I just registered with the boards today. I've been looking for a place to chat with other parents/guardians who are taking care of children with ADHD. I wanted to post a story about my Brother, to whom I have been taking care of for the past three months. He lives with me five days a week and has visitation with our Mom on weekends. His Father is deceased, so he has been raised between my Mom and I for most of his life.
His behaviors started in third grade. Although he tested highly on his test, he showed specific behaviors for ADHD. My Mom refused to believe the diagnosis and neglected to get him help. As a result of this, he suffered for many years where his schooling was concerned.
He has been in and out of confined classes and intermediate schools. Each time to be tested with high scores but each time diagnosed with ADHD behaviors. When our Mom could not take it any longer, she finally sent him to live with us during the school year. He immediately began to get into trouble in his new school. The Psychologist and his Teachers scheduled a major meeting with us to discuss his behavior and learning issues. He was placed in resource class with the Teacher from h***!
This Teacher kept trying to label him as emotionally disabled. The Psychologist and other Teachers fought with her and kept telling her that he wasn't. We were at our wits end and decided to have him tested again for the ADHD. He definately was ADHD (which I already knew but had to have paperwork for the new school) and I took him to have him put on meds.
Our nightmare began with the first Doctor putting him on Adderall. At first we started with 10mg. It helped a little but then he began to show some strange behaviors. He became lethargic and aggressive. I complained to the Doctor and the Doctor said we needed to up his meds to 20mg. I didn't know anything about meds so I agreed. My brother became very aggressive with the Adderall 20mg dose. He pushed me a few weeks ago (which he never did before) and I took him to see a new Doctor. She sat down with us and was very understanding. Over the past couple of weeks we have been seeing her twice weekly and she switched his meds to Concertta.
I have seen some improvements with my Brother. He is less aggressive and is actually focusing on his work and chores. He goes to bed at night with little resistance and is doing much better. Although, he still has some sleeping problems but he has had those for many years now.
We are hoping for my Brothers sake that the Concertta continues to work for him. He will be 13 in March and I love him dearly. It has been alot of stress on my family but his best interest is always at heart.
Thanks for listening.
It sounds like your brother has been thru an awful lot. I give you a lot of credit for being there for him. I hope things continue to go well for him too.
I read your post and I had experiences with Strattera. When my child got very, very violent I took him off the medication immediately. He also wouldn't eat and had sleeping problems. I did have him on Adderall and switched him because I felt it wasn't working but after trying others I realized it was.
The psychiatrist put him back on Aderall and he has been taking that for awhile. I think it depends on the individual on what medicine works for them because I have tried quite a few. My child also takes Risperdal because the Adderall alone was not working all that well.
My child is in a special behavior program at a special school now and is doing better but still has a lot to work on. I am weary about medicating him but I couldn't have him do some of the things he was doing like hitting kids and the teacher so I felt I had to do something. I too didn't want to treat him for ADHD or had a hard time believing at first until his doctor told me that it is better to treat him now or he will try to treat himself later with getting into alcohol and drugs. The problem I have is the medication does not seem to work that good but when he doesn't take it or I forget to give it to him I see a big difference.
Good luck and I too came to this board to talk to people who are raising ADHD kids.
Hurray For You, I think you are an angel taking care of your brother. I have a daughter with ADHD, and I was recently diagnosed myself with ADHD.
It is important to understand that sometimes along with ADHD, there may be other problems, such as depression, tics, etc. My advice to you, work with a well quilified Pshychiatrist. One you respect, one will who really gets to know your brother. One who will listen to your concerns.
My daughter is having some issues with sleeping on the Adderall, while I am not. I called the Pharmacist, and they suggested giving her benadryl. This has seemed to work some.
Keep up the good work, oh one more thing, a good therapist is recommened, kids with ADHD seem to have such low self esteem.
ADHDmommy
Adderall is a dangerous drug. My son was prescribed this drug when he was 6 years old. He is now 12. I was also put on the drug after the doctor thought I might have adhd. He told me I would begin to feel euphoric and that I would be able to concentrate more with my work being a lawyer. Initially, I started to put more attention to details, but wouldn't sleep. Eventually I began to get peranoid to the point I wouldn't leave the house. I then closed my law practice because I couldn't function any more. I also would feel dizzy and fall, with back outs. When I told the doctor he said these symptoms would eventually go away. I took my son off because he lost alot of weight and would get physically agressive with me. He also showed psychotic eposodes, where he would say he was going to kill himself. I continue with the drug myself. Eventually I couldn't function without the drug, and would sleep all day if I didn't take it. Finally two years ago, I had another dizzy spell and noticed I couldn't see on the right side of my eye. I fell and cut my chin. I discountinued the drug. Two months later, I went to see a neurologist who conducted and MRI. He advised I had suffered four strokes! He said I was too young to be having strokes (I was 45 at the time. Several months later I started to take adderall again just to see if it was the drug, and sure enough, I began to fall again. I permanently discountinue the drug. Today, I read that Canada has discountinued the drug due to strokes and sudden deaths in children. According to a U.S. senator from Iowa, the FDA attempted to "persuade" Canada from discountinuing the drug, because they are afraid of the critisism they might get post Vioxx and Celexa. I think it is sad that our government is more interested in protecting the drug manufacturers than our children and citizens.I am glad to hear your brother is doing much better now. My 6 year old son is taking adderallXR (and so am I) and he is totally different than that. He is my sweet little boy again, of course he still has his moments, but funny how people react differently to the same meds. I am ADHD, but not bipolar, luckily not even depressed. However, I was on seroquel 75mgs for 2 years for sleep, it turned out my insomnia was caused by ADHD that had been undiagnosed. I have heard some things about seroquel latley. It can cause you to get "the shakes" and that side effect can become irreversible. I thought perhaps I had parkisons or something because my pinky would start shaking really bad. My grandmother had alzheimers and was put on seroquel and she couldn't even hold a cup after three days. Of course this will NOT happen to everyone, but if you have ever noticed your hand or something trembling, you might want to mention that to you doc, because it is not a side effect they tell you about. Good Luck!Hello to all who love and care for someone with ADD or ADHD. I have posted here before, but I wanted to share my story with all who question giving medication to a child.
My very first memory of having ADHD, was when I started kindergarten. I was experiencing my first memory problem. I could not for the life of me remember my ABC's. As so many parents, mine thought I was just being stubborn. My father proceeded to hold me in the air with one arm, and spank me with the leather strap for every letter of the alphabet. A...say it...B...say it. This continued through the entire alphabet. I was humilated, I was ashamed, I was in pain.
From this one experience, I learned not to let anyone know I was stupid. I did however struggle with school, I finally dropped out in the 11th grade, but rarely attended after the 8th.
My home life was a disater, my parents were very verbally and physically abusive. I hated being stupid, I hated my family, I was very disruptive, I was mean, I was ruid, I did have burst of anger, that after I would have no memory of.
I left home at age 15, I was married by17, (Yes, to an abusive man). I had my first child at age 17, I was divorced by age 19. By the age of 20, I had been in 3 mental hospitals, I had attempted suicide at least 3 times, I had cut on myself.
I knew I was different, but no one ever knew what was wrong with me. I was frustrated, and I really did not want to be alive. It was just to hard.
I learned to pretend to be someone else, I was remarried, now with 3 children. I could hide behind being a mom. That was fine for a while until that marriage ended in a divorce. I went on to college, because I had no choice, I had a family to support. College was very hard. I took some classes twice, I went to private tutoring, I went to teachers for help. It was like this. I studied, I knew the stuff, but an hour later, no matter what, I could not find the information in my brain. I mean it was just not there. I knew I was smart, I knew I wanted to succeed, So I would study on my way to my exams. WOW, what an experience.
ADHD is like this, those who have it are smart, but the brain is missing something to help us contain it. It is frustrating, it sucks, it leads to other problems. Low self esteem, because you are afraid people will know. Most parents who have children with ADD, or ADHD know their child is smart, so when they do not meet up to your expectations, parents get mad, this humilates kids, because we also know we are smart, and our expectations are even higher than yours, we just do not know how to get from A to C. We do, but our brain will not allow us to get there. It is a very strange disorder.
I am now 39 years old, I have been on anti-depressents for the past 9 years, I was off for a while, maybe 4 years, but went back on 2 years ago. I have a 20 year old son, and two daughters, ages 13 and 15. I do not beat my children, nor am I verbally abusive. This has been hard to break the chain, but I could not do to my children what had been done to me. If it were not for my children I would probably have killed myself a long time ago. That is how bad it is to live with ADHD. It sucks.
Here's how I found out I had ADHD. A year ago my 15 year old daughter became depressed, at first I too missed the signs, she had become defiant, and had anger outburst. At one point, I had her arressted for asault againt me. I was not going to allow her to treat me like that, not after I had grown up with that. When she got to the detention center, the people there informed me that she was not a bad kid, but she was depressed, so I took her home, we got involved with counseling, then a great physiciatrist, at first he thought depression, so onto a anti-depressent, zoloft. Not good enough, so then he put her on wellbutrin, along with zoloft, much better, but to happy. He thought she might be bi-polar, so onto a medication that immediately threw her into a very strange physicotic state. So onto resperdal, she gained 30 lbs. So we switched her to geodon.
This was great, but now she is in the 9th grade, struggling with her grades and her attendence. Right before x-mas, I was at the school, trying to help her get it together in her classes, and she said something to me. I did the work, I just did not turn it in. I had remembered that people who have ADHD, have a hard time completely tasks. So during X-mas break, I scheduled to have her take the TOVA. Oh my she has ADHD, I would have never knew, her only symtoms had been her grades, not so much behavior until 8th grade. Her Dr. put her on 20mg. Then the second week 40mg. To make her story short, she now takes 60mg adderall XL, zoloft 100mg, wellbutrin XR, and geodon. She was a straight F student. She brought home her first report card since the treatment, and she had all A's and B's. Believe me her road has been a difficult one, very expensive, I have no insurance, and as you all know appt.'s and meds are extremely expensive.
Two weeks after her diagnosis, it hit me, Maybe I had ADHD. So I went in, took the TOVA test, turns out I do have ADHD. I started on Adderall XL 20 mg, then went to 40 mg. I am now 39 years old, I am in real estate, I am a single mother of 3, and I feel as though I was just born. I get things done, I can do as much in one day, that used to take me a week, I feel happy to be alive, because now I know there is something wrong with me, it is not that I am crazy as I had suspected, but a condition called ADHD. It is treatable.
I know they knew nothing about ADHD when I was a child, and by the time I was a teenager, they thought something else was wrong. I can see how it could happen. I have no regrets, for this is my story. I am just grateful to know what it feels like to be like most people, and to be able to come out into the light and enjoy my life for the very first time in my life. I am grateful to God for not allowing me to take my life, and for leading me down the road I have taken. I am so very proud of myself, for my life has been hard, but I am a very strong woman, one who has love and compassion for all, and I will not be stopped.
So if you wonder if medicating your child is the right thing to do, I can tell you it would have changed the course of my life, probably for the better. Talk to your kids about how they feel on the meds, listen to them. Some kids do not want to continue taking their meds., because they do not understand it. They think it means you are stupid, quite the opposite. So keep their diagnoses private, not everyone needs to know your childs business. Probably only your family, and of course the school, but again, your child does not need to know who you talk to.
Also, find a good Physiciatrist, get recommendations. Work with them. Try different meds. Sometimes you may be diagnosed with ADHD, and you may not really have it, or you have other problems along with it, like OCD, ODD, depression, these are usually disorders that came along because your child was not treated for ADHD early enough, so you will also want to get involved with a therapist, and group therapy, so your child does not feel alone. Do not give up, do not get yourself into denial. This is a hard road, the adderall is not a quick fix, you may have to try several different things.
Think of it like this, if your child had cancer, wouldn't you try everything you could to get them into remission. You would try different meds, maybe chemo, maybe a marrow transplant. You would be their beside them, you would have sleepless nights, you would be frustrated and sometimes feel hopeless, and want to give up. Think of it like that. Your chil has ADHD, and it is your duty to find what works for you and your family. When you feel like giving up, come to the chat room and get support. I love you all, and for all of you who have someone in your Life who has ADHD, remember, you have the strength, because God felt you were strong enough on your journey called life.
For all of you who have ADD or ADHD, remember, keep the faith, be strong, don't give up, if you are a child, be grateful that your parents cared enough about you to get the help that will help you in this life. During school, keep up with your meds, if they are frustrating you, talk to your Dr. but listen to yourself. You know how you feel, follow your gut. As an adult, you maybe able to stop taking meds, but remember, this is not a disorder for only school, it effects every aspect of your life.
Ok, I know way to long, I just wanted to share my story, you are the 1st to know.
Hi my son now 11, also had a very bad reaction to adderall, he went from sweet loving to a monster overnight, he would swear at everyone, and get into fist fights then not remember doing it. he lasted only a short time on this, and has been on concerta ever since, this is the only meds. that work for him.MY son was only 3 when we started meds.I know this sounds incredibly young, but his and our lives had been a nightmare since his birth. Anyway,he didn't talk much, so he couln't tell us how the meds made him feel. We had to use only his non verbal cues as to how he was tolerating the meds. One of the meds we tried was Adderall. What an awful experience for him! He became psychotic . His rages were much worse, he shook, screamed, scratched his face. I called the doc and told him I thought it was making him psychotic and he said he had never heard of that before! And this was a pediatric psychiatrist! Needless to say I took him off the med and didn't try anything else for a good while after that. AfterI was asked to try again by his WONDERFUL preschool staff, I eventually found something that helps him. And then I saw a special on tv about psychosis and Adderall!
OK, my main point is to pay attention to your instincts! This is your child and you know him better than anyone else. Being an MD doesn't give them all the answers. Take everything with a grain of salt. I am convinced that you can have any reaction to any med reguardless of what the insert says. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my sons doc and I am very pleased with how he is responding to his meds, I am just very cautious about it. I hope you find something that works for your child very quickly.
Thanks for the well wishes and thank you for posting your stories.
My Brother is doing much better this week. The concertta seems to be working well so far. The only issue we are having is with his sleep but I think that a few more weeks on the meds will even him out a little.
I had the aggressive problems with Adderall but only when I didnt take a dose. On christmas I totally freaked out on my boyfriend - I made him cry and he was telling me how this was the worst xmas of his life (we spent it with my family)- the fight was SO bad and I didnt care I just kept on saying mean stuff to hurt him - I punched the wall in my old BDRM at my parents house and broke the thermostate off the wall after I threw something at it...then I just wanted to throw myself down the stairs or jump out of the window...and then like someone flipped the light switch back on I just bust in to tears and collapsed because it was not me - I have never ever had a suicidal thought before... I broke down and told him how I didnt take my meds on Christmas eve or that day christmas...luckily since I have been diagnosed he has been there for me through sleepless nights and weight loss so he understood and just hugged me...5 mins. later I took my meds...an hour later I was so completly humiliated by my actions that I just wanted to crawl in a hole-------so yes I do understand the aggresiveness and chances are he probably did not relize to what extent it was happening.
You are an angel for taking care of him and I wish your family the best of everything.
Yaaaayyyyyy....sounds like you have a solution. I am pleased for you. My daughter was on Adderall (before the ban) for 3 months. I found he to be incredilbly moody and depressed. Worse than before the meds. We are now trying Concerta and have found that it is more effective and helpful.
I am pleased for your brother. I hope that he finds peace. Good Luck to you both!
I've fought with ADHD all my life. I didn't get put on medication until I was 12 or 13. The doctor started me off at 20 mg and about a year after that I started to get violent and very depressed. I slept the entire summer all day everyday, but would wake up about 10 every night and return to bed at about 8 in the morning.
My parents got very concerned and took me to an new doctor. She diagnosed me with Bipolar disorder, but also agreed that I had ADHD. They put me on Trileptal for my bipolar and Seroquel for the insomnia I had developed. I am now 15and I am still on Adderall, 30 mg now, but I'm not violent anymore.
Have any of you looked into Bipolar rather than ADHD? A lot of doctors are finding out that they've misdiagnosed patients, and said they had ADHD when it was really Bipolar disorder. In my case I have them both. Don't disregard this post because I am only 15, I think this information could be useful to some of you.
ADHD Teen38406.783587963My son was on adderall xr when he became very aggressive and moody. Needless to say we took him off and now I am affraid to try new meds. Glad to hear your brother is doing better. Make sure you take care of yourself because he needs you to help him.