One of my children just got diagnosed with adhd inattentive type. I had no clue for the longest time. But anyhow there is the suggestion now to put her on medication. I discussed it with her doctor and her therapist but have no friend that have experience or family members to discuss it with. I made the mistake to look on line and now I feel confused. Can some parents that went through that give me some suggestions, ideas whatever? My child is in high school, heavily involved in sports and top student so I was totally confused initially. But it all made sense after she opened up and talked to us. Do most diagnosed people opt for medication? Is it a lost cause to just try without it and only therapy?
When I was hesitant about giving our son medication when he was in fourth grade, my husband said, “it’s a pill. If you don’t like what it does to him don’t give him another one.”
My reaction (based somewhat on the experience of a friend whose daughter was diagnosed with ADHD in high school) is that it would be a good idea to try it and to try it now.
Medication for almost any condition may require some getting used to, and the dose or type of medication may need some adjustment in the early stages of treatment. I think it would be much easier for a high school student to manage this, with parental support, than for a college student to manage it on her own.
And if it turns out that medication is not necessary or not helpful, that’s a useful thing to learn, too.
My friend is very glad that her daughter was diagnosed two years before college and that there was time to figure out a medication regimen that works well. She is confident that her daughter will be able to function at her best on medication when she goes to college next fall.
I took Ritalin for ADHD years ago, when it was first approved. I cannot imagine staying in school without it. I was a pariah until I started on the medicine. It literally transformed my life and made it possible to concentrate and make friends. I would not hesitate to give a child medication (for anything!) if it could make his or her life better.
My daughter was diagnosed with ADHD-combined type when she was eight. We did not put her on medication until 7th grade because she was a gymnast and I was worried about her doing gym while taking stimulants but in 7th grade she was having a terrible time focusing and could not keep up with her schoolwork. The medication helped her tremendously, and she did better at both school and gym because she could focus without being so distracted. What medication didn’t help was the executive functioning side of things. She is still disorganized and has difficulty planning ahead, setting realistic goals, etc. I think that’s where the therapy comes in. But in terms of being able to focus, the medication is what helps.
Same diagnosis with our son in the spring of his senior year of high school. I was worried because he had already chosen a college 1000 miles away and all of a sudden we were faced with issues of medication, therapy, etc. We did start him on medication while also getting him with a specialist to help him learn techniques to deal with his workload. He didn’t stay on the meds for long and learned to adapt very well. For him, just understanding the diagnosis was a huge benefit. For years he had felt like something was going on but didn’t know what it was or how to describe it. Putting the pieces together helped him so much.
We were also very surprised and confused at first, but learning about the inattentive type of adhd made so many things about him finally make sense. If your doctor thinks the meds will beneficial, I would try them now while you are able to observe the effects. She can always stop if it isn’t a benefit.
Thank you all so much!
I agree to start the process of seeking the correct meds now. My D was not diagnosed until senior year of HS. (Explanation of late diagnosis: Her brother is the most ADD person on the planet, so compared to him, she seems "normal.) Anyway, when they are that old when they start, and esp. if they have not settled into something by the time they go to college, it looks like “drug seeking” to the medical community…extremely difficult to get prescriptions to try out various controlled substances when you’re in college…even with providing the diagnosis to the doctor.
I also agree about trying out medications while your child is still living at home. D1 finds that Adderall greatly helps her focus but when she was first taking an ADHD medication, she had an accidental overdose (I think the dosage and instructions for use were mismatched) and it was a terrifying experience for all. It would have been much worse if it had occurred while she was away at college.
S20 was diagnosed with ADHD in second grade. We were hesitant to medicate him until someone asked us if we would be having the same struggle about medicating him if it were any other condition - I think the example they used was diabetes. That just made us look at the whole issue differently. It took a little experimentation before we settled on a drug. The difference has been night and day, so we are glad we decided to try him on it. we had to switch drugs recently for insurance purposes and discovered there is actually a cheek swab DNA test they can do to help figure out what drug is most likely to work best. Good luck, whatever you decide to do!
The largest study re ADD treatment looked at behavior modifications, meds and a combination. There has always, in other studies as well, been a significantly better result with meds alone or meds and behavioral components. The good thing is that stimulant medications have a quick onset and are quickly out of the system, so you will know fairly quickly whether they are working (and you can ‘get rid’ of a not great med from the system quickly). Up to 30% of kids/patients need at least one change in med. Hang in there. pm me if you like [note: I’m a pediatrician; ADD is, alas, one of the things in which we must become fairly expert.]
My oldest was dx in college, and there’s a certain period of finding stuff out and all that. He tried a couple meds and ended up with Strattera because the side effects were the least bothersome, but he didn’t stay on them once he was done with school. His doctor agreed to that. The meds certainly helped him concentrate and stay on task, but pills aren’t skills so the organization deficit, the over-optimism, did not change even on meds. Strattera made him sleepless and made his heart race, and he was always convinced he was dying…He never had a psychiatrist but he did have a few sessions with a counselor but I’m not sure they were very useful.
One very helpful thing was a support group on campus that I basically manipulated him into attending. He was reluctant, but even now says it was very good, emotionally, to feel less stigmatized. I also read quite a bit about adhd and that helped me deal with him more helpfully. He still is a fairly disorganized person who has no useful sense of time or goal setting, but he’s happy, and employed, and on his own, which is all we could want for him.
my S was diagnosed in 1st grade, after K teacher telling us there might be something going on. He’s been on extended release meds since then (now in HS). It made a huge difference. Used to be that we’d ask where his work was, and he’d be like oh, I didn’t finish…so meds made a huge difference and I don’t regret it at all. although we also struggled when we got the diagnosis, and weren’t sure we should medicate him.
Adderall and Concerta saved my son. He was having social and academic problems due to attention in class and hyperactive behavior. We tried a few meds, Concerta worked best for him. He went from a mediocre student to an honors student. Now functioning well in college at a very high level. A huge change in his life and no idea how he would have gotten through middle and high school without the meds. In college he is trying to wean himself off the meds, but still finds them helpful.
There are always downsides. In our case it made it hard for him to eat, he is very skinny.
Some of the meds can make a hyper kid into a robot with no emotions, not great either.
You have to find the right med and dosage working with a good doctor.
S17 has ADHD. He was diagnosed in 9th grade although his teachers first told me that they thought he had it back in 2nd grade… I was also reluctant to put him on drugs because he was doing fine grade wise until 9th grade. I was told a lot of bright kids are able to keep up until they really need to focus on the school work. He was missing large chunks of what was being said in school. It was taking hours to do his math home work because he couldn’t focus.It one class there were times he had to get up and pace because he couldn’t sit still. He still has trouble sitting still and gets distracted but it is so much better. I think it depends on how bad your DD’s ADHD is. Is she able to get her work done? Maybe the sports helps keep her ADHD in check and she maybe able to cope with out drugs.
Focalin XR is a good one, not as many side effects. Vyvanse is also good. Mine didn’t do well on Ritalin, made him feel to up and strung out. I could really tell a difference. The dosage is also important. If it’s too high, they can feel flat, emotionless…and you can see it.
Most docs have meds they prefer. Let the treating doc decide what to try first.
@jym626 has a good point. Doctors learn a lot about the nuances of various meds in the course of treating patients. Following the doctor’s recommendations is likely to get you to the optimal choice quicker.
My oldest son, now 26, was diagnosed as ADD inattentive in second grade and given Ritalin. While the Ritalin helped, he had terrible rebound so we switched him to Adderall, which worked better. In 9th grade, he asked for XR because he didn’t want to go to the nurse’s office at lunch anymore. We tried it for 2 days but the reaction was awful. His mood became foul and on the second day, middle son (then in 4th grade) walked in on oldest boy trying to strangle techson17, who was in K. Middle son yelled, oldest son stopped and then began crying. I flushed the drugs down the toilet (this was before the take old meds to the cops campaign) and put him back on the regular meds. I am forever grateful to middle son, as is oldest son. Oldest son stopped taking the meds when he dropped out of college. He now works as a postal carrier and is doing fine. He also appears to have matured out of much of his inattentiveness, though he is still financially impulsive. I have noticed, over 25 plus years of parenting, that many ADHD/ADD kids do grow out of it to at least some degree.
H is the most ADHD person I know. He makes us all crazy but at 60, he is not going to start taking meds. I wish I could grind some Adderall into his food but he has a heart condition so it’s contraindicated.
One thing I also did for oldest son was biofeedback training in 3rd grade. We were actually able to maintain him on the same dose until HS, which is pretty rare. He thought it helped and recently asked for another course, but I don’t know how to pay for it this time.
Research suggest that many dont" grow out of it" but rather that the symptom presentation changes.