Stimulant withdrawal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren't all 6 year old kids hyper? Having taken adderall since I was about 8, I think it should be illegal to medicate kids that young. It completely stripped me of my personality, it didn't help me do well in school and I don't remember a lot from after I started taking it. I only started doing well in school (university) when I stopped taking it.

Some kids are just really hyper. It's their child personality. If you work with it instead of medicating it away, you might find yourself raising a great person.

OP here. I'm guessing you aren't the parent of a SN kid? No, some kids really *are* that much more hyper than others. Our DS was a danger to himself and others when he was unmedicated. We didn't go a day that some well meaning stranger would comment "whoa - he is really a handful" with a pitying look.

Further, it was literally impossible to "parent" our son before he was medicated. He was too hyper and couldn't sit still or process instructions because his brain was going a mile a minute. Once we started medicating, it was amazing because he could finally "hear" us for the first time. This was also the advice of all the behavior therapists we talked to, who said a 4-7 year old boy can't access the behavior tools you give him if his brain can't calm down.

I'm the mother of four boys. You might call them special needs if I don't take them out to the park or swimming or to one of their sports first thing in the morning to run off all their energy.

No, that doesn't count.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP reporting back. So we cut back the adderall from 15 to 10mg on a Saturday. He remained on 2mg intuniv. Saturday he was a bit hyper but manageable. Sunday he was dangerously hyper. Monday he was pretty nuts but not so dangerous (babysitter and speech therapist both commented on his energy and wild body- I hadn’t told them about the meds). Tuesday he was quite hyper but manageable. By Wednesday he seemed to settle into being hyper but not out of control. Like, we could deal at home and he focused at his camp (LEGO camp which he loves) but there’s no way we could send him to school.

But interestingly, we really did love the kid who showed up out from under the stimulant. Happy, joyful, mostly compliant (but requires a lot of corralling to get things done), making jokes, taking jokes, up for anything. The reason we wanted to try the reduction is because Ds seemed quite joyless and over sensitive in the last year. It seems at first blush that it really might have been the adderall. Of course, to get the happy kid we also had to take an unacceptable level of hyperactivity. Our school starts In two weeks so we had the option of either going back on full adderall, adding in some more intuniv over time, and trying to wean him off the adderall again in a few months (hoping that the intuniv countered the withdrawal hyperactivity, because there’s no way he could have gong to school on those days), or leaving him on the reduced adderall and adding in some intuniv now and hope it settles into him before school. We tried the latter. We have done threee days extra intuniv thus far and the hyperactivity is greatly reduced but he is, no surprise, very tired and more moody and less joyful. Really hoping the moody/joyful thing is just a temporary side effect that goes away once he is less tired. We will definitely give it the whole month. If we’re still seeing moodiness in a month, I think we’ll also have to contemplate if it’s still the adderall, and if the extra intuniv will give us a cushion to go down even more.

Anyhow, just providing an update in case anyone else experiences the same thing taking their kid off stimulants! You definitely need to hang in there a week before assuming your kid is too hyper to be without.

Have you considered something instead of regular Adderall? There are other formulations of the same drug that peak lower and last longer, or are made to reduce side effects, so you might get better symptom control together with the good personality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP reporting back. So we cut back the adderall from 15 to 10mg on a Saturday. He remained on 2mg intuniv. Saturday he was a bit hyper but manageable. Sunday he was dangerously hyper. Monday he was pretty nuts but not so dangerous (babysitter and speech therapist both commented on his energy and wild body- I hadn’t told them about the meds). Tuesday he was quite hyper but manageable. By Wednesday he seemed to settle into being hyper but not out of control. Like, we could deal at home and he focused at his camp (LEGO camp which he loves) but there’s no way we could send him to school.

But interestingly, we really did love the kid who showed up out from under the stimulant. Happy, joyful, mostly compliant (but requires a lot of corralling to get things done), making jokes, taking jokes, up for anything. The reason we wanted to try the reduction is because Ds seemed quite joyless and over sensitive in the last year. It seems at first blush that it really might have been the adderall. Of course, to get the happy kid we also had to take an unacceptable level of hyperactivity. Our school starts In two weeks so we had the option of either going back on full adderall, adding in some more intuniv over time, and trying to wean him off the adderall again in a few months (hoping that the intuniv countered the withdrawal hyperactivity, because there’s no way he could have gong to school on those days), or leaving him on the reduced adderall and adding in some intuniv now and hope it settles into him before school. We tried the latter. We have done threee days extra intuniv thus far and the hyperactivity is greatly reduced but he is, no surprise, very tired and more moody and less joyful. Really hoping the moody/joyful thing is just a temporary side effect that goes away once he is less tired. We will definitely give it the whole month. If we’re still seeing moodiness in a month, I think we’ll also have to contemplate if it’s still the adderall, and if the extra intuniv will give us a cushion to go down even more.

Anyhow, just providing an update in case anyone else experiences the same thing taking their kid off stimulants! You definitely need to hang in there a week before assuming your kid is too hyper to be without.

Have you considered something instead of regular Adderall? There are other formulations of the same drug that peak lower and last longer, or are made to reduce side effects, so you might get better symptom control together with the good personality.

OP here - yes, last year we tried a bunch of other stimulants (when we felt that Adderall wasn't cutting it at 15mg, but tried 20mg and he had an immediate, very bad reaction). They all had immediate issues that we found intolerable compared with the Adderall (one wore out by 1pm, so would have required multiple boosters which is tough with a younger kid; one had extreme rebound in the afternoon that was intolerable; one caused him to be too zombie-like while also having panic attacks). We had generally liked him on the Adderall and didn't think it had any side effects, and gave him good coverage through the day -- so all these other stimulants seemed pretty bad compared to the Adderall. We didn't realize that the Adderall was also probably creating irritability and/or minor anxiety, because it probably crept in so slowly over the course of a year. I think it makes more sense at this point to try shifting more of the work to a non-stimulant versus trying another stimulant. The only other stimulant that might be a possibility is vyvanse, but we've had so many bad reactions to other stimulants that i'm hesitant. I'd rather play around with the Adderall and intuniv first and see if we can get to a good place.

[Anonymous]

Upping Intuniv might help.

[Anonymous]

If the Intuniv doesn't work, try Strattera.

[Anonymous]

We stopped Focalin XR, 15 mg, for my then 10 yr old cold turkey this Spring. It was causing him anxiety and DS requested getting off the medication. DS has ASD/ADHD, combined type and was on Focalin since he was 7 but at a lower dosage.

Within 3 days we noticed a lot of improvement in his anxiety and his social skills improved; went up to other kids and started conversations about what they were doing. Ate more food.

The negatives were DS is much more hyper, constantly moving and needs many more prompts to start and stay on tasks academically which he did not need while on the Focalin.

We will try medication again after school starts if the school thinks he needs it. He is going to a Auburn for middle school and we want to see if the structure and executive functioning coaching they provide will be enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aren't all 6 year old kids hyper? Having taken adderall since I was about 8, I think it should be illegal to medicate kids that young. It completely stripped me of my personality, it didn't help me do well in school and I don't remember a lot from after I started taking it. I only started doing well in school (university) when I stopped taking it.

Some kids are just really hyper. It's their child personality. If you work with it instead of medicating it away, you might find yourself raising a great person.

Has the dosing of stimulants changed in recent years. I have heard many adults who were on stimulants during childhood say the same thing - that they were robbed of their personalities. My daughter has been on Vyvanse for two years and there has not been any change in her personality other than a greater ability to focus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren't all 6 year old kids hyper? Having taken adderall since I was about 8, I think it should be illegal to medicate kids that young. It completely stripped me of my personality, it didn't help me do well in school and I don't remember a lot from after I started taking it. I only started doing well in school (university) when I stopped taking it.

Some kids are just really hyper. It's their child personality. If you work with it instead of medicating it away, you might find yourself raising a great person.

Has the dosing of stimulants changed in recent years. I have heard many adults who were on stimulants during childhood say the same thing - that they were robbed of their personalities. My daughter has been on Vyvanse for two years and there has not been any change in her personality other than a greater ability to focus.

Flat affect is a side effect of too much stimulant. The dosing range has not changed but doctors and parents are more aware of this problem and will adjust dosing or switch medications to prevent it.