ADD/ADHD! What were the tell tale signs for your child?

Question

I want to know what made you think your child had one of these. What were the signs for you and how old were the child(ren).

what did the teachers say to you. Please don't list the obvious list of add and adhd I already know them I have looked them up. I just want to know how your kid was and reacted and their behaviour.

And if you put them on meds what did that do for them?

Answer 1

All kids are very active, I would never resort to pills. As parents we try to teach out children to be drug free, but then we contradict ourselves when we go put them on mood altering meds. I have 2 of my own, they drive me up a wall at times..but their kids. They are mouthy, and sassy and they don't want to listen. I find that most kids diagnosed with ADHD have issues at home, bad ones. Or have been Miss-diagnosed, their is a big difference between disturbed and hyper. I think when kids act out in violent ways..don't get along with other kids, I think these children have something going on at home and usually that is the case. I don't think putting kids on med's should even be a last resort. Unless of course they have a debilitating disease, or are mentally challenged. Doctors are so quick to say oh your kid likes to run around, and he's loud sometimes, he does not pay attention to you on a whim well it's adhd here's some pills..now get outta my face..it's wrong but it's widespread, and a lot of people are drugging perfectly normal children, who have a right to just wanna be kids, and act the way kids do. when kids act out their is always some underlying problem..that needs to be addressed, not swept under a rug. Just my opinion. Another thing to consider is the long term affect these pills have on kids?! These drug company's hand them out like candy, and then 10 yrs later they find out it causes mental illness etc. Is it worth it..I don't think so! COMMON people let's get out heads on strait! This is horrible.

Answer 2

Have you seen this article though?

Does ADHD Even Exist?

The Ritalin Sham

by John Breeding, Ph.D.



Alice, the mother of a seven-year-old son, Nathan, recently visited my office for a counseling session. Nathan had reportedly been different and difficult from the beginning: exhibiting early seizure-like activity, a most challenging temperament, great sensitivity to various types of stimulation, intense frustration, aggressive tantrums, and other apparent developmental difficulties. Alice had taken him to doctors from a young age, obtaining a variety of mostly nonspecific diagnoses of developmental problems. Alice felt unappreciated as a parent, hurt and angry that the Montessori school her son had attended at ages four and five had ultimately rejected him. She felt judged by other parents, whom she felt blamed her for her son's challenging behavior. And she felt unsupported by both camps of opinion regarding "medication": the pro-Ritalin forces challenged her reluctance to use the drug for her son, and the antidrug group vehemently urged her to resist drug use.

Alice's personal stance on the Ritalin issue was clear. While she basically agreed that these "medications" are not good for children, she also felt that, in her family's case, it had been helpful. Nathan had been diagnosed at age five with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and had taken Ritalin for a year. Alice thought the drug greatly helped her son, slowing him down enough so that he could listen and process information. She and her boyfriend both felt drugs made the boy much easier to be with; further, their own reduced stress eased them so much that they were now able to consider other alternatives for Nathan, such as nutritional supplementation.

Proponents of psychiatric drugs attest that they "work," meaning they alter mood, thought, and action. They also "work," of course, in that they assuage the medical community's expectation that drugs be used to "treat" these children. I believe that fully informed adults should have every right to voluntarily use any drugs they wish, as long as they don't endanger others in doing so. Children, however, are not able to give fully informed consent to drug use - especially those under six years of age, a group in whom we are witnessing a dramatic increase in psychiatric drug prescription.1 It is, therefore, our responsibility as adults to ensure every possible opportunity for optimal development for our children, to protect and defend our children from powerful toxic drugs, particularly those prescribed for psychiatric purposes.

Like Alice, a large percentage of adults who take psychiatric drugs or give them to their children would prefer to avoid them - and yet they capitulate and use them because the drugs provide relief: from tension, fear, and desperation, as well as from the external strains of judgment and coercion. Lawrence Diller, author of the best-selling book Running on Ritalin, argues that: "The 700 percent rise in Ritalin use is our canary in the mineshaft for the middle class, warning us that we aren't meeting the needs of all our children, not just those with ADD. It's time we rethought our priorities and expectations unless we want a nation of kids running on Ritalin."2 Dr. Diller decries the trend (as I do in my book The Wildest Colts Make the Best Horses), contending that this increased reliance on drugs reflects a society in distress. Rather than try to force our children to shrink into situations that do not meet their needs, he states, we need to take responsibility for our society.

Diller himself is, however, torn by the same conflict many parents have concerning Ritalin. On the one hand, he says: "As a citizen I must speak out about the social conditions that create the living imbalance. Otherwise I am complicitous with forces and values that I believe are bad for children." On the other hand, though, he concludes: "As a physician, after assessing the child, his family and school situation, I keep prescribing Ritalin. My job is to ease suffering and Ritalin will help round- and octagonal-peg kids fit into rather rigid square educational holes." 3

This seemingly contradictory stance is the same one Alice and millions of other parents face. It's not as if all parents readily accept the prescription of Ritalin. Alice, in fact, incurred the wrath of her son's neurologist because she refused to give her son Adderall, a combination of three different amphetamine-like stimulants often used as an alternative to Ritalin. Increasingly over the past ten years or so, millions of parents are nagged by their children's physicians: "If your child had diabetes," the doctors taunt, for example, "you'd give him insulin, wouldn't you?"

"What could I say to that?" Alice asked me. Her question was not so much a call for information as it was a need to express her hopelessness. It was encouraging to me that she was angry, for anger is a great antidote to hopelessness. She was mad about the treatment she had received from prior medical and mental health professionals, as well as the lack of support from two opposing drug camps. Before I would hazard a possible response for that neurologist, Alice and I talked about the feelings of relief, guilt, and anger the Ritalin issue had caused for her family. Finally, I gave her what would have been my response: the diagnosis of ADHD is, itself, fraudulent.

ADHD: Nothing but a Sham

A condition such as diabetes carries detectable physical evidence of disease - abnormal blood sugar levels, evidence of pancreatic malfunction - justifying medical treatment. Families confronted with the "wouldn't you give insulin" argument could begin by asking the neurologist to provide medical evidence that a disease requiring treatment exists. Between 1993 and 1997, neurologist Fred Baughman corresponded repeatedly with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis, manufacturers of Ritalin), and top ADHD researchers around the country - including the National Institute of Mental Health - asking them to show him any article(s) in the peer-reviewed scientific literature constituting proof of a physical or chemical abnormality in ADHD and thereby qualifying it as a disease or a medical syndrome. Through sheer determination and persistence, Dr. Baughman eventually got these entities to admit that no objective validation of the diagnosis of ADHD exists.4

Prescribing Ritalin for something that is not a "disease" does not, in my estimation, constitute a legitimate practice of medicine. If ADHD is not a disease, treating it medically constitutes a fraud. Yet many physicians are true believers in medically treating "mental illness," despite the consistent lack of scientific evidence of "mental illness" as a "disease."5 Herein lies the conflict for parents like Alice.

The Significance of Oppression Theory

Victims of oppression are not only blamed for their condition, and usually thought to be deserving of their inferior position, they are eventually conditioned to accept it as their reality. As the great American writer James Baldwin stated: "It's not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do it to yourself."6 In what may be the ultimate power play, a victim is, over time, conditioned to internalize, accept, and ultimately, forget about the very fact that they are oppressed.

There are two specific forms of oppression that are pertinent to the discussion of psychiatric drug use for children. The first is adultism - the systematic mistreatment of young people by adults simply because they are young. Like other forms of oppression, adultism is self-perpetuating: when we are treated poorly as children, we internalize the idea and feelings that life is unfair; that rank and power should be used for personal advantage; and that we are somehow unworthy of respect, incapable of clear thinking, and unable to become our own authority.

The second form of oppression is what I call psychiatric oppression: the systematic mistreatment of people labeled as "mentally ill" - including children diagnosed with fictitious illnesses such as ADHD. Institutionalized in our society, psychiatry is also guided by a worldview that embraces biopsychiatry.7 Juxtaposed with adultism, psychiatric diagnosis and treatment enforce the message that an "ADHD child" is inadequate, defective, unworthy of complete respect, and in need of drugs to control and cope with the effects of his or her "illness."

Lies My Doctor Told Me

What exactly does it mean to "help round- and octagonal-peg kids fit into rather rigid square educational holes?" I believe there are at least six fallacies that underlie the rampant prescription of drugs like Ritalin to our children.

1. "Social adjustment is good."

While the ability to adjust socially may be important, it is not always a "good" thing. In its most extreme form, social adjustment leads to conformity and compliance, which has resulted in dire social phenomena, including slavery and genocide. This seems a particularly aberrant notion in a society like ours, which is so deeply grounded in the quest for individualism, free speech and association, and the "pursuit of happiness."

2. "Children must learn to conform."

When a child fails to adjust to school, we should at the very least think about our abilities to consider the child's needs. It is certainly important for children to learn how to get along in various situations, and how to avoid drawing sanction upo

Answer 3

My son hadn't been able to pay attention in class.  He couldn't give relevent responces to questions.  He was unable to remember what was discussed earlier that day in class.  He ran in front of cars, walked into parked cars, walls, tables, kids, anything that can be ran into.  He got hurt all of the time.  He had a hard time making friends.  When asked why he did something, he told me I don't know.  He spent most of the day, at school and home in time outs.  He was falling very far behind grade level.  He couldn't sit through a tv show, even his favorite ones.  The teacher brought up ADHD at his conference.  We decided to medicate him, only during school hours.  He is learning an incredible amount.  The teacher is going to pass him to the next grade.  He is happier because he isn't in trouble all the time.  He is the child that I saw when he was a toddler- happy, smart and social.  Medicating is not appropriate for all children.  It is an individual decision to be made with your child's doctor and your child's best intrests in mind.  We have had a very positive experience with my middle son.  My oldest the doctor diagnosed him with ADHD, we do not feel that is the problem.  We did agree to try a medication with him.  This was one of the worst experiences for him and all of our family that we have had.  Trust your gut when deciding.  My oldest has behavioral problems, but I do not agree ADHD.

Answer 4

Playste definately deserves those 10 points!!

Answer 5

My child was getting in to trouble in school . Fighting with the daycare Lady's and could not do anything for longer then 2 minuted. His grades were bad too his homework could not be read.. I took him to a counselor who after a few session told me to take him to a MD for them to check him out for AD/HD After a month on the medication his grade have improved. the lowest one was a C. He could pay attention better and his home work improved from unreadable to very good. He has not gotten in trouble at his daycare and our relationship improved too we are no longer fight over school work .

Answer 6

My son would run in circles w/ endless energy. He was 3 they made me wait a year before they would test him for ADHD when the doctor saw him running in circles she agreed he had adhd.

Answer 7

signs are

not being able to pay attention

always doing something besides what they are supposed to be doing

can't remember things

are very disorganized

NO you DONT need to put them on meds, you can change the behavior by simply changing their diet to something more organic and starting them on a set schedule and getting them organized....

Answer 8

Im 17.

and i have a.d.d and suffer from depression.

but i started noticing that i had trouble consintrating in school so i told my parents to get me tested.

My problem started early on in the 3rd grade and now im a junior in H.S so it kind of hard to change now.

But what i think you should do if ur child(ren) are younger then you should get then test right away so that you can make sure that you can fix the problem now instead of waiting and having them telling you to get them tested.

Answer 9

SO I AM CUNFUSED WHAT IS UR QUESTION EXACTLY WELL BY

Answer 10

One key thing is this...

Are there times when he CAN focus.

If he can focus for certain situations, he's not ADD/ADHD.

If it is no matter what, then generally he is.

Talk to your Doctor- but please -

Don't medicate him unless he absolutely needs it.

If he needs it, Please medicate him.

Answer 11

Tell tale signs? total lack of impulse control, inability to sit still....

At three my son grabbed a curtain in each hand, ran his feet up the wall onto the window and used the curtains to climb to the ceiling. He did risky things like this all the time.

At four he tried to use his brother's mattress to toboggan down our stairs that end three feet from a wall; he opened a car door while the car was in motion to see what would happen;

by age five he was doing things like jabbing a toy into a spinning fan to see what would happen;

at a playground playing tag he dove under a slide and discovered a discarded aerosol can--he turned and pointed  it at the kid right behind him and pushed the spray nozzle without thinking. Thank goodness the can was empty or he could have blinded the other child.

he was chasing a ball that went over a playground fence and he vaulted over it without a pause---there was marsh grass on the other side disguising a six foot drop.

he left a facecloth in the sink with the water running to look at a bird outside the bathroom. He came to see me to tell me about the bird and the water overflowed the sink. He completely forgot the water was running.

At school he could not sit still and focus--but that is the typical thing you will hear. "your son is very bright but he has a hard time remembering directions and paying attention."

From the time he was three my major issue was keeping him safe because he did stuff without considering consequences. His doctor at the time told me to holler when I felt I couldn't keep him safe anymore.

I put him on meds and it helped him think before he acted. His behavior in school improved dramatically and while he still does some risky stuff it is normal risky stuff for a 7 yr old. He loves school and does very well there and I am no longer on edge trying to keep him from killing himself or any bystanders---especially his younger brother who would willingly follow him anywhere.

He is happier and I am not yelling "no, stop" all the time so I am more relaxed.

This is a kid who really wants to be good and do well and he would get so angry at himself when he did something without thinking and it turned out badly. Don't misunderstand----he's no angel---but at least now I feel he has an opportunity to stop himself and think before he acts.