12 yo with ADHD, Anxiety

[scrabble2018]

My 12 yo daughter is on Vyvanse. This seems to help, but even with it, she has a lot of defiance, and anger outbursts. She has tried Adderall XR, but this was not lasting beyond a few hours, and she had a lot of obsessive thoughts. with Adderall. Any thoughts on what might work better for her? She has a psychiatrist appoint coming up, and I can inquire about a new medication at that time.

She also has anxiety and is on sertraline at a small dose of 25 mg. She still has a lot of anxiety, but I am afraid to increase the dose. I am afraid she may become tolerant and the higher dose will no longer be effective. Any advice on this?

[Hidden]

Have you also tried counseling my son sees a counselor he is also on a mood stabilizer Lamictal he was on redpirdone but it didn't help so he is on Lamictal. I also use rewards and praise for good behavior

[scrabble2018 in reply to Hidden]

Yes. We see a counselor on a regular basis, and we praise her often.

[scrabble2018 in reply to Hidden]

She was first diagnosed with ADHD at age 7 when we had her tested. She also has anxiety and oppositional defiance. I initially tried therapy for her anxiety and gave into medication with sertraline for about 6-8 months ago.

[Ldydy24]

Hi my son also had a similar reaction to this med. as soon as I noticed his disposition changed I stopped it. After several tries with multiple med (yes it can be complex so if one doesn’t work move on) we found that his body works best with Focalin. His metabolism is very fast so he also couldn’t take the XR version because after 4 hours it didn’t sustain him. He works best on short acting Focalin several times a day, This also helps with his appetite. On XR he rarely ate. My best advice is don’t waste time on a medicine that changes your child’s disposition in a negative way. Stop it and move on to a new medicine. Based on her symptoms your dr should be able to recommend another medicine that isn’t from the same family as Vyvanse. Good luck.

[scrabble2018 in reply to Ldydy24]

Thank you. I will ask her psychiatrist about Focalin.

[jjaegs]

Morning. I completely understand where you are coming from. My son also suffers from the anxiety piece with his ADHD. Outbursts. Frustration. Anxiety. Irrational emotions. He turns 12 in 3 weeks and often behaved like a 5 year old. He is currently on Ritalin ER twice a day which really helped him with school and getting through the day. Honestly what saved us is Risperidone. It is labeled as an anti-psych med (hated that label) but a .25mg dose in the am and then before bed, well it’s like we have a new kid. He has very few outbursts. Like we were seeing them maybe 3 times a week and now it’s maybe one time per month. It’s like we have a new kid. He is able to have better control of his emotions of frustration. We took a break from the talk therapy over the summer due to scheduling but we find we are able to get him to really be open about why he is feeling the way he is. He’s much better on the baseball field when they lose and all of our friends and coaches have noticed a difference. I’d like to say it was because he is maturing but it’s def the meds. Talk to your dr. Good luck! Oh. There still is some pushback when he can’t play Fortnite but it’s short lived. Haha. Hugs to you.

[scrabble2018 in reply to jjaegs]

Thank you for your comment. Being on this site finally makes me realize I'm not alone. I'm glad the meds are working for your child. I just worry about the long term side effects of antipsychotic medication.

[jjaegs in reply to scrabble2018]

Well, it wasn’t a random selection. The psych is very confident about that medication and its effects long term. I worry about the long term effects of all of these things on our kids. My hope is that they grow and mature out of it, if that’s even possible, as their brains develop. My thought is if your kid couldn’t see and glasses helped, I would get him the glasses rather than have him suffer!

[scrabble2018 in reply to jjaegs]

She does wear glasses, and I see you point. We have an appointment with psych today. I will discuss this with him.

Thanks again.

[jjaegs in reply to scrabble2018]

😘

[jjaegs in reply to jjaegs]

Hey scrabble. What did the dr say? Please update us.

[scrabble2018 in reply to jjaegs]

Sorry for the late reply, just saw it now when I was reviewing the posts.

The Dr. stopped her sertraline (didn't taper since it was a small dose), decreased the dose of stimulant vyvanse , and started a non-stimulant strattera. The vyvanse was continued since it will take 4-6 wks for the strattera to take effect. This is her 3 rd week on the strattera. So far, I don't think there has been much of a change. We went to the mall yesterday and she misplaced her bag with new clothes, and completely freaked out. She made a huge scene, and people were staring. I told her to take deep breaths, and trace her steps and she found it. The next day, I found she cut holes into the knees of her new black denims, and when I asked her about it she lied and said they were made like that. This is not true. She has a lot of ODD behavior which I am worried is turning into conduct disorder. She lies, and takes things without asking. She has even stolen money out of my purse, and lies when confronted. We started a point system for chores, to try and effect positive behavior. We also started social skills classes and will start seeing a behaviorist for parent therapy. This is in addition to her seeing a psychologist weekly.

Sorry, long answer to short question.

[BercotP]

My son is 10, ADHD/Anxiety and OCD. His Cognitive Behavioral Therapist told my husband and I that stimulants can cause his anxiety to be worse. We chose to go with a time released Guanfacine, which has helped a lot! We have also added in Vitamin B Complex to boost his energy. That coupled with therapy; seems to be helping.

I would ask your doctor to refer you to a certified CBT. Our kiddos do need to learn how to “ride the wave” when anxiety hits and to manage (the CBT can help teach them that) My son had anxiety yesterday and he did awesome pulling out of it. I was so impressed.

Is your daughter sleeping?

OH! our CBT recommended swimming for our son. She has read and researched that it can really help the uniquely wired ADHD brain. We plan to give this a try everyday to see if it helps.

[scrabble2018]

I have been working on getting her into a social thinking or social skills group to help her with social skills. She has a hard time maintaining friendships, and I think this will help. A behaviorist runs the program. Our counselor is a psychologist, but I do t know if she is a behaviorist, and she has not been helpful with my daughter's oppositional defiance.

She is on a swim team during the school year, but is taking a break in the summer.

Her ADHD/ODD/Anxiety all combined to affect her bowels adversely, and she has had intestinal issues as well.

I am trying to get her help on multiple levels over the summer, to best prepare her for 7 th grade.

I thank you all for your insight.

[Lloydxx]

My 13 year old son is on medekinet and still has the odd angry outburst but only maybe once a month I find it brilliant for him but also find it does take his appetite away a little