I like my DS better when he's not medicated - what does that mean?

[Anonymous]

I would get another evaluation since he is a lot older now. I like my son much better ON meds. Much less combative and easy going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is 10 with ADHD and LDs (expressive language, language processing). When we forget to give him his meds (usually happens on weekends), we can see a marked difference in his personality. His true self comes out, and we really, really like it. He's VERY funny, witty, sharp, talkative, can initiate conversations easily and his appetite is normal... but he's also "too chatty" and "all hands".

Does anyone else feel this way? I WISH I could pull him off his meds and just let him be. DH won't have any of it, and I don't know how not being on meds would impact him in the classroom or how his LDs would look either.

I wonder if this means he's not on the right meds? or maybe his DX is wrong and he doesn't have ADHD? His meds are not a miracle for him by any stretch.

He had a full neuro-psych eval when he was 5, which I regret as they weren't able to get a true read on his IQ or strengths/weaknesses. According to the tester, he was one step above "Duhhh" Had I to do it over again, I would have waited and chosen a different psych to do the testing

not sure if I'm just venting or asking for advise.

Definitely bring it up with his doctor. There are other medicines and levels of medicine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Talk to the doc about taking him off for a month and seeing if he can handle it. 4 years is a long time to not reassess their need and effectiveness. Kids mature, so his needs now are probably very different than when he was 6. If he needs the meds, you will know QUICKLY and can start him up again. If the month trial goes well, then you will know that he no longer needs them.

Also, don't forget to tell the teacher that you are doing this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We spent all summer dialling in DD's meds. We went through some straight forward and some exotics, and it was an enlightening experience. DD was on swim team, and a leader in her age group. Some of the meds she was on had a profound effect on her overall behavior, and also on her performance. During the Diviisonals, when she really wanted to swi fast and qualify for the all stars, she was a full second behind all others off the start. She was literally swimming in slo-mo. She could no longer engage in math -- she would stare at it and would not make any sense. The dr. insisted that the meds were minimal, and she *should* not have this effect, but that is not what we saw.

We insisted, and she is not on a low dose of long acting ritalin. It seems to work, and her spirit is as bright as we knew it before. Definitely, talk about alternatives with your doctor. So-called "impulse control" meds -- ours was Kapvay) can really have a dampening efect (and are really expensive). A long-acting stimulant taken in low dose is what did the trick for us.

OP here - thank you for you input. Interesting point regarding Kapvay/other impulse-control meds. DS is on Clonodine, because we refuse to pay $400 a month for Kapvay.
He does seem to zone out when his meds kick in.

I do need to trust my mother's instinct on this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would get another evaluation since he is a lot older now. I like my son much better ON meds. Much less combative and easy going.

OP Here - DS is not at all combative, on or off the meds.

On a side note, I am also on ADHD meds, and when I take them the difference is amazing. I am literally firing on all cylinders, I'm focused, clear thinking and get a lot done....so I have always wondered if DS feels like this too because it doesn't seem like it to me. He seems to be in a fog.

Of all the meds we've tried over the past 4 yrs, I have never witnessed the "light turning on" for him. None have been life-changing and some have been downright awful. His current combo of drugs is adderral and clonidine for impulse control.

[Anonymous]

How about Vyvanse? It helps my son a lot with impulse control.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about Vyvanse? It helps my son a lot with impulse control.

This is OP. Vyvanse was one that we tried and it was horrible for DS. He displayed all of the negative side-effects possible.

[Anonymous]

Clonidine has sedative properties and has way different effects from stimulants such as amphetamines (e.g., Vyvanse). If you decide to take a break from clonidine, you should be really careful to taper your kid off of the medication because it may causes blood pressure changes (drastic unsafe sudden spikes).

Regarding changes in personality, it is really a question of semantics. The medication does not "change" a person's personality, but a medicine that is sedating your kid may definitely keep your kid from expressing that personality. For my family, we see so much more of our child's personality when he's on his medication.

[Anonymous]

NP here - I think it's definitely time to re-evaluate meds, including taking a break from them to re-evaluate his ADHD - informing the teachers, of course! You should do a before/after rating table to help you gauge behavior changes. You shouldn't like your DS better off medication than on! And, it should have such an impact on his demeanor.

My oldest started out on Focalin (in the ritalin family) but we saw minimal improvements and he developed tic and weight issues. He then went to Intuniv for a couple years. The Intuniv helped but it wasn't what I'd call a spectacular difference. Still, it was better than nothing and we saw no negative side effects. Towards the end of 4th grade, the Intuniv no longer seemed effective. We titrated him off and saw no noticeable difference. Over the summer, he was having one horrific day after another. Even I had lost patience with him. In desperation, we gave him one of his younger brother's Focalin pills and the difference was amazing! I finally experienced what people talk about when they find the right med/dose! We consulted with his dev ped and kept in on the Foclin - at half the dose he'd been on those years before. He's lost some weight but it's manageable and his tic has not re-emerged. No one knows why the medication works for him now when it didn't before but the lesson I've learned is that you need to be open to re-evaluating medication.

[Anonymous]

You are his mother. If your mama bear instinct is telling you that you are medicating away his personality, YOU SHOULD LISTEN. It is undisputable that ADHD meds are overprescribed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, your DS needs to demonstrate a different set of behaviors at home than at school. He might not need meds when he's at home because there he just needs to be himself. But when he has tasks he has to fulfill that require his attention or at least some type of physical self-control, that's when the meds really are needed.

If you truly want to experiment with this, wait until this summer. Talk to his doctor about how to wean him off the meds. Put him in an environment that's similar to the classroom. See how he does. The doctor may have reasons for not doing this, though; messing with meds really isn't the best idea since those take a good while to kick in, so if you stop them, it's hard to get him back stable again.

Letting him go off his meds now, with his chattiness and touching habits, might well just create so many problems in the classroom that will be hard to undo.

So now "chattiness" and "touching habits" need heavy-duty medication? I find this whole thread very sad and scary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are his mother. If your mama bear instinct is telling you that you are medicating away his personality, YOU SHOULD LISTEN. It is undisputable that ADHD meds are overprescribed.

True.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, your DS needs to demonstrate a different set of behaviors at home than at school. He might not need meds when he's at home because there he just needs to be himself. But when he has tasks he has to fulfill that require his attention or at least some type of physical self-control, that's when the meds really are needed.

If you truly want to experiment with this, wait until this summer. Talk to his doctor about how to wean him off the meds. Put him in an environment that's similar to the classroom. See how he does. The doctor may have reasons for not doing this, though; messing with meds really isn't the best idea since those take a good while to kick in, so if you stop them, it's hard to get him back stable again.

Letting him go off his meds now, with his chattiness and touching habits, might well just create so many problems in the classroom that will be hard to undo.

So now "chattiness" and "touching habits" need heavy-duty medication? I find this whole thread very sad and scary.

If your child goes to school, then yes - medication keeps your child out of the principals office for sure.

Not sure why you find this sad and scary as this is the reality of MOST of the people on this forum. do you have a SN child? can you share your secrets on what non-pharma techniques have worked for you and your child? or are you here just to make the rest of us feel lower than many of us already do?

[Anonymous]

It's seems the forum, not just this thread, has been invaded by a rabble-rouser from General Parenting. I hope everyone can ignore her and maintain the norms of this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, your DS needs to demonstrate a different set of behaviors at home than at school. He might not need meds when he's at home because there he just needs to be himself. But when he has tasks he has to fulfill that require his attention or at least some type of physical self-control, that's when the meds really are needed.

If you truly want to experiment with this, wait until this summer. Talk to his doctor about how to wean him off the meds. Put him in an environment that's similar to the classroom. See how he does. The doctor may have reasons for not doing this, though; messing with meds really isn't the best idea since those take a good while to kick in, so if you stop them, it's hard to get him back stable again.

Letting him go off his meds now, with his chattiness and touching habits, might well just create so many problems in the classroom that will be hard to undo.

So now "chattiness" and "touching habits" need heavy-duty medication? I find this whole thread very sad and scary.

If your child goes to school, then yes - medication keeps your child out of the principals office for sure.

Not sure why you find this sad and scary as this is the reality of MOST of the people on this forum. do you have a SN child? can you share your secrets on what non-pharma techniques have worked for you and your child? or are you here just to make the rest of us feel lower than many of us already do?

I don't know anything about your particular kid, but I do know that ADHD is vastly overdiagnosed and overmedicated in the US. So when I read things like medicating a kid for being chatty and handsy ... yes, I think that's probably a bad thing.