Opinions on medications

[Chispi]

Good morning to the whole group.

I wanted to ask you for advice please.

They started treating my son with methylphenidate, but increasing the dose made him feel ... fatal, because he was very very nervous with tics. The doctor told me to switch to Atomoxetine 10mg, 1 capsule at night. I need to ask you for the favor, if you have taken these medications, how they have worked for you and your opinions ... the side effects ... etc ... because I am really afraid of being medicating my son when he is only 6 years old.

Thank you very much to everyone for your help.

[CatMoose]

So I was also initially put on medication at 6, also Ritalin. Personally, Ritalin didn't work well for me - my mom describes some pretty severe mood swings, but I don't really remember. But it did work well for my brother and another stimulant, Adderall, worked much better for me. As I got older, Adderall stopped being a good fit and I switched to Vyvanse and was on that from about 14-23. After a few years trying no meds, I gave Stratera a try. Keep in mind, adults and kids do not always have the same side effects, but there was an adjustment period for sure - I was very sleepy and at times a little foggy/dizzy during the first week or so. I also had some vomiting after increasing the dose. I found it helpful, though not as helpful as stimulants, with a much lesser impact on my body than stimulants had started to have (I was having a hard time sleeping and eating on stimulants and over time started to just not feel well at all, but this really wasn't an issue I noticed until I became an adult). That being said, I have fallen out of taking it for ADHD reasons of just forgetting my pills too often and am about to go to my doctor to discuss going back on it or what other options there are - I am not managing well without medication, and learning that I can't will my way out of having ADHD once again.

One thing I think might be helpful to know is that I have always done better at managing my ADHD while on medication. I have to try a lot, a lot, a lot harder to be successful without it. As a kid, I don't know that I understood the importance of certain priorities well enough to be willing to try as hard as I do unmedicated now. It's exhausting and leaves me with very little left in my tank for my actual life outside of work. When I think back on the periods of time in school that I wasn't on meds (my mom let me make my own choices, at some points I'd say I didn't want to take my meds anymore and then a while later I'd change my mind), I was usually failing at least one class, often making impulsive choices that were unhealthy or at the very least unhelpful, and feeling horribly about myself.

But my most important takeaway is that you are the most important tool in your son's ADHD management plan. My mom and I have been on this journey together for 23 years and it's never going to be over. I'll have things managed for a few years and then slowly start to feel it unraveling. Find a provider you really trust and have a good relationship with, both of you. Learn everything you can about ADHD. Be prepared to tell your kid that he is smart and capable and a good person over and over. Be prepared to demand that his teachers and other authority figures do better when they treat him like he's not. And make sure he knows you're in his corner, it makes all the difference. Knowing that if he's off track somehow, you are there for him and will help him figure it out is huge.

Also, I recommend talk therapy. I didn't even know that talk therapy was a thing for ADHD until last year, because we act like it's something that you just take a pill for - but there are so many things the pills don't address - feelings of inadequacy from the way the world treats ADHD kids, binge eating and addiction issues, emotional regulation, the high co-morbidity of things like depression and anxiety. Things I didn't even know were connected to ADHD when I was first experiencing them. I will acknowledge that I myself still need to get into this kind of therapy, but the more I learn about it the more I think that I really would have benefitted from it before I developed such unfair opinions of myself that I'm trying to unpack as an adult.

[Chispi in reply to CatMoose]

Thank you very much for telling your story, it has helped me a lot. We try to do our best with my little one, although it is true that sometimes it is very difficult to stay calm, because when impulsivity is predominant, it is not easy. I have tried Atomoxertine and it did not sit well either...has spent the night without sleep and with the most agitated breathing... so I don't know what can go well for him anymore, he's quite maddening. Thank you very much for everything. Greetings and encouragement with everything.

[HyperfocusedSquirrel]

What do you mean by feeling "fatal"? My son has been medicated with ritalin since 6, and one been on various meds since my 20s. Sometimes some meds are not the right ones. It takes a lot of experiments and can get frustrating. Also, as long as the effects aren't dangerous, give it a bit!

[99cents]

Statistically, medications help most people. From what I've read, it's very individual which medication and which dose of that medication will work for each patient. The timing of the medicine is also very important. Make sure to read up on the medication, and be an active participant counseling WITH your doctor not passive. Also know that the foods that your kid takes with the medicine can affect how his body responds to the medicine. So make sure to read up on a medicine. Acidic foods like citrus fruit, and antacids, and other stimulating medicines like cold medicines can also interplay. Again you have a big responsibility to meet up on the medicines and understand what's going on, so you know what to do when your kid has a cold, what he eats and when, or other things going on.

My son is 7. He and I both just got diagnosed. He tried adhansia first, because his pediatrician has had a lot of success with that. But it caused some problems with mood swings and insomnia in the evening that wasn't getting better. So they switched him to a different one. Adderall XR. We also make sure to wake him up at 7:00 a.m. to take his meds... oddly enough, that 7:00 a.m. thing is vital and makes all the difference and how he responds in the evening and night. Before that we were letting him sleep in till 8:30. I've also noticed that he does much better if he eats breakfast at the same time as his medicine.

I am taking strattera. I feel like it gives me that little bit of help that I need to apply the skills I'm learning. I've been going to counseling for about 10 months now. Pills don't make skills but the two combined are the best.

My counselor told me that if I don't feel like myself taking medicine then I'm probably over medicating. I should feel like a fog has lifted and it's easier to apply the skills I'm learning. And my wife should notice a difference more than me. For me it's kind of like I'm not sure how much it's helping but my wife says it is definitely helping.

One of our neighbors has a kid the same age as my son who is doing well on adhansia but he also takes a medicine to help him with ADHD sleeping.

So these three stories are examples of how individual things can be.

I agree with what other people said. You are his mom and his advocate.

If a medicine seems like it's dangerous definitely talk with the doctor right away. I mean give him a call today. If you think it's not dangerous but just affecting him a lot I would still talk to the doctor but maybe not so urgently.

If this is a family practice doctor, consider taking your son to a psychiatrist who specializes in pediatric ADHD because they will have more experience trying medicines and figuring things out.

Also I've been told many times that figuring out the right medicine and the right dose is a process that can take months. So be patient with the process.

Also as others who replied to have implied, medicine and dosage is a temporary decision. Don't feel like you are making them a decision once.