Hearing Voices? | ADHD Information
http://www.wildestcolts.com/john/voices.html As someone who has been through all this, I ask you to please read this article.Hi......I dont know that hearing voices is a side effect of adhd medication. Perhaps there is something else going on. My son has been on adhd medication for years and this has never been my experience. Its wise that your having this checked out by the doctor.
Dear frustrated,
Absolutely do not take his med to try it. It may not affect you the same as is does him. The tics that Gavin had were from the ritalin. He was only on the strattera for five days. The tics and the other reactions I talked about earlier were because the strattera was not completely out of his system before he started the concerta which made him over medicated. In the five days that we were on the starttera I did not see tics of any kind.
I hope this is helpful.
My son was just prescribed strattera no were does it say he would have tic's that i have read. so now should i start the medication or wait. he is 8 and it is a better choice for him the retilin as he did not like those side effects. I am ADHD should i try the medication first to see how it feels before making my son take it. I have learned to cope most of the time and have ritilin on hand for tough spots. what do you thinkHi, I'm 15 and have started adderall a couple months ago. I am currently having an issue with the time release. Adderall XR 20mg is what I'm taking in the morning (7:00am) and in the afternoon(12:00pm) I am taking Adderall XR 10mg. I'm having a problem: My 'extended release' medication is only lasting me 5 hours untill I become my hyperactive self.(from what I've been told, It should be lasting 6-8 hours) The only way I can maintain a relatively normal behavioral pattern is to take the 10mgXR after 5 hours.-Is my medication not working properly? I'm sure that once aday medication is not supposed to be taken twice daily. Is it my metabolism?(i burn calories faster than I can eat them)
A little advice please?
eudemoon33,
I am not sure about you, but my son took the concertta time release and it only lasted about five hours for him. The doctor warned me ahead of time that this could happen. Have you talked to your doctor about it? The time release meds did not do so well for our son so we have him on the other now and he seems to do better. Of course, we are new with all of this ourselves. Talk to your doctor about it. How long before school do you take it? I give my son his meds on the way out the door in the morning so they start to work for him right about the time he starts to do his work and they last a little longer during the school day. He still has a hard time the last hour or so of school so we are having to fine tune our meds. Good luck. I hope this helped.
Hi MBeth,
I agree with Cindy. Sounds like he may be over medicated, but I'm no doctor. I would check with your pediatrician right away. I don't know anything about the Straterra. My son has only been on Adderall XR which comes in doses as little as 5 mg. We started on 10 mg. in 2nd grade which was just enough to keep him focused and not hyper during the day. After two years, we found the 10 mg. wasn't working any longer so we did a trial at 15 mg.....no differences noted, so we went to 20 mg. Teacher reported an improvement at 20 mg. so we left it at that.
Did you and your pediatrician start with a lower dosage of the Strattera and then build it up to 36 mg?
MBeth, It sounds like your son is being over medicated IMO. If you tell your doctor about this, he will either cut the dose or switch to another med. If he doesn't, get a second opinion as soon as possible.
Clenching his jaw, nonstop talking and grinding teeth are serious things!!! Way to be alert and concerned! You are doing a great job as a mother!
The meds are not working the way they should... don't let the doctor convince you of anything else until you get second opinion. Also, Don't take him off the meds you have him on until you speak with your doctor:) If he is on a dose that is to much for him, it will cause him a lot of anxiety to go off of them all together at once.
please keep us posted!!!!
I am so glad that you saw the doctor and he switched meds to better suit your child! My son is on RitalinSA 5mg 2x a day. We have seen nothing but good things.... this is the first med we have tried.
I am curious though for my own means of research....
When your doctor gave the Strattera and Concerta, where either or both of them samples? or were they prescriptions that you had to fill out and pay for?
Mbeth,
Glad to hear everything is better. I'd be interested in the sample answer Cindy posted for you. I don't know of any one ever getting samples of Concerta or Strattera in our neck of the woods. Concerta is a controlled substance so I'm guessing your doc put your child on a trial prescription??
My son is on concerta and also has mentioned hearing voices...and he has been on concerta for quite awhile. He also is very sensitive and gets mad and crys easily.
They just recently added zoloft and this seems to help.
Lorien
Hi Lorien,
Are the voices telling your son to perform any acts that he understands is not right? The reason I ask is that the voice my son hears has told him to do things that he know is not right. Mostly just profanity. Thankfully he has not acted on any of these requests.
Today at the suggestion of our pediatrian we had a meeting with a Physcologist. My gut tells me that this is attributed to 30mg of Adderall XR he is taking 5 days a week. We are going to consult with a Physchaitrist to rule this out.
They were prescriptions. We did not get any samples. That may have made things a little easier, though.
I took Gavin back to school after his appt. yesterday (no meds yet) and she said he was trying hard to do his work. This is a positive sign for me. He had given up until now. I think that his knowing that we are trying to help him is making a difference. While he was high as a kite on Tues. he also confessed that he had lied when we asked if anyone was being mean to him at school. Apparently, some boys were picking on him. I think part of it is because he was the new kid this year. We moved here a couple of weeks before school started last fall. We had a little trouble with him working before but as this school year has gone on he has quit working altogether. He would just sit there and not do his work. They even suspended him(in the name of -lets see if this will scare him into working) and it didn't work. He still just sat there until Tues. The med seemed to work during school but when he got home he had all the stuff I told you about earlier happen. Then yesterday he worked. I started him on the 5mg of ritilin yesterday afternoon. I guess we will have to wait and see what the teacher says today.
Cindy, What is ritilin SA? Ours doesn't say that on the bottle.
Rustysmom,
what did your son say about the voices? What did he say they were telling him? My son never said he heard someone say this but the one day he took the 36 mg of concertta he told me Jesus didn't want him to go to sleep. Of course, I reassured him that wasn't true. Poor guy! It makes me curious about what your son may have said
Hi, Cindy and Julie!
Thank you so much for your responses! We saw the doctor this morning. Gavin was on the 10 mg strattera for only five days when we saw this doctor and he took him off of it and put him on the 36mg of concerta. This morning the doctor said he though that the build up of the strattera was still in his system so when we gave him the concerta it caused all the problems. He did not start low with the new med so now he is having me give him 5mg of ritilin in the am and 5mg in the afternoon. If that doesn't work then I can up him to ten. He said in a couple of weeks when the strattera is out of his system then I can try the 36 mg on a weekend to see how he will react if I want. I think I will stick with the low one, if I find that it works. So, you were both correct in saying he was overmedicated. I hope I never have to see one of my children go through such an ordeal ever again. Thank you for your help.
MBeth
I was told that by putting my son on medication, it would increase his awarness of what was going on around him. Things that he never noticed before would be clear. It is almost like he has to "re-learn" things and how to react to them. I am not saying that how your child is behaving is right... because I haven't experienced what you are going through. This is the information that I have recieved.. it is up to you to decide whether or not it applies.... but I hope it helps:)
Good luck!
I am concerned about my son. He started strattera today. He is taking 36mg.
His teacher said he had a wonderful day today, the best all year. Since he came home from school he is stuttering and has tics. I called the doctor and they told me to give it a week and if he is still doing it to give them a call. I am VERY concerned. Can someone who has been through this let me know what they think we need to do? Do we keep taking it or push the doctor to do something sooner? He has not stopped talking sice he came home today. Even when people walk away he keeps talking to them. One person told him several times that she had to leave and was out the door and there he was in the kitchen still talking to her. Please help me?!
MBeth,
My son tic'd for a few days and I called the doctor. He reassured me that in most cases, the tic'ing is a transient side effect, meaning, it would go away. It did go away. If the tic'ing lasts longer than 1 week, I would call your pediatrician back.
Good Luck!
Thank you, Cindy and Julie.
Do you know anything about the nonstop talking. He didn't fall asleep until four this morning. The doctor is out of the office today so I have to wait until tomorrow. Have either of you heard of any of this. He clenched his jaw and ground his teeth really hard. Its been quite scary. I kept him home from school today.
MBeth
Mbeth, There is Ritalin SA (short acting) or LA (long acting) SA means that your child takes it two times a day. LA means once a day.
I am not sure of LA but SA lasts 4 hours. It starts working fully 45 min after it is taken, and starts to wear off 3 hours and 15 minutes after.
I like the SA because it is a dose that he can use when it is needed. My son takes it only when he is school, but if there is a birthday pary or a situation where he needs to have self control when I am not there, I give it to him and I know that he is focused and in control.
The reason that I asked about the samples is because I want to be aware if doctors are getting paid by pushing certain meds.
Cindy, I guess he is on the SA then. I am not seeing a great difference in it. I am not sure if I should up it or not. He did well the first couple of days, but now he seems to be back to his screaming and angry self. I just don't know what to do any more. We tried behavior modification before we even got interested in the meds and he just seemed to get worse. I guess we will just have to pray and investigate some more. Thank you for your help. MBi have adhd and take no medicine, but recently i read that adhd is a hightened awareness and i have noticed that i can hear things that normally others cannot hear, such as when an electronic is on. I also read when medication is added it is not for the hightened awareness it is usually forfor the hyper-activity or for the attention deficit
Today my wife called me upset that last nite while I was away my son could not get to sleep. He said he hears voices and these voices are yelling at him telling him to shut up as well as other adjectives. He did mention this to us a couple of weeks ago but as kids go I brushed it off to just that "being a kid". He is currently taken 30mg of Adderall daily. He is going for blood work tomorrow and seeing the doctor in two days. Has anyone experienced this type of side effect?
My son takes 36mg Concerta, not sure if it's related to Adderall, but he tells me that the 'bad thomas' in his head tells him to do bad things or very silly and dangerous things. I never really thought that this could be his medication, but this has been going on before he took any kind of tablets. And no, he hasn't got a split personality even though he is a Gemini!My son heard voices while taking strattera, currently he is on ritalin but will soon be switching back to adderall, he is so mean on the ritalin, also i wanted to ask if anyone has tried ABILIFY for oppositional defiance, we just started it last night and at 5am this morning my son was vomiting,I have loads of info on A.D.H.D meds,,my son has been on all of the stimulants with one bad side effect after another! I am new to this board and welcome comments or info, it is so nice that these sights are out there, sometimes i feel so alone with all of these meds and behaviors.
Hi all,
I'm new to this board, and am quite interested in this thread. My 12-year-old son is taking 10mg Adderall (since Oct), and it's helping immensely with school and life in general.
He has not mentioned hearing voices, but has great difficulty getting to sleep. I think what auntbea says is very valid - there is quite a difference between hearing voices and having an ongoing internal dialogue that won't shut off, IMHO.
One thing that my son has mentioned on a few occasions is that he's having deja-vu a lot. When I question him on it, he says that it just feels that a lot of things that happen, he feels like he dreamed them already...
has anyone else experienced anything like this? His pediatrician looked at me like I was nuts when I mentioned it...
Auntbea:
How do you get your serotonin level tested? 
I am interested because I am the one that went a little wacky with my concerta. I have to laugh..... and I have to look at it like this.....Sorry, if I offend anyone. But, I do have my laughter back
........I am feeling so much better.....
No more Concerta for me, and I miss the focused feeling I had while on it......Just can't take any of the stimulant family. May try the Provigil, when I am weened off the Abilify.....Should happen in the next month or sooner......I am going for 2 weeks. The psychiatrist I see, personally knows me. He use to be my neighbor and was really surprised when I came down with this. Good thing I got him for a doc, since he knew me personally and he would not even consider another diagnosis for me. I asked him.....If he was sure, I wasn't something else. He said, no side effect from the stimulant.
But, did not say anything about serotonin level test.
Interested......Auntbea....?????
In my opinion adderall is a nasty, nasty drug and could easily cause a break with reality. It did with me. It is a composition of five different amphetamines. Not beuno. I would take him off now. If the voices stay, look into schizophrenia.
Yes. I know what you are all talking about. My son 9 yrs woke me up to tell me that the demons won't leave him alone. He said they kept sayings things like "get out" they just kept yelling at him. Also, he hears them in different areas of the house, behind the couches and so forth so I took him off his Concerta. He has also seen ghosts and talked to them on a regular basis while on Strattera and this stopped once he started Adderall. He seemed okay and not too freaked out about the ghosts, he is spiritual and thought is was kind of cool. He also saw lots of colored oracles/globes that he thought he could move. He's back on Adderall and we don't have anymore visitors disturbing us.
Here's the deal. ADHD kids do not hallucinate. Meds CAN cause hallucinations, but it's rare. Still, it's possible. I strongly recommend checking out early onset bipolar. From bugs to demons these kids do often hallucinate and it's a documented symptom. There is a big difference between "heightened awareness" and a voice in the child's head that he can hear, telling him to do bad things or taunting him, and the child needs relief from those horrible symptoms. Any kid who hallucinates needs an evulation by a Psychiatarist who is aware of how to diagnose mood disorders. These kids need mood stabilizers and antipsychotics, not stimulants. STims make them worse. Antidepressants also make bipolar kids hallucinate at times. Any kid who says he hears or sees things should be taken seriously. Do not believe your child is trying to get attention. The terror is very real. Here is a link to Juvenile Bipolar:
psm090438741.7362152778Thanks, for the advice I will look into it. My son does not have any problems with voices or delusions on Adderall and is able to learn better. My doctor said it can happen and it's nothing to worry about. I have had the same problem and do not have it on Adderall. I took Bipolar medication and it didn't do anything for me but cause more health problems. I found out that I was never Bipolar, but had adult ADD instead. Anyway, just wanted to thank you for the info, I am always looking for info. I think it is interesting that he doesn't have this problem on Adderall, but does on the other ADHD meds. My doctor also thought it was interesting that he had this expierence and not on the Adderall. Maybe in time this will occur again, I can accept Bipolar more than Schizophrenic disorder that is also in my family history. My first cousin died young and he was schizophrenic, he was hospitalized several times for his condition. You can only imagine, how bothersome this is. My parents never told me anything about this until I already had children and meantime my cousin's sister has confirmed it along with some other family history. I also homeschool my son to keep him challenged, he is bored easily and learns best when he can apply things to his life, and is more a visual learner and hands on. Thanks
Not to scare you, but bipolars also tend to be in and out of hospitals. They also have a pretty significant suicide rate. This is one reason that it is so important to get a good diagnosis. Antidepressants and stimulants can make bipolar worse, especially when taken without the benefit of a mood stabilizer.
When GFG14 was 12, the family doctor put her on an antidepressant. Within 2 weeks, she made 3 suicide attempts. This resulted in her first hospitalization and her dx of bipolar. It has been 15 months since that first hospitalization and she has been hospitalized 4 times. The last was for 42 days. The good news is that she is now on lithium with seraquel at night for sleep. She is doing very well.
My son recently had hallucinations taking focalin. He has and had never had them before. He was recently diagnosed with ADHD. He has anger issues and extreme heightened awareness.My mikey isnt on any meds but he hears voices telling him to do things, he's very loud in his expressions & when i ask him why he tells me he''s shouting over the voices. When he was on meds it was the same.mikmum,I am curious how long your child has been hearing voices. That seems to be a serious symptom whether he is on meds or not and sounds like something a good child psychiatrist would be able to treat. What is his diagnosis? What type of doctor does your son see?
Hello,
I took Concerta for 6 months, and the meds built up in my system. I went into a psycosis, I heard voices. The pharmacy information you get with your medication, does mention that psycosis is a possibility. I was told high numbers for the statistics, 1 in 500,000 or more. Not sure if I believe that. But, I am doing much better now. With the help of Abilify. Which I will be tapering over the next month and then will only be on Wellbutrin. Hearing voices is scary.....and to be a child that is hearing voices, is twice as scary.
Pulled my son off of Concerta, he is now on Provigil, which seems as though it is ok, no crashing at all, it is not a stimulant. Pretty obvious I can not take a stimulant, and my son always crashed on them. Good luck and I hope all of you get your children help that is needed for hearing voices.
Hi I def agree that you should get second opinion. Never let someone dismiss something you think is so important and meaningful. I also beleive the ramping up is important. Also, if this is your pediatrician. Go to a psychiatrist for psych meds. they are still doing a little bit of guess work, but they have much more experience with all the possible side effects. taking the advice of someone with such a general medical knowledge and no specialty in psych meds can be distastrous.
Also a heads up - before I was diagnosed with adhd I would go to therapy and say the voices in my head won't be quiet I can't relax or sleep .... they would say "you are hearing voices." I had to clarify myself and say that it is really just an internal diaglogue with my own litany of thoughts that I can't cut off. I don't want to think about what color socks I am going to wear tomorrow (from 3am-6am) but I just can't stop thinking about it.....more running thoughts than voices.....
Food for thought your son may be having the same experience but it not mature enough to express it well.
As far as the concerta - I think this is an SNRI (selective norepineprine reuptake inhibitor) like Abilify. I also had problems with these and other anti-psychotics like risperdal and actually became aggressive. and the running thoughts seemed to be LOUDER and more compelling. It may be these specific classes if meds. Iam taking ritalin right now (a stimulant) and I feel very relaxed and focused. It was only after these horrible adverse reactions and neuralgia pain issues someone tested my serotonin level...... I have little to none. So they tried Ritalin and it seems to be working:)! And I see hope again.
auntbea38754.3434722222