My 5 YO son has just been diagnosed with ADHD he started Ritalin 5 days ago but both my husband and I think it’s definitely made his aggression worse. Our main struggle with him has always been his impulsive behavior towards peers (at the point of almost being kicked out of his pre-school) we can’t get an appointment with his psychiatrist for a few weeks due to her being on annual leave, so we don’t know if we should stop completely or if it does take time for his body to get use to it and things will settle down.
I had high hopes that medication would solve all of our problems and ease my anxiety but now it doesn’t seem to be working my mental health is definitely not doing the best….this is a hard road!
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Isabellarose
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That’s tough. Perhaps your pediatrician could advise on what to do until your psychiatrist appointment? Figuring out the right medication, the right dose, and when to take it can all take awhile —which can be frustrating. Your pediatrician could also advise if an eval by speech (social skills) or OT (sensory, emotional regulation) might be helpful. Depending on issues, you could also consider having your child evaluated by the local school district. Sometimes a little early extra help can smooth the way to kinder (and provide some protections against removal). So glad you are here! This is a kind and welcoming forum.
Welcome! It's great you guys are trying medication. Our children are complex and it sometimes takes a few different trials of medication to get the best type, dose and timing. The good news is stimulants are quick to work... when they are working.
I agree with Aspen797 you could look at other options while waiting.
Best of luck in finding what helps when you do it is really helpful.
Hi Isabella - don’t give up. Medications take time to figure out. Stimulants work right away but it usually takes awhile for the side effects to go away. And sometimes it’s just not the right medication. There’s multiple other stimulants you can try. Different things work for different people.
My son had/has emotional regulation and impulsivity struggles also. The social struggles and rejection he experienced before medication exacerbated the emotional dysregulation. It was horrible. I found stimulants alone made his night time aggression worse, especially as it was wearing off. Many kids experience this at first. For us, guanfacine was like magic for taking away the impulsivity and emotional dysregulation. My son is 15 and most of those issues have improved dramatically.
Once you get the medication worked out (can you find a different psychiatrist for now?) and get yourself some support - he will improve and feel better and your mental health will have a chance to balance out. It’s a really hard road sometimes but there is hope and possibility for your whole family even if it doesn’t feel like it right now. I’m a single parent of a child with adhd and learning disabilities and my mental health has taken a beating from exhaustion and stress over the years but it does get better. Many people in this forum have been or are where you are - lots of great advice here if you search the posts. Wishing you and your family well.
Other evals are really helpful too as the other poster mentioned. Will give you a more comprehensive picture of what is going on.
Hi there—We have a very similar situation. Our kiddo just turned six, similar impulse control issues, and started a generic ritalin. He was taking 10mg and it absolutely made the aggression worse. During the week and a half he was on it, he hit someone at school on two different days, and hit someone at each bday party we were at that wknd. I tapered him off—halving the dose for a couple of days and then off. We’re lucky that the psychiatrist appt is only 2 weeks away. His pediatrician suggested maybe he’d be a good candidate for a non-stimulant med. I can’t tell you what to do, but you know your kid, and if you think it’s making his aggression worse, you’re almost certainly right. Your kiddo might be too young to articulate how he feels, but if you haven’t asked him, that’s probably worth doing, too. Our son was able to describe how angry he was feeling, so we had another way of telling it was the wrong med for him.
We’ve worked on finding fidgets that help him—he likes crazy aaron’s thinking putty. (It’s hard to find something that won’t get turned into a projectile, at this age.) He uses that at school. We tried chewy necklaces. but he wouldn’t use one. There’s lots of options, though. Giving your kiddo something else to focus on when feeling impulsive can help…if they remember to use it when they need it.
It is super hard, esp when you’re hoping the med will finally make things a little easier. You will get there. Hang in there!
How messy does that putty get? I'm used to our son occasionally getting slime from somewhere and it ends up stuck to the carpet, his shirts, everywhere. I swear we recently had something like Crazy Aaron's and it stuck to stuff too.
Most of the Crazy Aaron's putty that we've had is pretty easy to get off of things. It will leave residue (but not a gloopy mess) on fabrics if you don't get to it quickly but not on hard surfaces. My husband just bought some of these at Amazon amazon.com/dp/B0C6YM278K?ps... and they've not left *any* residue that I've noticed anywhere. Good luck!
I had to try out a few different medication for my son. It might just be that particular one doesn’t suit him. Can you speak to a nurse and explain what’s happening and you would like to try another
thank you for sharing! I highly recommend asking his pcp for a genesight test. It basically is a cotton swab like a paternity test, and it mixes the genetic sample with each of the mental health medications available. The results will say how much adverse effects the genetics had with each med, so it will give you an idea of which ones to avoid. Ritalin could be moderate. My partner and I both had this test and the results have been super beneficial when choosing a med. when you have the results, check with your insurance about copay costs as well. You may be able to have the test done before seeing the psychiatrist.
My partner had this exact side effect with the med he tried before the genesight test, and it showed moderate adverse effects. I had a med that didn’t do anything and I had moderate effects on that one too. We have both started recommended meds and have had no problems since. We decided waiting for this route because we didn’t want to make things worse and didn’t want to test a variety of meds for years when we had to wait for the test instead.
I would personally stop the med, but definitely shoot a message to the psychiatrist or your pcp with this concern before doing so. Zen hugs! 🫂
I'm sorry to hear you're seeing an increase in his aggression. It could go away after his body gets used to it but I will say that our son tried a number of stimulant ADHD meds and we found they increased his aggression and his anxiety. We ended up trying Straterra which is a non-stimulant ADHD med and that seems to be working. We tried a number of things over many years so you do have to be ready to keep trying and be a little patient. Of course you don't want to wait too long if the side effects are severe. Good luck!
When behavior appears to worsen while on the medication, check if he also has anxiety that is aggravated by the medication. If so, decide if it worthwhile to continue the medication and the anxiety aggravation or it is worthwhile to stop for a few days and see how this affects behaviors. This is the advice from some doctors in our community.
My son was having emotional regulation issues and being aggressive at school, and his psychiatrist suggested starting him on a non-stimulant, guanfacine. It's a blood pressure med, so it lowers the pressure, literally. He's still highly impulsive and distractible, but we're no longer walking on eggshells afraid of setting him off and having him lash out, which for us was the bigger issue to address.
1) how did he get diagnosed? A proper diagnosis takes assessment, and I find there are a lot of doctors who will say "Sure, that sounds like ADHD" and start prescribing medication. The best assesments include one made in the child's natural environment, but even a proper psychological assessment can help. There are dozens of things that can be confused with ADHD, so it's important that you have the right diagnosis. Also keep in mind that ADHD frequently comes with comorbid conditions, including mood disorders, learning challenges, or even traits on the autistic spectrum.
2) have you been working with anyone (or reading your own material) on the behavioural approaches? Even with the perfect medication, it's only really a tool to allow the person to engage in other practices that help. It's the difference between being stuck at the bottom of a cliff and being stuck there with climbing gear. It's not going to get you up the cliff, but it will make the climb much easier.
3) What else is going on in your kid's life? It's possible that there are social dynamics at his preschool that started pre-diagnosis and are contributing to his behaviour. Is there behaviour you're seeing there and not at home? Have you seen how he behaves in other environments, and with other kids?
4) Have you familiarized yourselves with the concept of a sensory diet? Behaviours can often be the result of unmet sensory needs. There are a lot of adults with ADHD who unconsciously pick a fight with their spouse right before going to sleep because their brain is understimulated.
Don't give up. There are a lot of things left to try, and you WILL figure things out. Also do your best to teach your son about ADHD. Even at 5yo there are some basic concepts about it he can learn, and understanding helps avoid sel-criticism, and might even help him develop strategies of his own. With our son, we started with the idea of the "Leaky Bucket"
Finally, remind yourselves frequently of his good qualities and his strengths, because those are what will be the most helpful to all of you in holding onto hope, finding solutions and keeping a positive attitude.
Hi Peerandparent thank you for your response and all the information.
My son was diagnosed after seeing a psychologist twice and both brief visits, (as she was running behind schedule) she was the one who started him on Ritalin last Monday, but since doing a lot of reading and research I have decided to approach another Paediatric clinical psychologist who has said the assessment process will be long but thorough (yay) To start with she has given me and my sons prek teacher a questionnaire to complete she will also have a one hour phone call with his educators and a one hour appointment with me before then having a two hour session with my son.
He is currently seeing a speech pathologist and an OT as he is a little delayed in speech and the OT is helping with his behavioral issues which is mostly impulsivity towards peers.
He is such a kind and loving little boy at home we have no troubles with him at all it’s definitely preschool that most of the unfavorable behaviors come out. We get numerous phone calls and incident reports a day (they have actually just put him on half days instead of full as they said after lunch he is so easily triggered and they need to keep everyone safe) He gets overwhelmed and frustrated easily and just has no self regulation so lots of pushing, hitting etc (this makes a lot of the children afraid of him so they tend to just stay away from him now, which is sad because he does so desperately want friends 😔) also the majority of the children in his class can sit and listen to stories or go on excursions without trouble however he struggles with these things. He also does not do well with change anything small like a favorite teacher being away will lead to a bad day. We are really wanting to work on transitions with him this year as obviously it’s going to be a huge change starting formal Schooling.
I love the leaky bucket idea is this an actual book I can read to him?
From your description of pre-K vs home, my first impulse is that you know how to get in front of things before they become a problem, or he doesn't get enough positive attention in his pre-K, or there's a stressful social dynamic at pre-K he doesn't know how to deal with... Glad you're getting a better assessment, as this hopefully will shine some light on the subject.
My son had a particularly tough time with transitions, so advance warning was imperative (e.g. "in five minutes it will be time to put away the play doh so we can have reading time")
I haven't seen a book about the leaky bucket (maybe I'll write one) but the basic premise is this:
All of us have stuff in our brain (dopamine) that makes us feel good, helps us have the energy to get stuff done.
Picture all of this stuff being in a bucket. Everyone has leaks in their buckets, and as the stuff drains out, we start to feel the blahs... The "I don't wanna"s and the "This is too hard"s and the "Aaaaarrrrggghhh!"s
We refill this bucket by taking a break, or doing a little jog, or talking with friends, or playing, or reading a good book. Sometimes even being scared or angry can refill our buckets, even though it's not the best way to do it.
People with ADHD have WAY leakier buckets. This means that when it's time to clean up your toys, your friends might be able to do the whole job while you keep getting distracted. Their buckets are still half full when yours has run dry, and your brain is looking for ways to fill it up again.
So, what do we need to do? We need to work in shorter spurts and take short breaks to do something that can quickly refill our bucket so we can go back to the job.
The important thing here is to pick something that doesn't distract your friends.
We can also do things to try to refill the bucket as we go, like listening to music, having something to figet with, or talking to our friends while doing the job.
The important thing here is to pick something that doesn't get in the way of the job you're doing. For example, if you need to listen, music is not your friend. If you're needing to write something down, a fidget toy is not the best.
The absolute best thing that can happen is for you to find a way to enjoy and look forward to the things you're doing so it fills up your bucket on its own. For example, I learned to treat math like a puzzle to solve. I always loved puzzles! To get better at reading and writing, I started playing games with my big brother (like dungeons and dragons) that needed me to be able to read and write. There was a built in reward for doing it!
Sometimes just being in the same room as someone you love can help keep your bucket full too.
I can't tell you what exactly is going to work for you. This is something that you'll need to figure out yourself, with the help of your friends, family, and teachers. The important thing is that the quicker you notice your bucket is getting empty, the easier and quicker it is to refill it, and the quicker you can get the job done!
hang in there . It does takes about 1-2 months for the medication to work . My son has autism and was diagnosed with ADHD when he was two . We stared him on meds when he was 5 . He started with Ritalin and he was also getting angry and short temper. What the doctor did was adding non stimulant adhd medication along with ritalin and it worked well maybe speak with your doctor and give it try . Best of luck.
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