Finally a plan

My parents felt bad when I was diagnosed with being bipolar at 22. They felt bad because I suffered so much when I was younger. I told them while I could have gotten counseling, they should not feel bad about not having me on certain medications. Because it's not good to have little kids on that kind of thing unless it is absolutely necessary. Until they are grown, it's really important to try everything before medication. If it becomes necessary, then at least one knows they gave everything else a shot.

I really sympathize with you! I was told both my sons were hyperactive and they told me some alphabet soup name but then I guess my brother must've been, too, and every other child I ever knew. I did what my mom did--told them they had to discipline themselves and pay attention or they would not like the consequences, which I explained to them in great detail. My brother got his MBA a few years back and could retire at any time and live comfortably even without a pension, he has been so disciplined. And yes, a doctor has told him that he's ADD/ADHD as an adult so he probably was as a child, too. He doesn't believe it but there it is. Anyway, my point is that parents have coped before, even before the supposed condition was given a name. I prefer to call it a normal, squirmy, distracted child. Children were not meant to sit still for hours every day and pay attention, it's not natural. Now they are 23 and 24 and voluntarily take the meds but they didn't have to take them when they were boys and they did fine. It puzzles me why these conditions are suddenly so widespread.

I think some of the most dangerous words in our culture are "Take a pill, you'll feel better in the morning." This attitude of an easy way out destroys us. Just because there is a name ADD/ADHA etc. for these conditions doesn't mean they haven't been around for a long time. True when they are extreme medication should be used, but for lite cases there are many other soluations. We have a child, now 50 years old who has had to cope with a 10 second attention span, she has learned to refocus every 10 seconds. This has been a challenge to overcome, but she is a very successful medical person. After all for her this 10 second attention was perfectly normal and it was just a matter of training herself to refocus. Each of us faces our own personal challenges in life, and the fact that science has allowed us to identify certian mental conditions and how to train ourselves beyond these is a great benefit. Many times pills do nothing but avoid the problems and put money in the big medicine companies.

For me yes it is very good if you have a plan it has more help in your life keep up the good work.

My 10 year old was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 6. We chose not to medicate for a long time. We took him to counseling and worked with him at home. I also have attention issues so I taught him several of my own coping skills to help him deal. When he was 7 the school told us that he would not be able to continue attending unless we put him on medication. This was devastating for our family because we don't believe that meds are the answer. We talked to the counselors and found a low dose medication that he could take temporarily to help him master his other coping skills and find new ways to deal with things. Concerta. He was on the medication only on school days and it made a big difference. He has been non-medicated for the last 3 years and we haven't had too many more complaints from the school. I know that you don't want to use medication and I completely agree with you. However, a lot of younger children have trouble grasping the idea that their behavior is unacceptable because they allow themselves to get too worked up to listen. I look at our situation like this: when you have an infection you take antibiotics until it goes away. The meds we used slowed him down enough to give him a chance to recognize the warning signs of his tantrums and such. Once he could see and understand what the problem was he wanted to learn how to deal with it and was far easier to teach. I hope this can help you.

My friends son has adhd and he is on meds.Since he has been on meds his concentration has got better while he is doing his school works, he is not perfect still, but a lot calmer.He is in a pupil referral unit at the moment and being taught how to try to cope with adhd, but he is only 8 years old.You can tell when his meds are running out of his system.Good luck.