Why are mornings so hard? | ADHD Information

Mornings are difficult in my house. School doesn't start until 9:00. My
5 1/2 year old is up around 6:00. He's up and at 'em from the second
his feet hit the floor. He walks loud, he talks loud, he turns on the tv
and laughs at it loud. My 3 1/2 year old wakes up soon after. 

This morning is a perfect example:  5 1/2 yo is out of control this am. I
found him downstairs with the toy closet open. He was looking for his
skating helmet and cleats for a "football game" that he wants me to
play and be the ref after school.  These pretend games that he makes
up and perseverates on always involve other people to be in them to
play specific roles he's imagined for them.  He misses the social cues
that no one wants to play the roles he's assigned for them in his made
up sports games.  He relies on adults to fulfill these roles that no child
would play. He was sing-talking all morning (I call it talking like a rock
star, and it is extrordinarily irritating), and tossing all of his little
brother's toys about. He is giddily insisting that his stickers are actually
tattoos.  And he just shredded my last nerve by spilling my coffee
(which he had no business touching in the first place).  

He was being extremely inappropriate at the bus stop yesterday,
darting into the street, etc, putting the older girls on  an unfair
hyperalert fir his safety.  He misses the social cues that they are
annoyed. 

My 3 1/2 year old has a range of difficult behaviors as well, too much
to get into now, and I'm tired of feeling beaten up by 9:00 am.   What time do you give him the Adderall? Do you notice he's better once the medication kicks in or is he the same?That sounds a lot like our mornings. We did Risperdal for awhile, before switching to Tenex. Both seemed to help with this morning mayhem, but I have to make sure to give it first thing and NOT miss the noon dose. The one nice thing is that the sleepiness he has as a side-effect (right now) makes him sleep in. I don't get him up until 30 min before we have to leave. But that is at 7:30 in the am, so I can't imagine how it would be if he didn't have to be at school until 9am.

I like to say that my son is a born director, producer, and main actor for the plays that are his life. I've gotten to the point where I tell him, "It is not my job to entertain you. My job is to be your mother. You'll have to find something else to do." This makes him so mad he says I'm the meanest mom ever. I'm actually looking into a social skills class, because those cues just don't register for him either.

My younger guy also has a lot of issues, difficulties. I can understand your frustrations. After school drop-offs I just breathe a big sigh and try not to think about having to do the pick-up routine in just a few hours. Do they have respite care in your area? I've thought about doing this a few times, but haven't ever actually called about it. It might help you to see if you could have a caregiver come a few mornings out of the week? Just to give you a break and a little help.

@OneOrTheOther: My sons are in 1/2 day morning school. The 5 1/2
yo in kindergarten 5 days a week and the 3 1/2 year old in preschool
4 days a week - so I get a break! I'm incredibly fortunate because I
am a stay at home mother, and I use the couple hours that they are
gone every morning to regroup. It's made a world of difference with
my patience with the kids. I still refuse to be the pawn in my son's
make believe. My husband had to break himself of the habit of
indulging him, which went on way to long (into age 5). In fact one of
the things my son gets rewarded for is "entertaining himself". We have
a list on the fridge of what that looks like and sounds like. Friends
whose children are typically developing find my list comical:
"Entertaining myself does not look like coming to mom to say 'Uppie!
Uppie! Uppie!'". "Entertaining myself does not look like asking mom or
dad to play". They can't believe he gets rewarded for it. They have NO
idea.      

@logansmom: There is definitely an improvement once the adderall
xr kicks in. I give adderall as soon as I wake up, 7:00. He's better by
the time he gets on the bus, 8:30. I've tried making the time in
between better by giving him some short acting adderall at the same
time as the long acting but that made him agitated (which isn't his
personality at all, and as the psych pointed out, a really lousy way to
feel). The psych just switched out the risperdal with tenex, 7:00 am
and 4:00 pm (the time adderall xr wears off). What do you think?
      

I think the Tenex should help in the morning (but then again you know I'm a big believer in Tenex! )  It sounds like the Adderall just takes a long time to kick-in in the morning.  And when you tried the short acting along with the XR the dose was too high all at once.  That's how my son acted when his Adderall dose was too high.  Since Tenex is a "build up in the system" med it should give him 24 hr coverage.  That being said, my son STILL has to take 3 doses a day becasue he metabolizes it so fast.

If the Tenex doesn't do the trick there are a couple other options.  You could try switching to the patch.  This way it's on him when he's sleeping (at least I think that's how it works-we've never tried it)  The other option is if you can wake him up just long enough to take the pill then go back to sleep for another hour that might work.  Unfortunately that never worked for my son because once he's up...he's up!

I'm following this thread and very interested in Tenex. Could you explain
what it does exactly and prescribed for ADHD? After seeing three docs so
far one have mentioned it, and only dealing with stims. The stims ARE working well for sure, though we started a third one just today in our
quest for the perfect fit. I have to say VERY happy with results of the 5mg
Focalin XR for our son! Just had one very brief window of seeming tired
but then was perfect
combo of calm but present. At almost exactly 8 hrs though it wore
off,and he was extremely hyper- not moody/weepy though like he was
coming off the short acting version, thank god! Thinking I'll give him a
2.5 short acting booster at about 2 pm to even out the hyperness, and
gain a little more non ADHD behavior! Still,wondering if tenex should be
part of his routine instead of just stim because he is so hyper before and
after stim...thoughts??mommatrying40264.5904398148

Tenex (Guanfacine is the generic, Intuniv is the long acting) is actually a blood pressure medication usually prescribed to adults.  Somehow someone figured out that it helps with ADHD...I have no idea how!  And unfortunately I don't really know how it does what it does but I can tell you from experience that it helps tremendously with some ADHD kids! 

Most of the time the pediatricians won't prescribe Tenex.  It's not that they disagree with it. They just don't have any experience with it and prefer that you go to a specialist for the Rx.  That's what my son's pediatrician did.  When we realized that the stimulants weren't going to cut it alone, she sent us to a psychiatrist.