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Reply to "My child is the only one with ADD, not on meds."

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[quote=Anonymous]Like many parents in this thread meds were the last resort and we did (and do) plenty of other things to help our kid in every possible way. I am pretty sure not one parent here relies on only medication and just washes his/her hands after offering a pill and a glass of water. To me that is insulting. Nobody here took this decision lightly or thinks we just "drug" our kids to make our lives easier.

Just before his ADD (inattentive) diagnosis, my kid was also diagnosed with a pretty severe learning dissability that was making reading and writing extremely difficult for him ( he was in first grade)  He was falling behing academically, socially and his self steem was plummeting down. His hand writing was atrociuos. He was hiding under a table at school out of frustration...

We did OT, PT, speech therapy, tutoring, exercised him heavily, the school did every acommodation we and his doctors thought about. We changed his diet and every routine.
He was pretty young and two neuropsych evaluations were inconclusive. Pointing towards inattentive ADD, but not a definite. Finally after doing the NIH study we decided to start meds and the results were life changing for our kid.

Maybe the effects won't last forever, but they allowed him to learn how to read and write at his grade level and above. He is now a straight A student, with lots of friends and interests, his handwriting is legible, he can cope with frustration and anxiety and is overall a happy successful child.

We were able to stop some of the multiple therapies and differents things we had tried. Others we still do daily. Same with acommodations at school. Some are still necessary others not anymore.

We stop medication on weekends and summers and you know what, all this great things don't magically disappear like Cinderella's dress at midnight. He doesn't forget how to read and write or the other things medication allowed him to learn  (no doctor or teacher ever mentioned the LD again) and everything he learns during the school year is still there come labor day.
 During the summer he has a very hard time focusing and concentrating, keeping up with chores and tasks it not easy at all, prioritizing is almost impossible for him and everything takes 10 times longer, among other things.  When we are at the beach these things are not a big deal. In a classroom they are. He works beautifully one on one, but at school he has a teacher not a tutor.  Overall, compared to where we were 5 years ago we have come a very long way :) I don't think I would be able to say so without having tried meds.

Medication has improved his life for 5 years. Maybe that is all we will get, but to me that is priceless and I never expected the meds to "cure" him, just to improve his quality of life and help him thrive. 
We still work on coping skills daily. one thing does not exclude the other, but without the meds simply getting through the day was all consuming, now with a happier, more successful child we have more time and a much better disposition to attempt teaching him those coping and compesantion mechanisms.

We are all doing the best we can. 
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