Anyone not medicate for ADHD and child grew out of it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a HS magnet kid who is ADD. She won’t ever be a truly top student because we won’t medicate. I’d rather her be closer to average in the program without drugs than be exceptional with drugs.

As a former magnet student with ADHD, this is deeply sad to me. I felt so incredibly inadequate with my "average" performance, because I was supposed to be so "smart." Why couldn't I excel? It really took an enormous toll on me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a HS magnet kid who is ADD. She won’t ever be a truly top student because we won’t medicate. I’d rather her be closer to average in the program without drugs than be exceptional with drugs.

As someone who was very, very intelligent and was not diagnosed with ADHD inattentive type as an adult... this is just so wrong. You are messing with HER LIFE and holding her back. Are you jealous of her potential? I don't understand why you would not give her the help she needs in to fulfill her potential.

I have a fine life but if I had been able to perform at the capacity that was my potential in high school and college, I would have contributed so much more to society. I was not diagnosed until after college. I was so burned out then from the struggles that I could not bring myself to go to grad school. We only have one chance at this life. We get one shot. Why make it harder for her? Medication is not magic. It still takes work.

You should put yourself in to therapy to figure out why you would hold your child back this way. Are you a stepparent? Are you jealous of your child? What is your deal?

+100000000000000000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a HS magnet kid who is ADD. She won’t ever be a truly top student because we won’t medicate. I’d rather her be closer to average in the program without drugs than be exceptional with drugs.

In the words of my son’s psychiatrist, ADHD mds aren’t performance enhancing drugs. The primary driver for most families is their kid’s psychological well being and happiness, not school performance. When we started medication, my kid became much happier, more social, able to resist the urge to argue with everyone and able to not act in ways that were really alienating to peers.

If you think it’s about performing better at a magnet school, then I wonder if your daughter is misdiagnosed.

They really are. Adderall abuse is rampant at top colleges. Kids sell it all the time.

FOR PEOPLE WITHOUT ADHD they can be. This is like saying steroids are performance enhancing drugs for boys with very low testosterone or something. CTFO

[Anonymous]

OP, I have a wonderful success story about my 13 yr old son! He was diagnosed at age 6 with severe ADHD and with Dyslexia. We immediately started him on a medication but it made his heart race so I stopped it. Tried one more but I did not like the way he responded to it. This was during the first 2 months after diagnosis. I decided to stop meds and teach him everything that I have learned from growing up with unmedicated severe ADHD. I pulled him from public and my mother (who has a degree in education and I (Business Management) began to homeschool him. FF to the end of his 6th grade yr....The same psychologist who diagnosed him said that he showed no signs of ADHD. He is now focused, calm, and is training to be ready to join the NAVY at 17 (We spoke with a recruiter Sunday at Tinker AFB. He was impressed with my son.). You CAN live happily and well with untreated ADHD. Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a HS magnet kid who is ADD. She won’t ever be a truly top student because we won’t medicate. I’d rather her be closer to average in the program without drugs than be exceptional with drugs.

In the words of my son’s psychiatrist, ADHD mds aren’t performance enhancing drugs. The primary driver for most families is their kid’s psychological well being and happiness, not school performance. When we started medication, my kid became much happier, more social, able to resist the urge to argue with everyone and able to not act in ways that were really alienating to peers.

If you think it’s about performing better at a magnet school, then I wonder if your daughter is misdiagnosed.

They really are. Adderall abuse is rampant at top colleges. Kids sell it all the time.

I may have been unclear. What my kid's psychiatrist meant is "ADHD meds aren't prescribed nor are them meant to be used as academic or sports performance enhancing drugs. If that's why you are taking them, then you are abusing them."

Yes, many medications present risks of diversion and abuse, and ADHD stimulant medications are certainly high on that list. Just like with opioids, parents need to be totally on top of ADHD meds -- they are a controlled substance and MUST be treated as such, especially with teenagers. When your kid is in high school, it is very likely that other kids who know that they have a prescription will ask them for some of their pills.

[Anonymous]

"If it was science, you wouldn’t have to experiment with each person."

It astounds me that educated adults in the US in 2019 have such a poor understanding of really basic things like this.

First of it, it's "If it WERE science."

Second, remember how when you give your child cough syrup or a pain reliever you have to look up the proper dosage on the bottle for her age and weight? That's because 10ml of a medication might be enough or even too much for her, while it might be an insufficient amount for your 200 pounder husband. Moreover, some people respond to drugs with greater or lesser intensity than others, just like some of us experience pain differently. Ask any cancer patient if she received the exact same medication in the exact same amount as the cancer patient in the hospital room next door.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I have a wonderful success story about my 13 yr old son! He was diagnosed at age 6 with severe ADHD and with Dyslexia. We immediately started him on a medication but it made his heart race so I stopped it. Tried one more but I did not like the way he responded to it. This was during the first 2 months after diagnosis. I decided to stop meds and teach him everything that I have learned from growing up with unmedicated severe ADHD. I pulled him from public and my mother (who has a degree in education and I (Business Management) began to homeschool him. FF to the end of his 6th grade yr....The same psychologist who diagnosed him said that he showed no signs of ADHD. He is now focused, calm, and is training to be ready to join the NAVY at 17 (We spoke with a recruiter Sunday at Tinker AFB. He was impressed with my son.). You CAN live happily and well with untreated ADHD. Good Luck!

What the eff

How does your extremely unusual and costly solution, that ends with enlistment (not even Naval Academy) help ANYONE?!

[Anonymous]

What a disturbing and in parts sickening thread. Get your kids help. Make changes, if necessary, in collaboration with their medical team. What is wrong with you people.

-adult with ADHD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I have a wonderful success story about my 13 yr old son! He was diagnosed at age 6 with severe ADHD and with Dyslexia. We immediately started him on a medication but it made his heart race so I stopped it. Tried one more but I did not like the way he responded to it. This was during the first 2 months after diagnosis. I decided to stop meds and teach him everything that I have learned from growing up with unmedicated severe ADHD. I pulled him from public and my mother (who has a degree in education and I (Business Management) began to homeschool him. FF to the end of his 6th grade yr....The same psychologist who diagnosed him said that he showed no signs of ADHD. He is now focused, calm, and is training to be ready to join the NAVY at 17 (We spoke with a recruiter Sunday at Tinker AFB. He was impressed with my son.). You CAN live happily and well with untreated ADHD. Good Luck!

Your story is lovely, but when kids have a LD like dyslexia, the behaviors that they cause often look like ADHD. This is why MANY TIMES advice is given to not just go to someone who only dxes ADHD but to also get a full neuropscyh evaluation so that you can be sure a child only has ADHD and does not have a LD that is causing ADHD type symptoms. Now some doctors may not give a dx of ADHD when there is a newly dxed LD because it is SO HARD TO TELL if the child has a disorder causing the inattention/hyperactivity or if it is a result of the LD. A diagnosis of ADHD in that situation can help kids get the supports they need for the symptoms they have at the time, but it doesn't mean they will always have ADHD.

My child was not officially dxed with ADHD because he had another condition that the neurologist felt could have been causing the ADHD symptoms. Now that that condition has been resolved, it is clear my child has ADHD and we have started medication.

Congratulations to you and your ds!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a disturbing and in parts sickening thread. Get your kids help. Make changes, if necessary, in collaboration with their medical team. What is wrong with you people.

-adult with ADHD

There are other options available without resorting to throwing pills at the situation. Most teachers want kids medicated because it's the easiest way to control them and make their lives easier. It's easy to get a pill pushing doctor to prescribe ADHD meds without taking a critical look at underlying causes or alternative solutions. It's great that OP is skeptical of the teachers suggestion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a disturbing and in parts sickening thread. Get your kids help. Make changes, if necessary, in collaboration with their medical team. What is wrong with you people.

-adult with ADHD

There are other options available without resorting to throwing pills at the situation. Most teachers want kids medicated because it's the easiest way to control them and make their lives easier. It's easy to get a pill pushing doctor to prescribe ADHD meds without taking a critical look at underlying causes or alternative solutions. It's great that OP is skeptical of the teachers suggestion.

IMO, the people who say they’ll never use meds or only as a last resort after years of trying other “treatments” and letting their kid fail while anxiety and depression take root are every bit as bad as the people who throw pills at the problem. At least when the kid is medicated, they can focus and learn to develop other coping mechanisms for if/when they decide to go off the medication. Parents at both ends of the meds/no meds spectrum are doing their kids a disservice.

-adult with ADHD, whose parents refused to even consider ADHD was a possibility

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can a brain scan prove a neurological disease?

Yes, a brain scan shows Parkinson's, dementia, epilepsy, brain tumors, etc.

What about a chemical imbalance?

Brain scans call also rule out things. This is key in diagnosing things like cerebral palsy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Growing out of a neurological disorder is news to me. Perhaps, what you mean is, are the impacts of the side effects less noticeable as the kid gets older? If that's the case, then yes, a kid can learn to adapt without medication and with the help of therapies be better capable of managing themselves. It doesn't work for every ADHD child. In K the school principal told me in DS's IEP meeting that he firmly believed that DS (diagnosed with ADHD-combined) would never be a success without medication. By the end of K, DS was on grade level in all areas, except one, where he was advanced. DS is in 5 grade and most people that interact with him don't know that he has ADHD. He is not on medication. We chose to change his diet and his environment, and add all the therapies that he needed to be a success. He's on grade level in all areas. In the future, if DS decides that life and school has gotten to hard to manage because of ADHD, then we will revisit putting him on medication.

No, some kids literally grow out of it.

Read the link posted by PP on page 1 about Dr. Shaw's work. My son is one of the cohort that Dr. Shaw's team has been following from childhood to (now) young adulthood. The study that my son is enrolled in is an imaging study, which has shown that there are characteristic population-level differences in the structure of the brains of kids with ADHD versus kids without. Note that these aren't diagnostic level differences that you can look at and say "That kid has ADHD", but rather the average size of structures for the population of ADHD kids is significantly different than the average size of those structures in non-ADHD kids.

When Dr. Shaw explained it to me, what I understood him to say happens with the subgroup of kids who "grow out of it" (i.e. they are able to discontinue medication and their average scores on diagnostic tests move toward the non-ADHD population average) is that the structure of their brains changes over time to more closely resemble the non-ADHD population. He explained that for some kids it's a timing issue --- some structures in their brains develop more slowly than the non-ADHD population, but they eventually catch up. For another large cohort, this never happens.

I am pp that you quoted. Thanks for explaining this. It was helpful.

[Anonymous]

The people pushing meds don't seem to address the side effects that some kids have: not sleeping, causing irritability, tics, weight loss

Meds aren't all sunshine and roses!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Not the same thing, but DH was diagnosed with ADHD as a young adult, medicated for 7-8 years, then weaned off. He seems fine to me.