For ADHD - H, could you tell me why you decided in favor of/ against stimulants?

[Anonymous]

17y old with primarily hyperactivity who has been on meds since 11y.

His grades were VERY good until middle school (when the workload was more demanding) and teachers became less tolerant of his wandering/talking/disruptive behaviors. We were getting notes home daily about his behaviors and he was so down on himself. DH agreed to trial meds and the results were near immediate. Grades rebounded, no notes home, increased self esteem....

He has now been on them for 6y and I can't imagine him being off them (we see what he is like when they wear off at night and his speech is pressured, he has a maniacal laugh, and he is so disorganized in thought/speech/behavior.) He never takes breaks (weekends/holidays/summer.) He is now a senior and is managing IB/AP/DE classes, has a 4.0 GPA, and a healthy social life with a long term girlfriend.

We email the doc monthly to refill the script, she sends to the pharmacy, and we pick it up. We do a telemed visit every 3 months which is pretty perfunctory at this point.

The most difficult was finding the med that worked for him. We trialed 3 meds before finding one that worked. Once we did, we haven't looked back.

[Anonymous]

Our decision to start medication was easy. My child was refusing to do any work in class. He would often crawl up in a ball in the corner or under his desk and cry. He had zero friends. He was about to get kicked off a sport he loved because he couldn't control his temper. He would get so angry and he could start to hypervenilate and not calm down for over an hour or he would just completely shut down and not speak for hours.

Medication made him do a 180 and none of those issues exist anymore.

I call our doctor every month for a refill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have any supplements worked for any of you?

No. We tried everything before medication. Neurofeedback, diet changes, fish oil, etc etc. I think we tried everything I have heard of. None of it even remotely touched the symptoms like medication did. We really saw no impact, in fact things just continued to get harder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 9YO DS just got diagnosed with mild ADHD, mainly H. He is doing well academically, social relationships are fine, and is athletically active. But sometimes does have impulse control issues, can’t sit still for long, and sometimes talks over people in class.

We are discussing options, including medication, with the doctor.

I have heard/ read about some concerns with stimulants, and I’ve had friends in their 20/ who had challenges with adderall dependency, so I’m a little cautious on this.

For those of you that had similar circumstances and decided for or against stimulants, could you share your reasoning in decision making? And how is your child doing?

Thank you in advance.

Why did we start ADHD meds? Our DS seems the same as yours. In retrospect, social relationships were *not* fine, but that was very hard for me to suss out as a parent. The impulse control, not being able to sit still and talking over people ARE social issues that increasingly isolated our DS and caused him to be unhappy about the lack of friendships of the kind he saw other kids have. Both adults and kids noticed these issues and both adults and kids were impediments to making friends. It was deeply hurtful to DS. He started meds in HS, but I wish we had started around 3rd grade when we found out about the ADHD. We thought he was doing "fine" but he wasn't, so we didn't start until it was clearly apparent that he was doing *badly*.

BTW, stimulants are not the only ADHD med. Our DC ultimately started stimulants in HS, and although we have a strong family history of addiction, DS has not become an abuser, mostly because a stimulant normalizes his behavior it doesn't give him a high for which he would seek to abuse the drug. When DS was in HS, I kept and administered the medication daily. As a senior, we transitioned to him keeping the medication with me being allowed to peek whenever I wanted to see how many pills there were. Now in college, DS tends to take the medication when he "needs" it -- during the school week, not so much on the weekends and not so much when he is in a highly interesting, fast moving, high pressure environment (in that case, the environment is the medication). I have talked openly about the family history of addiction and why it's important not to use any substances or alcohol, particularly before mid-20s and even after. There is also some data to show that unmedicated ADHD is a risk for substance abuse as people self-medicate instead.

Another family member takes Straterra (atomoxetine) which is not a stimulant and doesn't have a capacity for abuse. It works very well for that family member, who chose not to take a stimulant due to low-weight issues, which the stimulant only would have made worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 9YO DS just got diagnosed with mild ADHD, mainly H. He is doing well academically, social relationships are fine, and is athletically active. But sometimes does have impulse control issues, can’t sit still for long, and sometimes talks over people in class.

We are discussing options, including medication, with the doctor.

I have heard/ read about some concerns with stimulants, and I’ve had friends in their 20/ who had challenges with adderall dependency, so I’m a little cautious on this.

For those of you that had similar circumstances and decided for or against stimulants, could you share your reasoning in decision making? And how is your child doing?

Thank you in advance.

Agree with PPs about impulse control issues affecting social relationships. Kids (and adults) get far less tolerant of these kinds of behaviors as kids get older, and you really do want to protect self-esteem. But also to note, stimulants aren't the only option. Guanfacine (intuniv) has been a very good addition for our primarily impulsive/hyperactive kid.

[Anonymous]

My ADHD kids are functional without meds, at least for now, and studies seem to suggest that in the long run the effects of adhd medications seem to dissipate.

I believe switching schools helped significantly; we're now in a private that does direct instruction, smaller classes, and very low technology use. Fewer distractions meant it was easier to focus.