I have four children but my two oldest have add/adhd. My oldest has the add, my second has the adhd. It was pretty obvious to me had issues when he was around 18m old. He would NOT listen and went 100 mph from 6 am to midnight when he'd finally fall asleep from pure exhaustion.
Once he started kindergarten everything came to light, he started on Concerta the first part of first grade. I was opposed to medicating him and tried everything from a diet change to a natural approach. Luckily, he had a wonderful kindergarten teacher who was very patient but in first grade it broke my heart when he cried and told me "what is wrong with me, why can't I control myself?" That's when I knew his self-esteem was suffering so we tried the drug route. It was WONDERFUL! He no longer had to get the notes home every day about his behavior and he was excelling in school. Unfortunately, he developed an eye tic from the stimulant so we went to Adderall, same thing happened and from this point on it's been a battle as Strattera doesn't help him at all and seems to cause depression in him as well.
I started homeschooling him and he's been on no meds for over a year but an eye tic started again out of the blue. We're watching and waiting to see if this is just a tic disorder of if this is going to turn into Tourette's. So far the eye tic is gone after a month of it and we're hoping it stays away.
I'm now looking at getting him back on the stimulants but also using another rx to stop the tics. He's a much more happy and successful child with the stimulants but he's self conscious of the tics and understandably so.
That's my story :)
OOPS! I meant to post this in the TELL YOUR STORY forum... sorry.