Is this just ADHD? Or more? (New member) | ADHD Information

Hey all, I apologize if this has been covered to death here, and I'm sure there have been a million "what does he have?" posts, but...maybe someone out there recognizes this particular complex of behaviors.

My good friend (really!) has an eleven year old who has been diagnosed with ADHD, however reliably or unreliably I don't know. He has had ADHD-oid symptoms for years, and takes adderal and clonidine (for supposed concurrent hypertension). We will call him Zak.

Zak currently take 30 mg Adderal (10 in the morning, 20 in the evening), which was recently increased from 20 mg. Nevertheless, there has been almost no change in his behavior. Generally speaking, he has two states (besides the sleeping state). In his completely uncontrolled state, he is unbearable to his siblings and mother. He is bouncing off the walls, shooting cap guns out the window, lighting hairspray cans on fire, and incessantly torturing his siblings (15 and 14) to the poiit that they physically beat him to stop the torture (apparently to no effect).

Zak's average day goes like this: wake up 5:30 AM, every morning, turn on the TV, radio, lights, raid the fridge for sugar. Oh, he is a sugar fiend. Despite extensive efforts to keep sugar out of the house, he finds ways to get it at school, buy it on the street, etc. He is insatiable for it. But anyway, thus begins his morning. Next he progresses to drive his siblings nuts, raising them from sleep at 6AM by whatever means necessary. His morning pill seems to have no effect. His school record has been tough, having been thrown out of school, refused transport by the school bus driver, and an incident at 9 years old when he walked out of sleepaway camp and started heading home. Dinnertime is no better, just a constant whirl of motion, noise, dancing, lights, and destruction, until at perhaps 11 PM he collapses, exhausted, into a heap.

The toll he exacts on his siblings and mother is tremendous. She is a single mom (the dad is emotionally disturbed and is out of the picture by legal force), whose boyfriend of 7 years passed away last year suddenly, plunging her into a bad state (as well, the boyfriend was tremendously positive force and a father figure in Zaks life). She is left screaming at Zak, and Zak screams back, twice as loud (ear piercing volumes, let me tell you). Zak can try anyone's patience; He finds a way, without trying, to push everyone's buttons. Almost as if he has been programmed to drive everyone crazy by hitting their most vulnerable spot, then giggling and running away. Enough to make you waqnt to tear your hair out. The mom has simply pushed him out the front door many times, when she thought she would snap.

The semi-controlled state is little better; While he may not be destoying everything in sight and physically attackin his siblings, he is equally belligerent and difficult.

Furthermore, he does not seem aware of the dangers of his actions. He plays with fire, even burning off a hamsters whiskers (besides the fact he killed several hamsters inadvertenly by various means), and is...dangerous simetomes.

As well, he is sexually, well, wild. At some point, he must have seen something on TV, the computer, or who knows, but he goes around the house making sexual moaning sounds, sounds of gratification, and starts simulating sex with objects in ways that suggest he has seen quite a few porn clips (we surmise it happenedd one day when we were all out of the house and he had inadvertent access to the computer). He also touches his brother and sister inappropriately.

This is not to say that he does not have a sweet side; He certainly does have a warm heart, makes his mom collages with pictures of her late boyfriend, little things like that; has a girlfriend (several) whom he makes little presents for; and is generally lovable. But the general behavior is horriffic, ever worsening, and unbearable.

Is this just a simple case of ADHD? THe mom is at wit's end, and doesn't seem to have had gotten much useful help from the professionals. Where to go from here?I'm not an expert, but it seems like there is A LOT going on here. Based on what you've said, it seems that this child is a danger to himself and others and that this family is in a state of crisis. Is there a hospital that the mother could take the boy to for a full evaluation? It seems critically important that this child get an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan with lots of follow-up. I would keep making phone calls until this can be accomplished one way or another.
Good luck.
I think it may be his meds. Adderral is known for agressive behaiviors. It sounds alot more that ADHD going on. I also believe a stay at a hospital for re diagnosis and medication stabilization may be necessary.Yep, call a doc. It's possible he needs a higher dose of medication, and
it's possible he's reacting to the medication.

I want to say something else that could be very disturbing. I'm saying it
because a social worker gave me this advice when I told her about a
friend of mine's son who was "playing gay" (his term) inappropriately.
The social worker was very concerned that the child might have been
sexually abused. Children don't touch their siblings in a sexual manner
unless something has been done to them; they don't act that way in
public unless they want someone to discover that they have a problem
and help them with it.

It is a very hard subject to broach. But when you're living with it,
sometimes you can't see it; sometimes you don't want to see it. My
attitude is if there is something going on, even if it's incredibly scary, I'd
rather have it checked out and know for sure, because it's possible there
is something I could do to correct or at least help the problem if I only
knew what the problem was.

Sorry to lay that on you. I really felt compelled to say it, though. If
something did happen to this boy and I didn't raise that red flag I couldn't
forgive myself.

Best of luck to you.