Newbie Greeting | ADHD Information
Welcome Landon's Dad! The journey to finding the right meds can be very frustrating! But if you have a good doctor that know's what they're doing it can be done! Tenex takes a while to build up in the system before you see any real results. We noticed some positive results within days but didn't really see the full effect for several weeks.
Also once your son gets stablized on the Tenex you may be able to add a stimulant back in. The Tenex will help counteract the side effects of the stimulants. For my son, the Tenex is not enough by itself and he can't take the stimulants without the Tenex but taken all together it works!
Good luck and I wish you the best!
Hello and welcome Landon's dad!! I am glad you have found us, you are at the right place my new friend!! 
I am a mother of a 12 yr old boy, who was just like your son. He was correctly diagnosed just shy of 5. We started meds at the end of first grade, but should have immediately after the diagnosis. He ended up all over the place with social bullying, exclusion, etc 
though he was still very, very smart. We thought he could make the choice not to "do it" but we learned that he can't control his impulsiveness.
So began the med journey. We started with the pediatrician first but then were referred to a pscychopharmacologist (specialize in ALL these meds - and there are lots to choose from!!) after the ped. told us this wasn't his field of speciality, which was so true!!
My son tried adderall XR - didn't work, then we tried concerta, but he couldn't sleep and didn't eat - so we tried adding strattera, depression set in - SO we started over, with concerta AND guanfacine. We ramped up his dose of concerta and found the perfect mix. He did move up several times with the concerta dose, but after 5 + years, he is still on concerta AND guanfacine (same dose ). Guanfacine helps with anxiety, impulsiveness, self regulation - it totally makes the combo successful, as well as my son.
Hang in there, once you find the right med for your son, you will be out to dinner.
PLease feel free to ask any questions, there are many here who have been where you are , like me!
Welcome again!!
Hi,
Our DS, age 6, is also on Tenex.. just trying to get his motor turned down a notch. Like your son, Max has had difficulty with the stimulants.. Last year, he had an aggressive result with Adderall and Metadate (sp?). This year he had wonderful results with Ritalin but developed Tics (eye blinking, etc.) and is off pending Ped Neurologist consult. In the meantime, he is taking Tenex .5mg in the morning and .5mg at night. He is calmer and more incontrol of his super impulsive behavior. I might add a word of caution from our experience...when Max's dosage was too high (1 mg morn/1mg night) he was very aggitated, defiant and had a couple of terrible rage incidents. So, sometimes less..is more! Tenex does not help Max with focus on his school work, so it isn't a cure all.
Best of luck with your little guy and your whole family!
______________________
Sandy
Hi Landon's dad and forum friends,
I am a newbie to the forum as well but not a newbie to
adhd/add. My daughter (now almost 10) was diagnosed with
ADD when she was in the first grade and meds were begun
after a difficult and lengthy process. The diagnosis
itself took six months and was quite thorough looking at
different organic
problems/deficiencies/EEGs/hearing/sight/orthopedic that
could in fact cause similiar symptoms.
She has been OT (the OT diagnosed a SID) for a while now
and this although certainly does help, does not solve the
problem. For us at least, neither did omegas, vitamins or
behavioral therapies, cranial sacral therapy,
biofeedback. Though we continue with all (except the last
two) of these because they do seem to help...I am fully
aware that this is a process, a journey and certainly not
one without setbacks.
To SaveChildren, I do not believe the decision to
medicate or not any loving/responsible makes lightly. I
cannot imagine a parent ever doing this without
caution/worry/many late night discussions. It is an
extremely hard decision to make.
Happily, we've had a tiny bit of light at the end of our
tunnel recently. We did start crawling therapy about 4
months ago and have been recently able to cut down her
dosage of Ritalin by 10 mgs. This is a huge feat, I
think.
At any rate, I look forward to getting to know all of
you.Hello, I'm new and sure I will be visiting this site often so I wanted to say Hi and thank the many contributors that have given me even the slightest insight, direction, comfort and ideas already. I have two boys, the youngest is a typical always happy obedient soon to be 5 year old and the oldest is 6 and was just diagnosed with ADHD with some anxiety. We always knew that Landon was difficult and it really came out how different he was when we seen him in preschool last year. With this too we thought that maybe since he had never been in a school environment, that he just needed time to adjust (he had never been in daycare etc.) He started kindergarten last fall and was still having a hard time behaving. he was lucky to get a good patient teacher but he still ended up in the principal's office every couple weeks. He just can't slow down, when he walks into a room he has to see, touch, experience everything he sees. We tried charts, rewards, working with the teacher through a smiley frowny chart each day and while it sometimes help, the next day he'd be back to normal. It was absolutely the most heartbreaking thing sending him off to school each day as he'd say that he wasn't going to get any frownies, and see him come home and sigh as he stated the number of frownies he ended up getting, he wanted so much to do well, but he couldn't.
This was just in the first months of school, during that time I was unemployed and have since taken a job as a government contractor in Iraq. My wife sought out the help he needed and took him to see our family doctor (who after one visit prescribed Strattera). We weren't comfortable with how quick she jumped to the conclusion so my wife got in touch with somebody from the school district that works with ADHD children and guided her to a psychiatrist and a psychologist who evaluated Landon over several sessions and eventually put him on Ritalin. The first two days of Ritalin there were no changes, so the dosage was upped from 5 to 10 mg. This brought out aggression (he bit a kid at school which he had never done before) and made him cry uncontrollably at the slightest thing for long periods of time so after a few days on that dosage he was taken off the Ritalin and this week started Tenex by itself. I was surprised we didn't try some of the other stimulants first, but the doc seemed to think that if Ritalin caused the side effect than the other stimulants would as well... I don't think there's been much change so far, but it's only been a few days and my wife was told this one isn't immediate like the Ritalin. It's been pretty nerve racking waiting to hear updates on how this is all going given my present situation. Only notable difference so far is that last night it wasn't the struggle it normally is to get him to bed. And I'm not sure whether the doc's plan is to get him going on the tenex and then if it's not enough to try it with a stimulant as well... I guess I really need to give the doc a call myself to ask the questions that my wifey didn't have. (though she's been great about asking and relaying to me what's going on)
So that's the beginning of our story, just hoping it has a happy ending... Landon is such an intelligent, warm hearted little boy, what's truly amazing though is how despite the fact that he can't focus he still manages to pick up on what's being taught. So even though his mind is going every which way he still manages to pick up something from everywhere. He just can't be directed on what to focus on
Just hope I'll be able to soon take my family out to eat you know like in public and have it actually go well or without having to apologize to other patrons
I know focus still seems an issue for those who take Tenex, but it seems to
work so well for most with mood/behavior. Sounds like you're having the
same success story. That's great.Man, it's been hard going through this process being away from my family, they are of course at home in the states and I'm working in Iraq. I just wish I was there to see the progress (or lack thereof) to be able to help my wifey with these decisions etc. But it sounds like the Tenex is helping little Landon. My wife has been able to get through to him and reason with him when he gets upset... and when he's having a good day, it's amplified by the meds into a great day, and the bad days aren't as bad.
Like I said I have two boys and we used to wonder why our oldest wasn't more like our youngest who did what he was told and is just an all around good kid. My wife said the other day that it was Landon our DS that was making the youngest look bad
. and she took them with her for a day of "bumming around" and it went well, whereas before if you took both kiddos to a single store and if it didn't go bad, you better just go home and not push your luck any further.Thank you all for the welcome
Glad to hear you're getting some good results this soon! That's a good sign! Good luck and keep us posted!
I am wondering why isn't anyone talking about natural medications? Ritalin, adderal, concerta, matadate and all those prescription medicines come with side effects and lots of health risks and destroyed future. If you don't know, there is a wonderful natural medicine available in homeopathy, that's 100% natural and completely safe. And the effects are even better than prescription medication. Atleast give it a try before plainly accepting whatever strong medications, your doctor prescribes.
Troll!
