My son’s story...feeling a little lost | ADHD Information

My son is 7 years old and has recently been diagnosed with ADHD. Although this diagnoses was just rencently made official, I have I have know for a very long time that he was different. He has always been VERY active....he rolled himself over when he was just a week old because he was moving so much! He crawled at six months....walked at 8 1/2 months and was running and climbing by 10 months....and hasn't stopped since! He has a great sense of humor and is very loving but can be very defient, rude and hot tempered. He acts like a child who has never heard the word no (you know like one of the so called "spoiled" kids). He has been kick out of or suspended from every childcare or school he has ever went to including the one hes in now (and schools only been in session for what 2 months!). When he was 4 the director of the childcare where he went (and I worked) suggested I get him in evaluated by child find. After the evaluation I was told that he was emotionally and socially delayed but that he was too young to be diagnosed with anything. He was placed in a special ed program. The first year(preschool) was a disater! He was placed in a class with children who had varies forms of phyisical and mental disabilities and he would throw such a fit (yelling, screaming, knocking things over) that I had to pick him up cause it was upsetting the other children. Even though it was an all day program I was asked to only bring him for half days and even with that I still had to pick him up early due to behavior about twice a week. The second year (kindergarten) was a little better he went to a school that had a class for children with behavioral problems. But I still had to pick him up quite a bit and he was suspened a few times.  But they did not teach ANY academics to the kids! And when I asked about it they said that they couldn't teach them until they learned to listen, so he started this year way behind. This year we moved to Florida and I love his teaher and the program he is in. He has had a couple of issues and has been suspended once and he made it to the 3rd week before I even had to pick him up early due to behavior.  But I am confident he is finally in the right placement in school. Between 4-5 his doctor kept saying we should just wait and see if he grows out of this behavior, that maybe he was just imature. At age 6 I was finally able to get a referal to a mental health clinic. The thearpist he seen said that there was nothing she could do for him one on one and that he would get what he need in the school program he was in, but she did refer us to a pyschcitrist. When my son and I met with the pyschcitrist he never even looked at my son he asked me a couple of questions and then persribed adderal xr for him and said that should help...we were in the office for less than 15 minutes! I didn't want to put him on medicine expesially since the pyschtrist never explained anything or offically dignosed him or even seemed like he cared. But I was desprate, I had already had to go to a night shift so I was available during the day when his school called, I couldn't take him to anyones house cause he was sure to either get too wild or throw a fit, and forget taking him to the grocery store that was a nightmare! I needed to find something that would help him and quickly! He took the adderall for two days and litterally only slept for a bout 2 hours each night. I called the pysch and he said he would call in a prescictition when I picked it up the pharacist told me to be very careful because it would lower his blood pressure and to make sure he was closly monitored. All of this scared me cause this was all prescribed by a pysch who didn't even look at my son let alone look at his health records! I decided medicine was not right for him at that time and I would find another pysch. Now that we have moved to Florida and are living with my mom and stepdad I have been able to dedicate all of my time to try to find someone who could help my son. I have taken him to the peditrician, had allergy test and blood work done(all came out normal) and taken him to another pyschotrist.(also have appt coming up for a therapist and neroulogist) I don't know if all pysch are like this cause this is my second one and I had a very simalar experience. We went in he asked a few questions, he did watch my son for a couple of minutes but then he just kept saying yeah it's ADHD, it's definatly ADHD and when ever I asked him something or brought something up he said "It's ADHD he needs meds, it's the only thing that will help." So, I decided to try meds again and really stick with it. And it's been a rough road so far. Abilify and Concerta was a mircle for 5 days he was able to sit still in class and focus really well, and he still had his personallity and loving manner! Then on day 6 he had a horrible rage fit like I've never seen over something little and he was litterly punching himself in the face and head! So,back to the pysch he said it was the Concerta not the abiblify that was the problem. He thought we should try adderall xr with abilify this time...1 day and it made no difference in behavior and it had him so sick by 2:30pm that he couldn't stop throwing up, and on top of that he couldn't fall asleep until about 1am and then woke up every hour until 6am. Back to the pysch...now he's on Intuniv (and abilify)....haven't seen too much progress in behavior but at least no scary side effects yet! He started taking it a week ago and has been really tired (an hour nap and sleeping 12 hours at night) and very cranky! He also doesn't seem to find much enjoyment out of anything since he started the intuniv...I am hoping that this his body will adjust and it will get better! Expesially since his pysch said that there is only one med left and if that doesn't work he would suggest a 72 hour hospital stay! I think this is way to extreme! I sorry this has been so long. I just am feeling a little lost, frustrated and guilty that it has taken so long to get him the help he needs.

Hi Elias' mom:

The beginning of your post is very familiar!! I have a 12-year-old son, who was creeping @ 4 months, walking by 9 months, unstoppable! (I see friends' 6-month olds hanging out on their blankets on the floor with a rattle, happy as can be, and I can honestly say this NEVER happened in our house!)

He was diagnosed with ADHD at age 6, and we did eventually find a useful medication regimen, but it took a while, and has changed again recently with puberty coming on!

If your doctor says "only one med left" you might want a second opinion. Why leave you at a dead end like that when there are lots of options for support out there, medicine and non-medicine. Doesn't sound helpful at all!

One thing that stood out to me in your post was you probably have a very smart kid on your hands, and I'll bet that he is beyond frustrated in settings like a "special ed" program. I know my son would've been thinking "What, now I have to stay still *and* do boring things?!"

I've recently thought a lot about this "twice exceptional" thing that can happen where a child has ADHD and is also gifted. Their frustration levels must just go through the roof.

I don't have specific advice for you, but we did end up taking DS out of the school system altogether. We do a combination of homeschooling and cooperative classes with other families and an outdoor program that DS attends weekly. It's a lot to maintain, but he is a lot happier.

Best of luck!

Hang in there, my son is one of those 'twice exceptional' kids and is doing VERY well in school now.  He's taking Vyvanse, and it's working extremely well for him, he's himself but able to concentrate in school when he needs to.  I know just what you mean about personality, my son sounds the same as yours but with his last med he became obsessed with drawing and didn't play with other kids at all anymore.  He also seemed to not show a lot of any emotion.  Now he's back to being happy, funny, loving, sometimes grumpy and often bossy.... a regular kid.

One thing to remember about the specialist - he/she may have read a big report about your son from the doctor and not need to assess him a whole lot personally.  We sent our son to a psychologist who assessed him for 8 cumulative hours and wrote a 10-page report, which is what the pediatrician used to decide on a recommendation.  She has seen him for probably 10 minutes total, in 3 appointments, but was able to suggest a very successful treatment based on that and the report from the psych. 

I hope you can find someone you are comfortable with.  Good luck with the search!

Hi!

I too had a very active kid, went through many different therapies before we got to the adhd  (and ODD) diagnosises.  I have a very good pyhschologist who has really helped me to understand how AdHD works in the brain and help with behavior modification.  I went to the library and read a couple of books about ADHD, there even was one directed toward the child, so they can understand in a positive way.

The meds take some time, give it time, research on this website - it will help.  We fisrt tried vyvance and had very bad emotional stuff ( I am now wondering in hindsight if it is the body getting used to the stimulant.  We are now on the Daytrana patch  10 mg.  It has made a world of difference.  He can actually stop to think, behave and let his adorable, funny personality come through.  We also had rebound for a bit at first with the daytrana, his ped. wanted to up the dose to 15mg, but figured if it caused rebound, upping would make it worse.  So I cut the 15 mg in half.  That really worked well.  Then after about 3 mos I went back up to 10 (seemed better at that dose for school, reading is hard for him - although he is super smart)

One thing that our therapist taught me is that ADHD kids don't remember (in the executive part of the brain) So if you have been repeating and the teachers have been repeating, it's the ADHD..When they are on the meds, there brain can remember better, so... after a long period of time, you are going to create different habits - whether it be school work, minding, how to communicate with others without annoying them as much etc.  It's a process.

My son had issues with sleep, so we use some melatonin at night.  We see the therapist about once a month.  We see a  physchiatrist only for meds.

Good luck to you.

Thank you to everyone for the information and support! I am working on getting him a behavioral therapist and we are also going to se a nuerologist this coming week so hopefully we are on the right track. Thank you so much for this! I'm glad to hear that my son isn't the only one who seemed to be so active from the start! I know my son is very smart. I have been told this over and over again by teacher who say if they could just get him to sit still long enough he would have sucess in academics. His comprehension and vocabulary is amazing and has always been way above age/grade level. I would love to homeschool maybe sometime in the future, but at this time I just don't have the resources needed to do so. Luckily this year he has an amazing teacher who has worked very hard to catch him up on the stuff he doesn't know and at the same time encourge him in the skills he is excelling at. She works very hard at making sure that when he shows an interest in something she finds many way to incorporate it in all many of his subjects. I do think I will be looking for another psychiatrist, but I am finally starting to see a little improvement with the intuniv (he had a great day at school today and seemed a little less tired). Again thank you for replying to this it's nice to talk to someone who has gone through simalar things!