ADD/ADHD folks: any perspective from lifelong medication users?

[OverVolt]

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[Rallispec]

sorry for digging up an old thread, But I find myself in a similar type of situation with my son and am very curious to hear the latest from the OP - and the debate in this thread is very similar to the debate that's been going on in my head for the past year.
While I haven't talked to his pediatrician about it yet,( I suppose that is next) - I have been working at home and with his teacher at school on a variety of different behavior plans and other things to try and work with my son but nothing seems to be having much of an impact. I suppose i should look into his diet more though.
Just thinking about what the next steps need to be and medication is one of those things that I've been trying to decide if i'm open to or not.

 

[OverVolt]

Whoa I was pretty angry there lol. Long story short I got all my stuff resolved by just confronting my parents about it. Yep.

 

[clamum]

lol, man I forgot how much crap ShawnD1 posted. That bit about previous generations not understanding math is hilarious. Not nearly as smart as he thinks he is.

 

[Anarchist420]

sorry for digging up an old thread, But I find myself in a similar type of situation with my son and am very curious to hear the latest from the OP - and the debate in this thread is very similar to the debate that's been going on in my head for the past year. While I haven't talked to his pediatrician about it yet,( I suppose that is next) - I have been working at home and with his teacher at school on a variety of different behavior plans and other things to try and work with my son but nothing seems to be having much of an impact. I suppose i should look into his diet more though. Just thinking about what the next steps need to be and medication is one of those things that I've been trying to decide if i'm open to or not.

please dont do it, because my problems all started with a diagnosis of ADHD. so i got a presrciption for ritalin when i was 5 (or maybe the extreme vaccinations before then). another reason not to do it is your child wont need the stuff if you unschool him and unschooling is a good idea... even if your child doesnt have a high IQ. a third reason is that it is a waste of money.

i wouldnt be on meds if my mom wasnt such a security seeker. she gave me meds and vid games so that she wouldnt be seeing any disorder. probably would've wound up in jail one time, learned my lesson, and maybe never developed schizophrenia had i never started ritalin. unless i needed the meds because i was retarded, but i had an MRI done in '94 at the nuthouse and they said it was normal, no enlarged ventricles, normal amount of activity in every area, no defects. and my verbal IQ was about 125 when i took an IQ test 2 or 3 years before then (although it dropped to only "nearly in the superior range" on the WISC III in '96 and then it was 80 when i took the RIAS about 2 years ago). i was said to be one of the best readers in the class of about 24-30 in 1st grade (1st of 4 reading groups). whether i was born retarded (retards can actually read pretty well) i will never know because i dont know what my overall IQ was from the '96 test or the test when i was 4 (may have just been a verbal intelligence test), but i would like to blame all my problems on the pharmaceuticals from the earliest possible age. my cephalic index is very low, so that means i cant be gifted, but no one in my mom's family has "mental illness" even though one of my mom's siblings would get only an FSIQ of about 85 on the WAIS-IV, the other three are probably about 95-105, and my mom was probably in the 90th to 93rd percentile of the u.s. population.

 

[JumBie]

My nephew is on meds and is 16 years old now. He's been on meds since he was probably 11 or 12. It was also night and day when his meds were effective.

However, last year, probably due to hormonal changes due to puberty, his meds lost efficacy and he had extreme issues in school (failing grades, anger, etc.). His parents met with a school administrative group and they immediately figured it was probably his meds. That was when they brought him back to the therapist or psychiatrist (whichever prescribes meds) and had him determine that he needed either new meds or a higher dose of what he was already taking.

Again, his behavior difference was night and day and he's doing fine.

EDIT: His parents initially struggled for a long time with the decision of whether or not to medicate, taking all the usual steps to try to help with their son's issues. But after they started with meds they knew they had made the right decision.

Seems more like your average teenager than anything related to ADD/ADHD or any psychological disorder for that matter. Putting the poor kid on meds for that, Jesus Christ people these days so quick to throw pills at anything they cant handle.