ADHD? Whoah!

[Seraphim]

Gosh. Good luck to you. And you already know this, but I just want to say it. You are so lucky to have him. And he's lucky to have you.

 

And if I win the lotto any time soon, those schools that you talk about, one of them will be availible to you guys. Promise! But...don't hold yer breath!

 

Ahh you are a sweetie.......

 

He is my great boy.....

[sidehop]

Yes I've taken Adderall 27mg and never taking them again.

 

The side effects with mine were huge mood swings to the point where I became what it felt like depression.

 

I did better with Ritalin/Concerta. Straterra just made me so sleepy.

 

Definitely not a long term medication by any means. I did get so much done at work when I was on Concerta. The side effects were decreased appetite even though my body was hungry so I had to make sure I ate every couple hours. Or I got dizzy and very tired quickly.

 

The scariest part is my family doctor whipped out a simple 15 or so questionnaire card and just said "okay let's try Adderall!" And people wonder why young kids are committing suicide with the drug, have depression, and need more medication than necessary.

 

It really is a Generation Rx.

[Seraphim]

Yes I've taken Adderall 27mg and never taking them again.

 

The side effects with mine were huge mood swings to the point where I became what it felt like depression.

 

I did better with Ritalin/Concerta. Straterra just made me so sleepy.

 

Definitely not a long term medication by any means. I did get so much done at work when I was on Concerta. The side effects were decreased appetite even though my body was hungry so I had to make sure I ate every couple hours. Or I got dizzy and very tired quickly.

 

The scariest part is my family doctor whipped out a simple 15 or so questionnaire card and just said "okay let's try Adderall!" And people wonder why young kids are committing suicide with the drug, have depression, and need more medication than necessary.

 

It really is a Generation Rx.

 

You want to know what is REALLY scary....my son is on 25 mg of Strattera and he is 95 pounds soaking wet with a parka on. and he is TWELVE........tell me THAT is not nuts??!!

[Seraphim]

Yes I've taken Adderall 27mg and never taking them again.

 

The side effects with mine were huge mood swings to the point where I became what it felt like depression.

 

I did better with Ritalin/Concerta. Straterra just made me so sleepy.

 

Definitely not a long term medication by any means. I did get so much done at work when I was on Concerta. The side effects were decreased appetite even though my body was hungry so I had to make sure I ate every couple hours. Or I got dizzy and very tired quickly.

 

The scariest part is my family doctor whipped out a simple 15 or so questionnaire card and just said "okay let's try Adderall!" And people wonder why young kids are committing suicide with the drug, have depression, and need more medication than necessary.

 

It really is a Generation Rx.

 

I believe Adderall is actually banned in Canada for causing strokes, or at least it was at one time.

[sidehop]

I believe Adderall is actually banned in Canada for causing strokes, or at least it was at one time.

 

The sad part is a lot of medication that's banned in Europe and Canada is widely used here. Adderall made me a completely different person. And for doctors to prescribe such medication to children that are not even teenagers? There's something very wrong with that picture.

[Seraphim]

The sad part is a lot of medication that's banned in Europe and Canada is widely used here. Adderall made me a completely different person. And for doctors to prescribe such medication to children that are not even teenagers? There's something very wrong with that picture.

 

You have that right,my son became a complete MANIAC on Concerta, he was miserable,depressed, he threw desks at teachers, he attacked his 2 year old cousin with no provocation. It was like Jekyll and Hyde. I feel so God awful my beautifully sunny happy child had to live with that, knowing that I have to be party to doing that to him.

 

He just can not take stimulants, he is too sensitive to them.

 

Strattera though is not a stimulant thankfully.

[Mauxly]

I've been researching Addarall...no friggin way am I going to let that poison anywhere near my body!

 

What I've read:

-Highly addictive

-Gives people dissociative disorder, they feel disconnected, less ability to empathize

-They become highly productive (not to mention high… but testimony from family members is that they’ve lost who they were. Don’t feel the consequences of behavior, again, less empathetic.

-Apparently withdrawal from it is a nightmare. And there is speculation that it can permanently damage the brain, so when you get off it you are in a worse situation than when you went on it.

 

There is a reason I don’t do cocaine, I watched it turn some of my friends into monsters. From the accounts that I’ve been reading, Adderall is like legal cocaine.

 

I’ll keep my silly, slightly obnoxious, disorganized and occasionally neurotic self. Thank you.

[Seraphim]

Yeah nice stuff, and we get to poison and destroy little brains on it.

[sidehop]

You have that right,my son became a complete MANIAC on Concerta, he was miserable,depressed, he threw desks at teachers, he attacked his 2 year old cousin with no provocation. It was like Jekyll and Hyde. I feel so God awful my beautifully sunny happy child had to live with that, knowing that I have to be party to doing that to him.

 

He just can not take stimulants, he is too sensitive to them.

 

Strattera though is not a stimulant thankfully.

 

I'm not surprised at all, these ADD/ADHD medication are probably by far the worst 'legal' drug that really makes a normal human being a monster with bad side effects. Kids are even committing suicide it changes them so much.

 

After that whole Adderall incident I switched my doctor for regular checkups.

 

The funny thing with Straterra for me is that even if I had nine hours of sleep I would be fighting for sleep! It was such a bizarre side effect.

 

I've been researching Addarall...no friggin way am I going to let that poison anywhere near my body!

 

What I've read:

-Highly addictive

-Gives people dissociative disorder, they feel disconnected, less ability to empathize

-They become highly productive (not to mention high…) but testimony from family members is that they’ve lost who they were. Don’t feel the consequences of behavior, again, less empathetic.

-Apparently withdrawal from it is a nightmare. And there is speculation that it can permanently damage the brain, so when you get off it you are in a worse situation than when you went on it.

 

There is a reason I don’t do cocaine, I watched it turn some of my friends into monsters. From the accounts that I’ve been reading, Adderall is like legal cocaine.

 

I’ll keep my silly, slightly obnoxious, disorganized and occasionally neurotic self. Thank you.

 

I heard it was a synthetic form of speed but heard about cocaine also. In either case it's scary if you get the bad side effects.

 

Even when Concerta at 27mg was working for me, I knew I couldn't take it for long. Okay, it was $40 a month with insurance but on weekends I didn't take it as much of the focus needed was at work. It got expensive after awhile.

 

I felt like an Energizer bunny in a form of a robot. Much of the work was done but looking back I don't remember much of it nor had a true sense of accomplishment was never really there.

[Seraphim]

I pay $167 a month for Strattera for my son and he has been on it for 2 YEARS, every time I want to reduce his dose or take him off the dr ups his dose. When he goes to his new school I might take him off altogether but I have to fight the board and his dr

Amazingly he can sleep on Strattera, he is not tired at all. (during the day,he is still up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6 am)Even on stimulants he STIIL needed a sleep aid because we could not get him to sleep. It would take us till midnight to get him into bed and he would be sleep walking by 3 am. I did not sleep an entire night till he was 7. He is not quite himself even on Stratterra but at least he eats and functions the best of any medication so far. They have him on the highest dose for his weight though.

[sidehop]

Poor thing

 

I thought Straterra was more natural or is not as strong as Concerta/Ritalin or Adderall? That's a lot for just for the medication!

[Seraphim]

Poor thing

 

I thought Straterra was more natural or is not as strong as Concerta/Ritalin or Adderall? That's a lot for just for the medication!

 

It is a different drug classification. He was on Ritalin for a while and Concerta for a few years, then I took him off medication completely after the violence, but he did not work at school, he was not disruptive but they could not get him to work.So his last medication possible was Stratterra after that his dr was at a loss. Personally I think he has reached a level of maturation that he can handle it without medication. He is more "hyper" without the medication but that is truly who he is.

 

Another thing about Concerta when it wore off he was like he was on Coke, he would literally throw himself against walls and be bouncing. It was nuts. I was in a Toys R US one night Christmas shopping and he was literally bouncing himself off the glass doors. I could tell it had worn off. Some woman felt fit to insult me about my son and how he was acting. Believe me I let her have it. That drug is just WACKED! Stratterra is more long acting and way more even dosed...it is a long acting dose of 24 hours. Concerta was 12 hours and it was like he was circus freak going up and down like a crack addict.

[3boys]

Have any of you tried Focalin? My son was dx'd with ADHD (inattentive) and Auditory Processing Disorder when he was 8. We went through all of the Ritalin derivatives and, like Victoria's son, he wouldn't sleep, lost weight (he was already in the 5th percentile for his weight, but the 95th for his height so he didn't have any weight to lose), got agitated easily, etc. Tried Strattera, which made him suicidal...needless to say, I yanked him off that IMMEDIATELY even though the doctor told me he had to be weaned off....hmmmmmm, withdrawal or suicidal thoughts? Then we landed on Focalin XR, which was brand new at the time and was good until he became "pre-pubescent" and the bi-polar started rearing its ugly head The ADHD doc insisted he didn't have anything but ADHD & APD and just kept increasing the dosage, which kept making his mood swings WORSE so I took him to a child psych who diagnosed him with comorbid BP & ADHD and added Abilify. We just had to switch doctors again because of insurance and the new doc added Intuniv because the Focalin XR isn't lasting through the school day and adding a booster at lunch would put him over the suggested dose for his height/weight. It says that "long term use" can cause addiction and stopping can cause withdrawal symptoms, but when my son stopped it when we first switched to the child psych a little over a year ago, he didn't have any and he had been on it for almost 2 years.

 

My doctor also dx'd me with BP & ADHD and put me on Wellbutrin for the ADHD. Personally, I haven't noticed a difference. I was also on Provigil for a short time because my BP meds were making me so sleepy all day long and that seemed to help more than the Wellbutrin.

[Seraphim]

No, I have never heard of it. My father's family has significant BPD in my dad, his mother and his 2 sisters and my dad's grandmother on his father's side was schizophrenic, my son right now shows no signs of depression at all. He has anxiety but he is in no way depressed thank goodness. He is always smiling at me anyway and telling jokes and very bubbly. I hate that these medications can mess with the brain to create depression. I REALLY think my son can go it alone at this point. I just need a medical professional to agree with me and tell me how to wean him off.

 

Yeah, my son was like the 5th percentile for weight too, before medication never mind after. I think even now his BMI is about 17% so he is approaching normal weight.(mind you I was smaller than him even. I was always very significantly under weight as a kid. I was only 72 pounds at 12 and 5'1")

[3boys]

Thank goodness loss of appetite is one of the "secondary" side effects of the Focalin XR. My son is now 5'1" and weighs about 100 lbs, which I think is about average. The thing I never realized about kids and BP is that they don't cycle like adults or even teenagers, their cycles can be as long as a week or as short as a few minutes and it's common for them to cycle many times in a day when they are "bad," which is what my son would do. He would go from extremely agitated, to laughing, to crying, back to agitated, back to crying, back to agitated, back to laughing, back to crying, then back to normal, all within an hour. On our first visit, he was totally unmedicated and having a bad day and the doctor was able to see this and immediately knew what was wrong. He says that once he starts going through full-blown puberty, the cycles should become longer in duration, which it seems funny to say, will be nice because they will be easier to control.

 

Right now, though, we are going through a rough time because, with the Focalin not lasting all day, he is having a LOT of trouble at school and has gone from almost straight A's in the first 2 quarters to 1 A, 2 Bs, 2 Cs, 2 Ds, & 1 F in the 3rd quarter, and he's starting the 4th quarter with 2 Fs, 2 Cs, & 3 Bs. The new doctor is hoping the Intuniv is going to help, but it's one you have to "build up" and it'll take 3-4 weeks to do that

[Seraphim]

Awww I am sorry you are having a hard time! It is so painful I know. Hopefully this new medication works for him.

 

My dad was REALLY bad, there would be stages were for months on end he would be in bed for 3 weeks at a time literally, only getting up to go to the bathroom and eat occassionally. Then other times he was SO manic he was like he was on crack and could conquer the universe, then he was dangerous though cause he would fly into rages and attack people, mostly my mom. They would come out of NO place. I think I would die if I had to see my son that way. I am hoping the mental illness of my father's family escapes our line now..my brother's kids seem to be very happy go lucky kids too....so our fingers are crossed.