I don't know how to talk to dc about his medication.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry that he feels upset about taking the meds. My son is slightly older (14), but has taken ADHD meds for years. The meds are a must - the impulsive behavior and comments that he engages in without them, and associated social drama and academic disruption, are not sustainable for him or us.
If your son feels off with the meds he is on, it may be time to talk to a pediatric psychiatrist about other options. If he just feels generally negative about medication, is he addressing this in therapy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried intuniv/guanfacine er? If his is more hyper/impulsive than inattentive, it might be worth considering. It takes a few weeks to build up in the system and it's something you need to take every day/can't take a med break.

Yes. it made him flat and sort of joyless.
DC's ADHD is quite hard to medicate, but adderall is ok for him and helps. His body just burns it up fast.
I think he just finds it to be upsetting that he has to be medicated at all. Like there is something 'wrong'. And no amount of his dad telling him he also takes adderall or us telling him it shouldn't make him less 'him', seems to solve for this.

There’s a part of his brain that coordinates work done by the other parts. When that part is left to its own devices it doesn’t coordinate well. When he takes the meds, it can do the coordination job and then all his other abilities can be put to their full use.

It’s silly that brains are like this—probably there is some evolutionary reason for it that worked better for humanity as a whole in other contexts, we may never know—but this is how they are and it’s common to have this problem. Ex Dad.