My 13 yo with ADHD- combined type was just diagnosed after a full neuropsych battery. Today was day one on medication - Adderall XR 10 mg. I'm not sure how it went!!! I need help with analyzing this... She took it while I was at work and I got home about 2.5 hours later. I find her a bit wild-eyed. She can be moody, but was definitely in an intense and pissy mood. She's planning to go to the mall with friends and was obsessed with looking for a way to cash in her gift cards. She's been searching Coinstar, calling stores, etc. Actually 45 minutes later as I type this, she is STILL (angrily) researching and making calls and I think she's NEVER persisted on something for this long before. Normally she'd run into a wall and just be like, ah, forget it. So this is good....sort of??? One time, she was put on hold with a store and she goes, "oh no. I am NOT listening to holding music" and goes on to make her next call.
I was just opening the bag in the cereal box and she was saying - "you're seriously making every loud noise you can" and then the dog barks and she jumps up to the back door, "And...now I have to get the dog".
When she slows a bit and I ask her how she's been on the med she says she feels really hyper. She said she wanted to talk to me as little as possible and just do things. She says she feels she's rushing through things even more than usual. I said maybe it'd be better at school when there's actually something to do and concentrate on. She said she thinks she'd be really stressed out and would start crying. She said she's been hyper and even annoyed by friends.
For example, this morning, on facetime with friends, she was seeing if someone could go to the mall. He said he'd check. And then she begins to impatiently nag him about it. He said to her, "why are you so moody?"
She had 2 tasks today - put away the dishes and start her summer work. She put away the dishes and logged into the summer work. She said she looked at it in the morning b/4 she took the med but didn't go back to it. Honestly, I don't even think I could make her do it today. She's really too fired up about this gift card/coinstar thing. She said she'd try again tomorrow with a pill and would sit and do the work.
Bottom line: she says she's really hyper, in a bad mood b/c she seems to have no patience for anything, wants to do and do and do things, but says it's not helping her focus any more than usual.
What are your thoughts? Stick with it? Maybe she's adjusting to the feeling? Maybe it would be different if school were in session and she could channel that energy? Smaller dose? Thank you in advance!!!!
How do you think the vyvanse was different from the OCD feeling she was having on the Adderall? I've been thinking about it today and was thinking that maybe once she's adjusted to this feeling, maybe she will be able to channel this into work. You're right, it's hard to tease out what might be hormonal, and even the incident with the coinstar could just be a coincidence...sometimes things REALLY bother us. Then again, that she persevered is so odd! My older kid said the 13 yo texted her earlier in the day to ask about cashing in gift cards. She said she thought it was odd because she was actually using full sentences and texted several messages instead of the typical "kk" you get with a teen.
So to add on: by hour 4 when I dropped her and her friends off, she was normal by my observations but she said she was still "feeling it" when I asked her discreetly. By hour 8 when her friends left and I hoped to debrief, I talked a bit and she nodded and I was like - so...you have any feedback? And she goes, "what do you want me to say?! Do you want me to..." and I was like - what? yell? Do you think this conversation warrants that??? And that was the end of day 1!