Yes, check the meds. We just went thru the same thing, and don't think we've got it right yet. My son is 13 and has been on Concerta 54 and Risperdal 1.5 for atleast 3 years. I thought maybe the risperdal wasn't working as well, so I asked for abilify, and the dr. thought it was ok to change. It didn't really do anything different except it seemed to help lessen his appetite. Risperdal tends to add weight. Well i took him off the abilify and put him back on risperdal and 3-4 days later he told a friend at school "maybe he'll just kill himself". He's never spoken those words before. He told me he didn't mean it, but I still took him in for an eval because i could never like with myself if he did do something and i didn't take him seriously. We had an anxiety/depression/ADHD/asperger gene in the family, so it really scares me. Let us know what his dr says.
Thanks for responding everyone. I am just use to the diabetes forum I'm on. You can get an answer from someone anytime of the day.
Just to clarify, I didn't call the doctor yet about what my son said. Obviously, if I thought he was in immediate danger I would have taken him to the hospital, etc. What he said DOES bother me, and I am also thinking that it came from the lower Vyvanse dosage. Without the extra in his system, I actually haven't been able to tell if the Ritalin is even making a difference.
Again today, I met my mom at the mall, and I had to threaten to call Daddy to get him to take his pill. This was even earlier than he took it yesterday. He wouldn't walk with us either, and would push me if I happened to touch him or move him out of the main walkway.
First thing in the morning I am calling the doctor and I will give you an update. Thanks again.
My son, who is 7, started Concerta (which is the same med as Ritalin) andI wrote "Confessions of a mom", and since then we went to the doctor and lowered the Vyvanse from 70mg to 50mg, and added 5mg Ritalin to the afternoon. We started this yesterday, and it wasn't too bad. Today, however, he got into a fight with his cousin and ended up locking himself in his room. I realized that it was time for the Ritalin, so I got it and went to his room. I had to unlock the door, and he had crawled under his bed and refused to come out and take the pill.
He kept saying over and over again that he wanted to die! I stayed calm, telling him to come out from the under the bed. Then he changed it to I just want to stay here, go crazy and kill myself! He said that a couple of times, and I told him that if he said it again I was going to take him to the hospital. He asked why, and I told him that they would have to put him in the hospital to make sure he didn't hurt himself. He finally came out and took his pill.
He is not as angry now, but put on some rollerblades, said he wasn't going to take them off until bedtime, and he didn't care if he fell down, got hurt or kept bleeding.
Everything that he said is NOTHING that he has EVER said before! Except for arguing with his cousin, he wasn't in trouble, and nobody else was angry or escalating the situation. I stayed calm the whole time, not pressing the issue of what he was saying (trying to make it like it wasn't bothering me), just telling him he needed to come take his pill.
I'm definitely going to call the doctor on Monday, but am I blowing this out of proportion, or something that sounds typical of adverse affects of the medication? We've not had any problems with Vyvanse, but just started Ritalin for the first time yesterday.
I don't think he would actually do anything to himself, but I don't know where those thoughts were coming from!
I don't have expertise with meds, but it seems likely that if meds were just started, or changed, and you suddenly saw behavior that you'd never seen before, it seems likely that it was a reaction to the meds. I think you are right to call the doctor immediately Monday, and, no, I don't think you are blowing this out of proportion.I really don't know enough about the meds to know what class they are in. He's been on vyvanse for 2-1/2 years and it has always worked great, but we kept increasing his dose because it wasn't working AS WELL, and the afternoons were getting worse.
We just decided to try to add the Ritalin to help with the afternoons, but I felt that if we were adding something else we should reduce the Vyvanse. So far, I can definitely tell the difference in the lower dose, but that reaction yesterday really threw me for a loop. After the Ritalin was in his system, he calmed back down a little, so I'm not sure if the things he said were from adding the Ritalin, or lowering the Vyvanse.
At any rate, I'm calling the doctor tomorrow.
As far as seeing what others have to say about Vyvanse or anything else, I'm really disappointed at what I've NOT found. I am on a forum for diabetes, and if you post a question, you will get a response within a couple of minutes. I haven't been able to find an ADHD forum that has people respond like that. I posted on here about needing help before a doctor's appointment TWO days later, and no one answered back.
Thank you for those that have answered back. I figured that with a child that is saying he wants to kill himself, more people would have tried to help. Are there any other ADHD forums where more people respond?
Sorry for people not responding as quickly as you want them to. SOme people might have been busy (it was Valentine's Day, after all....) and in general, the weather is getting nicer so people might not be as frequent visitors on the board. I, myself, have had posts go unanswered, COMPLETELY, and well, that's just the way the ball bounces.