Tired parent

[Bellmore]

My 9 years old son recently was diagnosed with ADHD. I hesitate to put him on any medication. We struggle when doing his school work, he can’t stay focus or retain any information but what I don’t understand is that he can stay hours and hours when he plays video games or watch YouTube videos.

[claretooth]

I'm grandma to a 9 year old boy with ADHD and I so completely agree with your confusion. I guess ADHD has a hyper focus component as well as a on attention plus distracted component. When he wants to disassemble a computer he can stay focused for hours, but not for 1 minute of homework. Homeschooling during Covid19 just about killed me (& him)!

[LisaAnn13]

That is because he enjoys the video games so his brain is programmed to focus on these activities. I just read somewhere its called 'screen stuck' for kids with ADHD. Their screen time.shouod actually be way less then.the average kid because of their intensity and impulsively with things like this. Not being able to come down from things they enjoy especially the electronics. We had an incident with my SS right before he was diagnosed with the video games he refused to turn it off like he was in another world not responding, listening. Was told many times to turn it off it was time for bed - mind you he was 5.5 and he got so angry and defiant when he father turned it off he got violent we knew then something was not right. A month or so later he was diagnosed and the checklist it was everything there he had.

[Ldydy24]

Hi there

This is very common with ADHD. My son is the same way. He was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 5 and like you we also struggled with the decision to put him on medicine. Our son had no impulse control and was constantly getting in trouble. We tried medicine and we are so glad we did. Just like a diabetic that needs insulin, kids with ADHD generally need medication to help them succeed. I highly recommend you find a good child psychiatrist to work with and try medication. Don’t get discouraged if one medication doesn’t work there are a lot of options and it may take awhile to find the right one. When you find the right one it will make a world of difference! My son is now 14 and has great success on his medication. Good luck.

[mplaz]

It’s called hyper focus. ADHD people have no problem focusing intensely on activities they enjoy.

[dcum1500]

The highly regarded psychiatrist who did my daughter’s neuropsychology evaluation explained that ADHD is a disorder of attention regulation, not attention itself. Kids either hyper focus or they don’t focus. They basically don’t ever stay on the nice middle ground between the two extremes. We started out very resistant to medication and tried just getting therapy. But after a long time, we had to admit that the therapy on its own didn’t seem to be helping at all. Therapy plus medication (after we finally got the medication right, which is another story) has helped a great deal. Not a cure, but our daughter is doing much better. Therapy plus medication is strongly supported in the scientific literature as getting the best results. Someone explained it as: lots of kids have vision problems or diabetes, and no one questions whether they should get their kid glasses or diabetes medication. But when it comes to the brain, we think people should just be able to overcome their problems by willpower or training. I see the medication as making it possible for my kid to pay attention enough to learn (with therapy) ways to overcome her challenges and the maladaptive behaviors she was previously using to cope.

[wonders2]

My son is 6yrs old is autistic with adhd. He lacks focus too, is fidgety, and aggressive. He cannot get any work done at school. I didn’t know the severity of it until I started to homeschool him now that we have to stay home. It was a very difficult decision to make to put him on a med but if I don’t I know he would fall behind and probably fail a grade. I hope he doesn’t resent me as he gets older but it’s my responsibility to make sure he gets a good education and the adhd is creating great challenges at school. Now that he’s on adhd meds he is not as energetic and has more focus to do school work. He’s not 100% perfect there’s still some quirks but is more functional and can get him work done. The side effects after 12 hrs once the med wears off is that he goes back to his normal self but by that time that’s ok with me because I love my son with all his imperfections and as long as his meds work long enough for him to get his homework done than that’s all he needs to get through a school day. It’s close to bed time anyway by the time the meds start to wear off. Best of luck to you.