To Medicate or not... Aye thats the quesiton

[OldGreyEagle]

This has come up a few times before, and has been discussed but I would like to add a wrinkle to the ADD/ADHD thing.

 

My son is ADD, he has been tested both by two school systems and privately. He does much better on ritalin that when he doesnt take it. He is at the point where he can tell when he needs it.

 

I am no physician, nor clincal pharmacologist neither do I play either on TV, but I can tell a change when he takes his meds. I can tell when the other kids in the troop get their meds. To my experience, I have never seen a kid on ritalin whose seneses are dulled. Ritalin doesnt slow them down, or make them drowsy, it allows them to stay on task. What is the forum's experience. I ask first before you post, you declare if you have an ADD child or not. It should be interesting to get the opinions of parents of ADD kids and those who dont have ADD kids

[SagerScout]

I have an ADD child. He's 19. I also have about 23 years of other experience with youth, from JA to Sunday School teacher to BSA/GSUSA to school volunteer to teaching the neighbor boys how to windsurf because we just liked them. Total of 6 children counting my 3 step-children, plus 6 grandchildren thanks to the step-daughters. My scouting son, NOT ADD although he likes to think he is, was diagnosed with a severe anxiety disorder in 5th grade and was in Special Ed until we withdrew him from school in 9th grade.

 

My vote for my ADHD son - reached in consultation with him at age 11 - was not to medicate. He did try it again his senior year in high school, with mediocre results, after which he bagged the idea in favor of just using cheap and readily available caffeine.

 

Considerations were: His behavior was always reasonably ok; there was a little BB gun incident about 6th grade, not repeated since he had to pay for the window out of his allowance. One time he decked a kid, all reports are that the other kid (much larger than my son, BTW) pestered and pushed and pushed and pestered until he knocked my son backward into a chain link fence. Spurred by the pain of hitting the fence, Ken came off it and unloaded a single right hook on the other boy that nearly broke his jaw. Both boys got ISS, the other boy got 2 days for starting it and my son got 3 because he did really hurt the kid. I personally thought the punishments should have been reversed as EVERYONE there acknowledged that the other boy was engaging in bullying behavior and Ken was just defending himself - but under zero tolerance rules this was the determination, and I just told Ken to do his time and he did. In the long run, it was a positive thing for him as he never again was bullied in any way - the power of that single punch coming out of a rather skinny and small kid became legendary and the rep followed him to 2 new schools. He also learned some defensive moves to disarm or immobilize opponents without hurting them. Never again had a problem.

 

Other than that, his big problem was and is an near-complete inability to do academic work that does not grab his interest. His basic skills were always above average - reading, writing, and mathematics comprehension were all perfectly acceptable, although he frequently could not finish books, even those that had his interest. But he got his first programming internship at age 16, and respectable if not outstanding 1250 SAT's. So now his 3.0 GPA on his first year of college work all combine to make me feel that he'll be generally able to manage to learn what he needs to learn when he needs to learn it for life. MIT might not be in his future but I don't think it will handicap him too desperately.

 

We are close as a family and he knows he is loved. At the same time we chose not to medicate we accepted the fact that his grades would be lower, and didn't allow that to disrupt our family peace. Prior to this we had had 2-hour-long marathons of "homework help" sessions consisting of him weeping in frustration at the kitchen table and me trying to get him to pick up the pencil and write a sentence. Hard to have a happy family life with that going on 4 days a week. After our decision to butt out, I had approximately a zillion conversations with teachers explaining that we would NOT "make" him do his homework and that they were welcome to fail him if that was necessary under their grading criteria. IMHO, a failing grade is enough punishment and was the ONLY logical punishment for failing to do schoolwork. He saw the inside of summer school more than once, in which he gained a valuable insight: he is more able to do one or two subjects for 6 weeks than 7 subjects for a longg semester. He was in high school band for 2 years but never did any of the "fun" stuff as he was never eligible due to his grades - in any given grading period he would have one failing grade. The next grading period he'd pull that one up but drop another.

 

His best buddy in our old city - same age, also ADHD, not quite as brilliant as my son but IMO a great kid. We taught him to windsurf and took him out with us all the time - he was always super-polite to me, obedient and respectful, played well with our younger children and always did 110% of the necessary work for our beach outings. Anyone who sails knows that the packing, unpacking, equipment cleaning and so on is necessary drudgery that most teens would like to skip - but this kid had energy to burn and never even rolled his eyes when asked to tote, carry or fetch something.

 

K*** had a single parent (now a teacher) who earnestly did her best to instill discipline in her wayward child. She grounded him, spanked him, and withdrew privileges to punish him at home for his school failures, in accordance with the urging of the professional educators who insisted that parents must always "support" the school efforts, and she and they told him frequently that if he didn't apply himself more at school he'd end up in jail or worse. So she provided strict discipline in accordance with the recommendations of the education establishment.

 

And the most recent report is that he is now in jail for vandalism, after impregnating a girl in high school and using a dizzying array of substances. Amazing how kids do what we expect.

 

When looking at a personal decision to medicate or not: Keep in mind that depression very frequently accompanies ADD. In my mind, the depression is a far more serious potential handicap than the attention difference, and is the symptom that should be monitored most closely. If the depression or anti-social behavior gets away from you, medication and probably counseling is absolutely indicated and to skip it borders on negligence.

 

[SagerScout]

Me again, I know I just wrote a book but I want to make it clear: If you do NOT medicate an ADHD/ADD kid, you MUST de-emphasize grades. That is the trade-off, and it should be a conscious choice. Otherwise it's like sending him to soccer with his feet tied together with one-foot rope between them and yet insisting that he be the star of the team. Frustration, depression, desperation, and despair will follow as the night the day.

 

(To carry the metaphor farther: feet tied together isn't a handicap in a sack race, so put him on the sack race team; it's a small handicap in swimming but he could still succeed on a swim team, and will feel the prouder for overcoming the difficulty; and of course, it's obvious that having your feet tied together doesn't mean that you are a bad or evil kid.)

[SagerScout]

And one more time, sorry, but I have to say this too: other parents have had fantastic results with some medications, and I would never, ever tell anyone that was happy with the way their ADHD child is doing that they should change ANYTHING. The decision not to medicate WAS the right decision for OUR son, we're pretty sure, but it did involve hiim giving up a lot. Like, being on the honor roll, and taking band trips, and I think one girlfriend whose parents just couldn't see that he wasn't a dummy.

 

This decision is under constant review and if he decided tomorrow to try one of the newer meds we'd help him execute that plan.

 

[dsteele]

I was on Ritalin from about 1970-1978 as a kid. I don't know if it helped or hurt, but I'm fine. I think it must have helped.

 

The one thing the teachers never seemed to understand was that it didn't matter if I was staring out the window or staring at a cardboard study carol (however you spell it.) When I was staring, I simply wasn't there . . .

 

This was before ADD was popular. Glad I'm over it now.

 

Gotta go!

 

DS

[Eamonn]

OJ,my 15 year old does not have ADD/ADHD.

We do have very close friends that have 3 kids and the middle one a boy, does have ADD.

They have opted to use the meds.

At times this Lad has caused a lot of turmoil in their home.

Looking at it from the outside, I'm never sure how much can be put down to him just being a boy who seems to get caught doing dumb things or to the illness.

His parents have taken him to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, and along with the meds, the people at the hospital strongly recomended that as a family they try and do everything in a very structured, almost regimented way. Having meals at the same time each day, bedtime at the same time and so on.

Sad to say the family has not followed this advise. In part because the Mom works shift work at the local hospital.

As a non-medical person, I see my role in dealing with youth who have ADD/ADHD, no different then dealing with any other youth who might have an illness.

We would have all worked with youth that have asthma or some other illness. At times this may have got in the way of what we, the troop or even the Scout wanted to do. - But we found a way of making it work.

We make it work by treating each Scout as an individual and knowing the Scout as we do.

Just before the last Jamboree, I had a mother inform me that her son was ADD, and took his meds during school, he didn't take them during the school vacation.

I have to admit to thinking "Thanks A Lot!!"

However,she was right. The Lad is a great kid, he does tend to worry about things more then the other Lads. He may be a little more talkative then most other Lads his age, and maybe a little more emotional.

This might just be the way he is or it might be the ADD, kicking in.

Then again, if we are going to accept him as a person, we have to accept him with the illness that he has. Just as we would accept a Lad with any other illness or infirmity.

From some of the other postings that I have seen in other threads, it seems that some are not willing to accept that this is an illness or that a swift kick in the pants will be the cure.

From where I stand, these lads are doing their best and while at times we all have a hard time with their behavior, we must try and be as understanding as possible.

Had this posted and seen that I had not answered the question.

Me from my non-medical standpoint think that the parents and at some point in time the youth, will opt if and when to take the meds.

Just as my wife does with her allergy pills.

She makes the choice, depending on what she sees as the need.(This message has been edited by Eamonn)

[acco40]

Allow me to rephrase the question, "When should the individual be allowed to make the choice about medication for himself?"

 

I was asked to supervise my nephew (actually my wife did most of the supervising because I work for a living) who was taking Ritalin. He was 15 at the time. I told him that it was up to him to decide if he should take his medication or not. Granted, he was not in school (summer vacation). He ended up not taking it after a week or so and other than a greatly increased appetite his behavior was not much different in my eyes.

 

We all have our foibles. The "smart" ones learn to adjust.

 

OGE, to answer your question, my older son's elementary teachers asked that we have him tested for ADD (non-hyper). We did not. Now, I'm not phobic about psychologists or psychiatrists (I'm the son of a shrink!) but that was our choice. He is not disruptive, fidgety, talkative, etc. but does have trouble "zoning out" sometimes. Yes, regimentation for him does help. However, it is a weakness he needs to learn to compensate for. It is not something society needs to change for him.

 

One thing I've noticed about some of the boys in our troop that take medication (adderall, ritalin, etc.) is that they generally take it during day for school but usually not for camping trips or in the evenings. I don't know if the "coming down" off of the drugs intensifies their troubles or not. However, I have noticed that many of the boys excuse their bad behavior to themselves (in Scouts) because they know they are not taking their medication. They rationalize their behavior when not on medications feeling (subconsciously?) they have a free pass.(This message has been edited by acco40)

[dan]

My son has ADD. When he is not on meds other leaders just ask me if he is okay, he seems distant, but I see that he is getting better without the meds as he gets older.

The decision to medicate or not should be between the doctor, guardian and child. There are many alternates to meds, that I believe should be checked out before the meds are used. Your doctor will have a LOT of info on other possibilities.

My son just turned 14 it is his option now if he takes his meds. He takes it daily, unless he forgets.

 

My biggest questions right now, if how long should he be on it? This is question that I have not found a good answer for.

 

[Fat Old Guy]

My son takes Adderall. Does he have ADHD without hyperactivity? I don't know. The school claimed that he did for years and refused to do anything with him unless we medicated him. The school shrink said, "He has an attention deficit and needs meds" A comment, by the way, which is against the law. We had Skinny Young Guy tested at the expense of thousands of dollars. The testing people said, "No attention deficit but there are other problems." Sure there are problems, what else can you say when a child tests "Gifted and talented" but is only reading at a second grade level in the fourth grade. Well, you could say that the school sucks and you'd be right but that's another story.

 

We resisted the idea of medication. My son didn't like the idea of medication. Finally, we gave in and tried the meds. His reading scores shot up. He made honor roll. He liked school. As an experiment, my son asked to stop the drugs for a grading period. The grades plummeted so he asked for the meds again.

 

Do I like the idea of having my son on speed? No.

 

Did you know that college students use adderall as a recreational drug?

Did you know that you can grind up Ritalin and snort it to get a cocaine like high?

 

 

[Night Fox]

Medication is always a choice of the parents of a scout. That being said we have several extremes in our troop and pack. I have seen several boys that dont need meds in the

scouting portion of their lives. Otherscouts seem to need the edge the meds give to be

their best. I think the parents, with input for the scout, needs to make that decision carefully and revise it when needed.

 

One scout, a PL, has ADD and Tourettes Syndrome. His medicine helps him focus but it also keeps him very quiet and withdrawn. He happens to be my son and we decided not to

medicate on camping trips or summer camp. There are times when he needs the concentration edge so if the scouting event is a classroom type setting we make sure to offer it as an option. We did check to see if he was being successful. We let the then SM know that our son could tic, verbal and motor, or need to directions made very clear to him. The SM never saw a tic until a parent/son pillow fight some three years into his boy scouting activities. Our son does well without medication in scouting. (The opposite is

true at school.) We think we made a good decision with his input.

 

Another scout, a former PL and eagle scout, found that he was getting into more mischief

without his medication. ( I think his parents woke up after he ran into a door on a cabin

campout. His concussion and paying for the door were both bell-ringers to say the least.)He even took his meds on staff at Philmont this summer.He is 17 and parents made the ultimate decision.They have tried it without his meds and say they can't afford it.

 

More often the cases I have run into in scouting and in my years as a teacher are that although

many parents would like to see their children succeed without the drugs they need to follow this up by asking, Is my child being successful within that choice?We have called parents on campouts explaining that they needed to come pick-up their son because of impulsive behaviors. We have told parents that they needed to come and be there to monitor their sons behavior for their child to attend the next meeting or outing. These usually happens only after we have tried every trick in our repertory and have met with the youth leaders and parents. Parents make the choice about medicine and need to realize that choice may not be the best for the troop.

 

I also think some leaders do not take advantage of the special needs resources and teachers that might help them solve challenges with these scouts. I advocate for a multi-handicapped scout in our troop and some of the adults say things like But hes just deaf, he should be able to do this or that. I have to be very careful not to baby the scout but also educate my adults that he does have some other physical concerns that they may not be expert in. (For example, I learned about his difficulty hiking when the boys father and I did the running with our sons for the personal fitness merit badge. We ran

with the boys for support) The scouts motor skills are a challenge many of our leaders didnt understand. The parents were frustrated because they were told ...hell be fine. We leaders will deal with it. I suggested his PL give the scout some mentors to help him with hiking and tying knots. The scouts who mentor to him have woken up to what the scout can do, not what he cant. He is becoming a great troop scribe. His parents are helping by encouraging the scout to play baseball and strengthening himself physically. The frustration level is better.

 

Overall I feel these scouts need to be expected to make the same good behavior choices that their peers do. Being ADD or ADHD is an extra challenge not an excuse. Parents need to support their sons success by giving them the best tools for the job, which can be meds.The leaders often need to support these scouts with a little extra time and gain knowledge about the condition. Attending the special needs section of your UNIVERSITY of Scouting or calling the councils special needs team for help would be good steps.

 

Scouting gives my son the chance to socialize and be good at something that he likes to do. His challenges have helped him be a better brother to his fellow scouts. He was the patrol leader of the scout who is deaf, physically delayed and ADHD. They just made OA call-out together. His patrol worked at pulling up all their members.

 

 

Good luck with your son OldGreyEagle.

[mk9750]

Neither of my sons are ADD or ADHD. Both struggle to do well in school, but both are motivational issues.

 

My opinion on this subject has evolved over the last few years. Back in '93, I was asked to serve on a community steering council to determine how assessment would be done in our school district. This was a big joke, as it turned out the board had determined they were moving toward outcome based education, where grades would be based on how well you tried, not how well you actually did. (I know this is a bit of over simplification, but the basic idea is correct). They just wanted a citizen group to make it acceptable to the community.

 

During the meetings, however, the conversation turned to "at risk" students, most commonly ADD and ADHD. It was obvious to me that from the standpoint of the administrators on the steering council, the district was far better of identifying children as being ADD, as there was more state and federal money available to the district if more kids were labeled "at risk". It was from this perspective that I formulated my initial opinion on the topic, that being that most ADD and ADHD children are nothing more than children who couldn't prove they weren't "at risk". And, my thinking went, even if they did have a litlle problem, they better find ways to deal with it, because the coddling they were going to get at school and at home wasn't going to continue when they get to the real world.

 

Although I still believe that the real world WILL treat them differently, I have come to believe that the affliction is real, and that taking medication for it, WHEN NOTHING ELSE APPARENTLY WILL WORK, is equivelent to a diabetic taking insulin to control their diabetes.

 

Here is one observation I can give as this relates to Scouting: As Advancement Chair, I get a copy of all the new Scout applications to enter new boys into TroopMaster. I see all of the medical info on the Scout application. I am going from memory, and although I could be slightly wrong, I know I am close: 90% of the boys in our Troop identified on the application as ADD or ADHD have parents who coddle them agressively. Knowing that there are so many parents of ADD and ADHD children in this forum, I fear offending many of you. This truly isn't my intent. But ADD on the application has almost always equalled mom packing for campouts, dad driving two hours to take Johny his pillow, and mom and dad making excuses for mistakes that all young Scouts make at one time or another.

 

My hope (and belief) is that because the members of this forum have a more "global" view of the values of Scouting, that they have recognized this and have not allowed themselves to fall victim of this too. We have a boy with Downs Syndrom in our Troop, and he can take care of himself 95% of the time. My belief is that ADD and ADHD boys can do at least this well. Maybe that takes medication, maybe not. But they can do it, if mom and dad stay out of the way.

 

Mark

[sctmom]

My son is ADHD. Was diagnosed at 6 1/2 years old, after a year of testing, counseling, asking, trying all sorts of things. Was put on Adderall. Saw immediate results. We have tried at times to take him off the medicine and things went bad. Teachers said they could tell the moment he walked in that he had not had his medicine. Was he dull? No, just different.

 

Now he only takes the medicine on school days. By 7 or 8 in the evening it is pretty much worn off, but not as bad as if he had no medicine.

 

His grades aren't perfect but he can do his best with the medicine. He does take the medicine on the weekend if a school project must be worked on. Otherwise, it is painful for everyone around to see him try to get the project done.

 

He is now 12 years old and just started 7th grade. He knows he needs his medicine to have a good day at school. The medicine helped him be able to learn coping skills. Those coping skills do kick in when the medicine is not there but paying attention in school is still a problem.

 

Are their lots of scouts with ADD/ADHD? Yep! Those are the boys that the parents are trying everything to channel that energy somewhere.

 

Most ADD/ADHD people also have above average IQ's.

 

[AnneinMpls]

I'm fearful I may have much too much to say on this subject! I'll try to condense it down...

 

I was a foster parent to a boy from my cub scout pack many years back (boy and his younger sister). Both seemed to have ptsd related to pretty severe abuse early in life. L. was on both antidepressant and ADD meds and enrolled in an EBD program school (emotional/behavioral disorders). L. was a kid who'd climb any building (this in a good mood generally), take off running for miles if scared or upset, and bust out windows if angry. We kinda had our hands full...

 

Turns out his antidepressant meds cancelled out any helpful effect of the ADD meds - the really big window breaking episode occured when his meds were misprescribed (different dosages of pills but looked identical!) - his MD accidentally *doubled* his antidepressant meds....

 

L. definitely benefitted from lots of routine - helped both with his attention deficit and with his undiagnosed panic attacks. Lots of school phobia (heck, his school scared *me*). I did lots of schooling with him at home and found him able to progress 2-3 years beyond where they had him placed in school. Smart kid - truly believed himself to be stupid. Learned long division in 2 20 minute sessions over two days - I think he decided maybe he wasn't stupid after that

 

Regarding the coddling mentioned in a post above, yha....sometimes. Then sometimes you *know* that maybe a certain item - their own pillow - a particular brand of toothpaste can help them have one less core meltdown (sometimes it's an excuse for a worried parent to check in with a kid - not necessarily a bad thing - as with many things, it depends...)

 

Mainly just want to toss out there that oftentimes ADD isn't the only load these kids are carrying...

 

Have worked with more "typical" ADD kidlets too - don't forget sometimes a lower awareness of pain goes along with this...I'm remembering a certain Webelos den meeting where we were practicing whittling... nearly sliced his flinger off..."hey...umm, C....you're bleeding, you know that ,right?" "Huh? Oh..."

Do the first aid deal - pressure elevation call mom...Mom laughs..."Oh, guess it's another trip to the ER huh?" "Yup!" From what I remember C. was unmedicated - family was pretty goodwith routines and was pretty able to "roll with the punches"

[SagerScout]

My ADHD son has a lowered awareness of pain too, and after all this time and zillions of Dr. visits, I didn't know that it was part of the symptom spectrum! I thought it was just him!

 

When he was 2, I recall hiim on a stool in the kitchen - told him to get down, he was too close to the toaster - looked away for a minute and sure enough, he touched the toaster. Came over shaking his hand saying "Hot, Mommy, Hot!" No wailing. I thought "Oh good, he learned the lesson without major damage." Then I saw the 1 inch diameter second degree burn on his little hand. From the look of it a grown man would have been in tears. He's still got the scar, 17 years later.

 

This definitely changes the discipline plans as spanking is completely ineffective - not that I'm a big spanking fan anyway but often strangers say stuff like "that kid could be set straight with a good spanking" - and it is totally, totally not true. You'd be well into child abuse before my son would even notice, and then he'd laugh at you first. From Anne's post, perhaps he's more typical than I thought.

 

I will say this, though, this particular child really didn't hurt himself too much. He is kinesthetically gifted, like a cat he tends to land on his feet even when doing the most unlikely things.

[LauraT7]

ADDer's tend to be an unusual lot.

 

there are a few similarities - distractability, high mental or physical energy, a 'different' (often gifted) way of thinking, thoughts that 'jump' around, disorganization, fidgety, sometimes clumsy, often perceptive. Do i talk too much? yes! that's another ADD trait. but each ADDer is uniquely 'different'.

 

My son was diagnosed in 2nd grade - in retrospect, the signs were there from infancy. We tried behavioral modifications, but eventually went to medication for him. i didn't see why I should force him to struggle when there was help in medication?

 

As an ADD parent of an ADD/ gifted child - one thing I REALLY know - you never truly know, even in yourself, what is the ADD and what is simply YOUR personality. they are almost inseperable - which make ADD hard to diagnose for sure. ADD and personality traits are so closely tied -

Am I disorganized because of my ADD? or am I disorganized because, as my family tells me, I just 'don't care'? is my son really lazy? or just unmotivated? why are other people able to easly accomplish things that i can't seem to complete? Why do some things seem so much HARDER for us, and no effort for others? Medication making a difference in the behavior is sometimes a METHOD of diagnosing it for sure. If medication make a change - then it's a chemical imbalance that can be corrected. If Medication doesn't affect it - then it's not chemical. ( then there are other things - depression, learning disabilities, being gifted that also affect the diagnoses - how do you separate THEM?)

 

I recognised it in myself when he was diagnosed - Girls didn't 'have' ADHD in the 60's. They didn't recognised that you could be ADD without hyperactivity until I was an adult. But again - the signs were all there in retrospect. I was a textbook case.

 

Still, I had learned coping behaviors - I kept copious notes (which i lost), kept multiple datebooks (which i had everywhere) lived by post it notes - and my computer was (IS) a Godsend (I CAN'T lose this thing - it's too big!) I have multiple keys to everything and all kinds of 'habits' to keep my life together. bills are on auto pay, things in my house are structured for sight- organization. (if it's put away, it might as well be gone - out of sight- out of mind) I have family that is extrememly supporting and organized - I'm still buried in paper - but I get by - mostly.

 

I coped, without meds - for years - but everything was ever so much more effort than it seems to be for you normal people. Eventually, the effort of maintaining everything wore me out and some things happened in my life where my 'coping mechanisms' were no longer 'enough' for me to make it in the 'normie' world - i was sliding behind and could not catch up. So i went for formal diagnosis and started taking medication myself.

 

yet, because ADD IS a chemical imbalance - your brain can have differing levels of the necessary chemical at any given time. And there is no way (like an insulin test) to tell how much additional 'chemical' you need at a given point. so we 'stab' at it - pick a dose, give it at regular intervals, and stay at whatever works - meanwhile, the brain is still up and down in it's own production of the chemicals - so you STILL have ups and downs of ADD behavior - only, hopefully, not as EXTREME, because there is a 'baseline' of chemical production provided by the drug.

 

yes, in 'normal' people - the drugs can be stimulants, recreational drugs, dangerous - but the chemical composition of an ADD brain makes them as harmless to an ADDer as any other medicinal drug. (that's not to say they are harmless - only that like any drug - the risks must be weighed against the outcome for the individual patient)

 

 

Medication helps tremendously. I am NOT high, or strung out, i don't feel any different than i did before - except -

when I think of something - I can grab the thought and DO something about it before the thought is gone. I still use all my 'coping mechanisms' - but they work better because i am more consistant. My mind is not such a whirlwind - or rather - it still IS - but I can control and use it better. Kind of like putting a steering wheel and brake on a kid's coaster car. When I take my Adderal i can start things and finish them - and sometimes i still CHOOSE not to finish things. but I CHOOSE - my ADD doesn't choose for me. Sometimes I don't take my meds, and I have a lazy - do-nothing day. but sometimes, i DESERVE a lazy do-nothing day. sometimes i have alot to accomplish, and alot on my mind and i really, really need to concentrate on something - and even the meds don't help.

 

For example - I had to go downtown to test for a job last week - the test was on a computer and it was VERY slow from screen to screen - the test itself was easy for me, so i was completeing the test quickly - but the lag time between screens was so distractingly dull, that when the questions finally popped up each time, I found myself daydreaming and drifting off - I had to read them 2-3 times to 'get' them - Medication can only partially affect a situation like this - At least I completed and passed the test!)

 

 

Because most ADDers have SOME of the appropriate chemicals in their brains - at different times and different amounts - in some situations, they don't NEED the additional drugs. Behavioral habits can be learned to cope with situations so that the behavior isn't a problem to the ADDer or to the people around him. The ideal situation would be for someone to monitor and identify when a situation started to push an ADDer over their 'limit' and give them the medication only then. But that monitoring isn't always possible, even parents often don't know their child (or ADD) well enough to identify 'when' to step in, and certainly, most children can't identify it in themselves when it is happening. Schools won't give medicines on that premise - because they don't want to be put in the position of making 'medical' decisions. I don't blame them - i wouldn't want to have to make that decision for anyone but myself or my child. and it's a tough call even then.

 

With practice and knowledge, someone who is ADD might learn to know when he needs medication and when he doesn't. Whether we 'remember' to take our meds when something much more interesting is calling us, is a different story - esp with kids. and then there's the 'stimgma' of meds. I'm pretty outspoken, and admitedly have a bit of an 'attitude' about the treatment of people with ADD. many people don't want to admit - even to themselves- that they have a 'mental' problem that requires medication. They fight taking the medication, trying to prove they can do without it. i did, and I still do, sometimes. on some level, it annoys me that i have to adjust to everyone else's idea of 'correct behavior' instead of my own.

 

I mean - ADD behavior never bothers the ADDer - it only bothers you boring normies! (LOL! ;-) )

 

personally, i don't think ADD is a 'disorder' or whatever you want to label it - it's just a different personality or way of thinking that doesn't fit the 'norm' and since all you 'normies' are in the majority, people try to squish us into a 'normal' mold. society is not very understanding of 'differences' especially those they can't box up nicely and 'fix'. And since there are enough of us with similar 'differences', We've gotten identified, labeled and boxed - but we persist in resisiting being 'fixed!' LOL!

 

Laura