Any chance of bipolar in the family gene line? I just throw that out due to her having trouble with the adhd meds.
Why not re-evaluate, start over, and see what happens since she is older on the test?
It is so hard to say. These meds all do different things to different people. I feel for her sorrow and suffering at such a young age.
Any suggestions from the school? Any feedback from your daughter?
If she was mine, I would be on the phone setting up a brand new evaluation and take if from there.
Also, we use a pyschopharmacologist for my sons meds. He is a psychiatrist to talk to if you want and prescribes meds. He knows all sorts of things about the meds out there, there are so many and you can combine some with others, etc. My son is 11 and doesn't talk about any problems, but we wouldn't be where we are without his help. he helped us with all the meds at the beginning. My son started meds when he was shy of 7 and it took us about 6 months to level off with the right. I really recommend them!!
Keep us posted!!
I agree with BETHANN. For starters seek out another opinion ny either a pyschiatirst or a neuro/psych. This poor child is screaming out for help and while your doing everything possible as a parent to get her the right help, nothing is working. If in fact your daughter did or does bipolar disorder, ADHD meds trigger a mania (Thats just an example of adverse side effects of a medication for child with an undiagnosed disorder who takes certain medications for something else Obviously the meds are all wrong and are doing her more harm than good and accomodations at school at this point will not bring resolve or bring your daughters behaviors under control. The answer is not sticking with what isnt working, especially medication. Medication is a great tool and a life saving tool but in this situation a definititve diagnosis is desperately needed so that your daughter could get treatment suited to her needs which wil alow her to go on to live quality of life along with the rest of the family unit. Hugs to you and please keep us posted.To: addkidsarecool
I wondered if any of my daughters symptome sound similiar to your autistic spectrum son? How did you get him evaluated for this? Unfortunately, I live in an area where not many people have experience with ASD.