Well, I feel at this point like I can not do anything else until I find out if ADD is what I have. My son was just diagnosed and placed on adderall xl. Something that I was absolutely against! I feel as if this drug will take away the great qualities that he has to offer to this world. I am doing it on a trial basis and went through excessive testing to find out if he truly had add. His qeeg showed little to almost no activity in the frontal lobe of his brain. A charecteristic in people with add. As crazy as this is going to sound I am going to say it. Our whole family had seen a differance by the end of the day after his first dosage. He was talking to us, having a real conversation! But I have seen that he gets very upset about things that he would have not even noticed before. He is going to the bathroom alot more, and he can not fall to sleep. So I don't know what to do.When I took the test for him, I had to keep reminding myself that it was not for me! It was for my son. This is when I decided that this craziness of denial has to stop!

 My whole life I had been told that ADD is just a label for kids that teachers don't want to deal with. I have heard this quite often because I was tested when I was a child. Just a hands on test, such as puzzles and things like that. It was actually at the school. But my mother refused medicine and ignored what I have lived with everyday of my life.

I have literally driven in the car at least two miles and had this awful feeling of "how did I get here?" I honestly don't remember the last two miles because I was somewhere else, in my other little world. I have ran through stop signs several times and stopped at a red light thinking that it was a stop sign and started to go. The best one yet was when I drove away from the gas station with the gas nozzle and hose hanging out of my car. Didn't find that one out until I got home. I drove for fifteen minutes with this hose hanging out of my car! LOL! I have to laugh.......or I will cry.

Lists of things that have to be done around the house....paint the bathroom, new knobs for cabinets in kitchen.......if I walk through a room in my house that has a project that is half done my eyes lock on what needs to be done, and then what was I in there for? My husband insists that I will never be happy? I have come to the conclusion that this may be true. I can't hold a conversation with anybody. As there talking I laugh at the wrong times and my eyes are everywhere. Because I am really not listening! I am looking at the wall behind them and telling myself that it needs to be washed. Or I am thinking about all of the things that need to be done outside in the yard when spring comes. Its January for petesake! I can literally block out a whole conversation that my husband will be saying. Especially in the car. If only I could listen to music all day and just lose myself in the music. Most of the time I will not eat because I have way too much to do. I have super days where I make all of my appointments, write them down and clean the house top to bottem. Then there are days where I am so involved with cleaning and taking care of the kids that I am super late for appointments. Because I can not leave the house unless all of the beds are made. Otherwise the whole way to the appointment I am thinking about those beds that are unmade. If people visit me I am up and moving around cleaning all of there messes. Taking half full glasses and dumping them down the drain. My friends just laugh at me. That is who I am. But I am tired of this!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to take the time to greet the people as they come in my house and sit down and talk to them. Not run upstairs and clean the bathroom.

I don't know exactly where I am going with this. I am sorry that I have jumped around so much. I guess I just need help and all of the info out there on the web is just too confusing for me! I just don't want my son to grow up as I did. Feeling dumb and out of control!

If anyone knows of some super sites for add I would love you to share. I will be organizing my childrens rooms. I have to do something else. Need to get my mind off of all of this chaos! If that is possable. I just need to admit that this is a problem in our family and figure out how to make the best of it! To the library for some research I go!

[QUOTE=Ness]Hi NessI am a mother of an 11yr. old boy with ADHD who was diagnosed at age 3. Putting him on medication was very hard for me as well because I was afraid it would change so many  of the wonderful qualities that made him who he was but when we started the adderall I saw such a huge change in him for the better he just shined even brighter. He was happier, he was successful in school, homework wasn't such an ordeal , and he finally had friends and believe it or not he is a stright A student and on the principles honor roll. We did have to play with the time he was taking his meds because he had trouble sleeping and we finally worked through that and he has no trouble going to sleep at night and we have him eat before he takes his meds. I have noticed to that he is extremely sensitive which I don't recall him doing before but his doctor said that is normal for someone with ADHD because usually there are self-esteem isssues so we have had to work really hard with him on that remind him what a remarkeable boy he is and I always compliment him on good grades or a drawing he did or how he handle a situation and reward him for good behavior and grades so that he doesn't feel so much like he is different. It is hard at times so times I feel like I'm at the end of my rope and I have two other small children to attend to as well so it can be overwhelming that's why I was so glad to find this site and see that I was not the only one out there. I just want my son to not only succeed in life, but most importantly to be happy because sometimes it feels like we can't do anything right and that he is never going to be happy. But I truly feel that things will only get better for both of us because we are out here trying to find resources to not only help us but help our sons.

                                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                                                Alij

Well, I feel at this point like I can not do anything else until I find out if ADD is what I have. My son was just diagnosed and placed on adderall xl. Something that I was absolutely against! I feel as if this drug will take away the great qualities that he has to offer to this world. I am doing it on a trial basis and went through excessive testing to find out if he truly had add. His qeeg showed little to almost no activity in the frontal lobe of his brain. A charecteristic in people with add. As crazy as this is going to sound I am going to say it. Our whole family had seen a differance by the end of the day after his first dosage. He was talking to us, having a real conversation! But I have seen that he gets very upset about things that he would have not even noticed before. He is going to the bathroom alot more, and he can not fall to sleep. So I don't know what to do.When I took the test for him, I had to keep reminding myself that it was not for me! It was for my son. This is when I decided that this craziness of denial has to stop!

 My whole life I had been told that ADD is just a label for kids that teachers don't want to deal with. I have heard this quite often because I was tested when I was a child. Just a hands on test, such as puzzles and things like that. It was actually at the school. But my mother refused medicine and ignored what I have lived with everyday of my life.

I have literally driven in the car at least two miles and had this awful feeling of "how did I get here?" I honestly don't remember the last two miles because I was somewhere else, in my other little world. I have ran through stop signs several times and stopped at a red light thinking that it was a stop sign and started to go. The best one yet was when I drove away from the gas station with the gas nozzle and hose hanging out of my car. Didn't find that one out until I got home. I drove for fifteen minutes with this hose hanging out of my car! LOL! I have to laugh.......or I will cry.

Lists of things that have to be done around the house....paint the bathroom, new knobs for cabinets in kitchen.......if I walk through a room in my house that has a project that is half done my eyes lock on what needs to be done, and then what was I in there for? My husband insists that I will never be happy? I have come to the conclusion that this may be true. I can't hold a conversation with anybody. As there talking I laugh at the wrong times and my eyes are everywhere. Because I am really not listening! I am looking at the wall behind them and telling myself that it needs to be washed. Or I am thinking about all of the things that need to be done outside in the yard when spring comes. Its January for petesake! I can literally block out a whole conversation that my husband will be saying. Especially in the car. If only I could listen to music all day and just lose myself in the music. Most of the time I will not eat because I have way too much to do. I have super days where I make all of my appointments, write them down and clean the house top to bottem. Then there are days where I am so involved with cleaning and taking care of the kids that I am super late for appointments. Because I can not leave the house unless all of the beds are made. Otherwise the whole way to the appointment I am thinking about those beds that are unmade. If people visit me I am up and moving around cleaning all of there messes. Taking half full glasses and dumping them down the drain. My friends just laugh at me. That is who I am. But I am tired of this!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to take the time to greet the people as they come in my house and sit down and talk to them. Not run upstairs and clean the bathroom.

I don't know exactly where I am going with this. I am sorry that I have jumped around so much. I guess I just need help and all of the info out there on the web is just too confusing for me! I just don't want my son to grow up as I did. Feeling dumb and out of control!

If anyone knows of some super sites for add I would love you to share. I will be organizing my childrens rooms. I have to do something else. Need to get my mind off of all of this chaos! If that is possable. I just need to admit that this is a problem in our family and figure out how to make the best of it! To the library for some research I go!

[QUOTE=atwitsend99]

People that suffer with ADD/ADHD are commonly MIS-diagnosed with Bipolar disorder especially when they have not been diagnosed as a child with ADD in 'women with attention deficit disorder' by sari solden she says "one mood disorder condition is very hard to distinguish from ADD is called Bipolar disorder or manic-depression. A person could have distinct periods of mania that look like ADHD, or the ADHD could look like mania. " it goes into more details in her book for ANY WOMEN that suspects that she may have ADD PLEASE get this book women are the most undiagnosed with ADD and it cause secondary effects that also make it harder to be diagnosed correctly . GOOD LUCK

Wow! Sounds more like you may have Bi-Polar disorder.  You sound manic more than anything.Just a suggestion.  Could be wrong but wont hurt to check it out.[/QUOTE]

I started with 10 milligrams. Once a day. Was told to go to 2 a day after 7 days. But I did not want to do that because I was already finding side effects with just 10 milligrams. Don't know what to do?

see a reputable add counselor for accurate diagnosis.do the same for you as you've done for your child. read sari's book.

get referral to psychiatrist . they specialize in these meds.

you'll be fine!! i know what you're going through!