How long will it take for my son to take control of his ADHD?Anxiety disorder?
March 1st, 2010
Debra asked:
He turns 15yrs old next month and i have had him therapy for 5 1/2yrs
He has been on many meds but nothing has worked. he lived in a group home and is now starting day treatment (along with his regular therapy) He has been pulled from regular mainstream school and will begin online schooling.
I am at my wits end!
Daniel
He turns 15yrs old next month and i have had him therapy for 5 1/2yrs
He has been on many meds but nothing has worked. he lived in a group home and is now starting day treatment (along with his regular therapy) He has been pulled from regular mainstream school and will begin online schooling.
I am at my wits end!
Daniel
Categories: Mental Health | Tags: Anxiety Disorder, Meds, Wits End
Buffy
I dont know your situation, but based on your question it sounds like your quite flustered about the whole thing. However, imagine how he feels living with it. He may be in treatment for it for a long time. To my knowledge ADHD isn’t something thats easily cured by therapy. Think less depression and more along the lines of autism and aspergers. These types of disorders usually stay with people for a very long time if not forever (my husband has ADHD). I know it’s hard for you as a mother, however it is hard for him as well because he has it. Try embracing his disorder by maybe enrolling him into an art therapy class, something that hones and builds his creativity. It may soothe him better than any therapy. Best of luck to you.
David
It takes different time lengths for different kids.
You never really get over it…it just gets better
Ryan
Keep trying different things, different psychiatrists. Go read as much as possible on this situation. It may be a congenital thing, where he can only learn to cope (and not completely control) his ADHD. Unlike a car, you cannot just take your son to a car mechanic and get an estimate for how long and how much it will cost. Losing your patience on him would probably be one of the worst things you can do to his life. However, asserting your parental guidance out of love is probably a good thing to do.
Julian
ADHD can be very frustrating for the child/teen and for the parent. When my son was about 8 years old, I was very frustrated. The child can be a very nice person, but it can be challenging. At this point, a relative saw a television show that helped me, greatly. The program featured a doctor who had treated many children who were suffering from food sensitivities. She had some of the patients on the show and discussed how she was treating them. She made reference to some of her books. These books were lifesavers, for me and my family. They showed how you can do an “elimination diet” to see if your family member might be suffereing any food sensitivities. We also took our son to an environmental allergist. This pointed to mulitiple “allergies” to foods. When we eliminated the offending foods, we were halfway there. I cannot say how much this helped. This is not to say it would help you and your son, but it certainly could not hurt. You can find the books (by Dr. Doris Rapp), through used online booksites for very little money. They explain things in a very easy to understand format and also point out other symptoms you may have noticed, over the years. There are often physical symptoms you would not have realized might be connected. One book is called: Allergies and the Hyperactive Child. Another is called: Is this Your Child? I think any of her books will be very helpful, and you will need to ignore the reference in the titles, to ‘child’ because these books will be beneficial to any age. You can also look up the actual television show through Youtube:
Dr. Doris Rapp #2:
Now, of course, you are dealing not only with the ADHD, but teenage hormones. I hope you read these books, thoroughly, and they give you even half the help they provided to our family.Try to be understanding with your son. Realize he is doing the best he can, and provide a lot of positive reinforcement in things he does. If he is trying, compliment him. If he made a small improvement, compliment him, no matter how small. Each notation of a good thing is a step in the right direction. People, in general, don’t hear positive remarks, enough in their daily lives. ADHD kids hear them less, and also hear negative things on a daily basis. Try to get him into any activities that involve things he loves to do. It does not need to be an intellectual thing – just something he loves to do. These are the things that help people to find themselves. Help him to do that, because ADHD people are not necessarily “desk” people and need to find the thing that suits them, in life. Good luck in all you do. Tell your son that Thomas Edison was ADHD. Also, smile a lot, and use humor as often, as you can. This is an important element in getting past many difficult moments.
Ikysha
well i can see who frustrating this must be for you, and for him. its really hard! i have ADHD anxiety disorder and more. its tough and a ongoing battle, im currently in a day program and its helped alot…be open to him so he can talk to you…idk the specifics of the situation and everyones differernt, but just support him. it is frustrating but you have to support him through the good and bad times. just wait and see how this new program works, never give up and keep trying with meds i promise something with work eventually just NEVER give up…
some med advice: im 14 but meds that have worked well for me for these things are concerta for ADHD that has done MIRACLES!!! and imean it, and for anxiety, zoloft, effexor and prozac have all helped, now you probably hve tried these but if not maybe look some up, but i dont know like if he has allergies or w/e im just saying these have worked for me, i hope this helps…and if you or your son ever need to talk to someome you can feel free to email me, i may be young but ive been through alot of this stuff and i know how hard it is for parents as well.
RICHARD
Do you know what Hitler’s troops and your son have in common? The use of amphetamines! Don’t belive me? Check out this article: Hitler’s troops used amphetamines to suppress hunger, fatigue and to have blitzkrieg style energy. Many professionals and laypeople tout the wonders of these ADHD drugs but guess what, a little Nyquil in the bottle will calm your sugar tweaking boy down also and no one would recommend that. Unfortunately, drugging our children has become the norm. When I was a kid, drugs were only for when you were sick, now they help you go to sleep, help you wake up, help you focus, etc and we are giving them to kids younger and younger. What about other countries? They do not have ADHD stricken kids, is this some type of a plague, where did it come from? If your child got cancer or swine flu or some other disease you would try and find out how and where he got it but when the Dr. says your kid has ADHD parents just say “well that explains his behavior, see everyone, it had nothing to do with his diet or our parenting skills.” Come to think of it, ADHD didn’t even exist when I was a kid.
Is it just a coincidence or does it seem to be that most parents with ADHD kids also seem to have cupboards full of candy, soda pop, then they wonder “why is my child so screwed up? Considering the deadly chemicals our children have to contend with such as fluoride in the water and the aspartame in everything they eat. It’s a wonder American kids can even survive into their teens. The continuous doping of our children is a terrible thing. I met someone the other day that has a 10 year old daughter with a few disciplinary problems. He was so smug and proud of the fact that after 2 doctors explained to him that his lack of parenting skills was causing the problem he finally found one who diagnosed his little girl with ADHD and promptly gave him a few jars of pills for her to consume. Now she gets pills at night for sleeping and in the morning for waking up and 3 times a day to help her concentrate in school…. She told her father that she didn’t want the pills anymore and that she hated the way they made her feel, he caught her throwing them away once so now she has a patch taped to her back with the medication so she can not reach it and remove it. She is 10 years old! My god I would like to slap some sense into this guy AND his doctor.
ADHD psychostimulant drugs contain amphetamine and dextroamphetamine. We are seeing large increases in nasty side effects and ease of addiction which leads to drug abuse. 30% of children are showing adverse side effects such as extreme drowsiness, terrible headaches, constipation, weakness, dry mouth, vertigo to name a few. Doctor’s have also been reporting children’s heart rates slowing down to less than 60 beats a minute, blood pressure oscillating between very high and very low, and children have reported the sensation of their throat closing and a swelling of the tongue and lips, add to that hives, depression and a feeling of fatigue which are also common with Tenex. Don’t worry though, if your child suffers from these side effects and refuses to take the pills, we can glue a medicated patch to his or her back, Big Pharma will not leave you with the tedious and sometimes challenging responsibility of raising your child. I feel sorry for the trillions of parents since the beginning of time that were forced to play such a large part in the raising of their children without all these pills. (SARCASM)
Many of these ADHD drugs act on the prefrontal cortex of the brain lessoning the brains ability to respond to external stimulus (isn’t life supposed to be full of stimulating things? Isn’t that how we grow and develop?) with the hope that the patient can now focus better. ****** found that using amphetamines in his troops lessened those silly little emotions such as compassion, empathy and remorse. Ask yourself why our young children are committing such violent and heinous crimes now.
Seriously, the Pharmaceutical companies do not care about your child’s welfare, that’s YOUR job. Big Pharma cares about money. If your child is on drugs they get paid. Please, before you consider putting your child on drugs of any type consider the alternatives; eating less meat, less dairy, less candy, pop and all the other garbage society flings in your child’s direction. If your child is screaming his head off ask him or her what you can do to make them feel better and then listen to what your child says. Teach your child that the easy way is not always the correct way and that they have the ability to make decisions. If you bog up your children’s mind with drugs without first looking at other options than shame on you.
Thanks for reading this. I didn’t intend on it being so long, it just happened. Hopefully it will not just get deleted: )
~Tony
Robert
Kudos to you for not giving up!
As you have already discovered, studies show that the drugs out there for ADHD and ADD don’t really work. I’ve found a couple links for ebooks that give effective drug-free solutions for ADHD.
The first is by Dr. Charles Gant. I really liked his info because it is pretty scientific, but he still gives basic instructions as to what you need to do. He also gives more info than you ever wanted on dangers of the various drugs. Even just his link is informative. The eBook is $20 (with money-back guarantee).
If you don’t like all the science mumbo jumbo or the medication-bashing in Gant’s info, then there is another Dr. who has treated many patients without drugs with drastic improvement. This one is more expensive but looks very easy to understand.
The last one is by a mother who finally figured it out herself. It’s called ADD to C3 Kids (I have no idea what C3 is) and gives daily meal planning and nutritional info.. It maybe more practical if you don’t want to know the why, just what to do.
Good luck to you!
Sharon
YOU NEED TO KEEP EXPERIMENTING WITH MEDICATION TILL YOU FIND THE WRIGHT ONE IT TOOK 5 MEDICATIONS TILL I FOUND THE WRIGHT ONE THAT WORKS FOR ME IM ON RITALIN 10MGS 3 TIMES A DAY AND WORKS GREAT GOODLUCK