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My youngest son (5yo) has been diagnosed with ADHD. I was totally against giving him meds. I had been pressured from family both close and distant. I am/was convinced that he had a disipline problem and that could be corrected. He was diagnosed in May, from May to August I had been real hard on the disipline and it was working. He had been in kindergarden for about 3 weeks. Kindergarden isnt what it was 35 years ago, they have homework and goals now. Every night we did homework. Every night it was difficult. He had a hard time with everything we did and you could see the frustration in his eyes. On one particularly difficult night, i asked what was wrong. He broke down and told me that he "felt dumb". I figured that I could not disipline "smarts" into him. So I called the Dr the next day and set up an appointment.
The Dr. put my most of my fears to rest and luckily he is a great Dr with a philosophy of "the least amount needed". We started our son the following weekend on Concerta. We also had a meeting with his teacher to let her know whats going on and help us monitor him. He was a different child, in a good way, after the meds. He has made great strides since he has been on it. The meds have not changed him, only toned him down a notch or so. He is consitantly bringing home great grades and home work is done in afew minutes compared to hours before. He has come out of his shell in class and participates now. He is more confident with every aspect of learning now.
I would call it a sucess story except for one thing. In all my research and reading I cannot find anybody that is actively teaching the children a coping mechanism to deal with the ADHD and how to get off the meds. The concensus is to keep the kids on meds until they are adults. I dont like this. It seems that the kids and parents see the meds as a one step program that makes them smarter and do better in school. So the kids want to stay on the meds and there is a black market for the meds in most schools and universities. Luckily I have access to the PhD that helped diagnose my child and we have discussed this. Her children were put on meds too and every year she would let them try to go without the meds. SHe did not actively try to teach them coping mechanisms. I want to teach my child how to deal with his problem and instill some "mental disipline" so that he doesnt have to rely on the meds to "make him smart". Of course at 5yo thats not going to happen. I do plan on trying later, like 7 or 8, and see what can be done. I believe that it can be done but the child has to have the ability to reason, which only comes with time. For now I will begrudingly keep him on the minumum possible dose.
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