13 year old daughter with anxiety and ADHD

[Whitt80]

Hello, I have a 13 year old daughter who is in 8th grade. She has adhd and anxiety and is currently taking Zoloft and Jornay PM. Lately, she has not been interested in even trying to do her schoolwork. She has always hated school, but since she will be going to high school next year, we are trying to get her on track. Has anyone had teens on the medicine combination I mentioned or have any successful tips on how to help gain confidence and good study habits that would make her schoolwork not seem so overwhelming to her.

[Willowbee37]

following, my son is 10 with the same diagnosis and I fear this for the future already!

[Periwinkle10]

Hello, I'm sorry you are going through this. I have a 13 year old daughter with ADHD and a panic disorder who is on Lexapro and Adderall...this combo is working so far for her. I know these things can change, so I am vigilant. I am lucky she likes school, as much as a teenager can. My 2 cents would be try to get her involved in an activity that she enjoys...art, sports, fashion, etc....maybe an after school class. Also, volunteering with you and other youths her age can help....cleaning up a local park, running a section of a local fair, helping out at a food pantry or library event, etc.... Also, talking to her counselor at school, so she can report to you how she interacts with her friends, and if their are activities in school that she could get involved in. These activities may connect her with other kids who have a more positive view of school, which may encourage her to in turn like it more as well. These are some of things I have tried when my daughter was having a really rough time last year.

I wish you all the best...this whole process ebbs and flows...we just need to take care of ourselves when it ebbs and have faith it will flow again.

[Aspen797]

Has your daughter had a neuropsych eval or psycho-educational assessment? If not, it might be worth a look to see if there is something causing her to not be able to perform to her own expectations, feel like she can never succeed and give-up/not try.

Some issues like slow processing speed and working memory really interfere with timely work completion, not to mention others like reading/writing dysfluency, sensory, fine motor, executive functioning, etc. The Behavior Code is a great book that dives into how behaviors like work refusal often have their roots in anxiety and how getting to the root of the anxiety—and provide accommodations or skill teaching (504 or IEP) around that—can really help.

[MtnMama24]

Hi there! It's definitely a journey... Our son started on Jornay PM and then we added a generic Lexapro for his anxiety. We had to tweak the dosage with our psychiatrist and now it's definitely working. Mind you this took almost a year... He is also at a different school with trained teachers which is making a HUGE difference. Echoing the previous responses I would also add making sure she is engaged by cultivating her interests even if it's something you aren't very interested in! (I.e., my son loves Pokemon, Roblox, silly videos on YouTube, etc and I didn't understand these worlds for the longest time but after asking him questions and showing interest it's something we connect with-as he does with his peers too). He feels safe with his interests which gets his mind off the anxiety of whatever is expected of him in that moment/day/week. Also, have you heard of Eli Liebowitz? This book was a huge help in understanding our son's anxiety... Best wishes! Know you are not alone!

Extremely helpful book!