How does everyone cope??

[angie1216]

This is a little confusing for me but i would like to have a website i can go to for discussions. I have 2 kids. Gena is ADD, aged 11. She is taking 4 time release pills ( ritalin) I took her off the Adderall. Her teachers see a big improvement and she is getting all A's this year. Joey is 11. He was on adderall too but i switched to Genas pills because the adderall always needed to be upped and it always stopped working after a few monthes. He isn't doing so well. I have started taking every priviledge away. I am pretty sure he has ODD as well because every symptom is exactly like joey. I am going to bring this up with his psychiatrist next month. He has has violent spells but not since i held him tight and refused to allow him to intimidate or hit my daughter, he has not gotten physical again. I have tried positive attention. I have tried alot. So far he has all f's. He is extremely intelligent and this really saddens me. He did not get put on the iep like my daughter did but i think there is another thing i can try for him.....something like 404 or something..... This weekend wasn't so bad. I realized that alot of the times, i took joey out to babysit or run errands so he would not bother everyone at the house and get into trouble. I have stopped doing that and took my daughter babysitting and she made 20.00 >>>Joey is really bummed about it but i keep telling him it is not up to me but up to him and if he starts following the rules and doing his homework, then he can come with me next time. Any tips would be useful.

Hi I have two sons that have had some of same probelms.

Strattera was really bad for my son's tics--also stimulants.

I am obviously no doctor, but have you tried something like Risperdal or
Abilify? That might help with aggression. It also seemed to help a bit with keeping my son's anxiety at bay.

We also had great luck with my oldest with Lamictal. He seems to either be medicated out of or growing out of the really immature silliness--like stuffing bread in the VCR kind of silliness.

WE went through lots of medications before we hit on a few things. Peronally I would try to deal liwth the aggression, violence andthose kind of issues first. Then worry about school and focus issues.

A really experience psychiatrist/neuropsychologist combo would be very helpful. I know, just about darn near impossible to find.

 

[Marguerite]

Angie, welcome also.

For best benefit for you personally, you need to begin your own thread so we can help you. Otherwise your problems risk getting lost or overlooked as we try to help cfa3. One thing we often recommend here - check out "The Explosive Child" by Ross Greene, it's been invaluable for a lot of us when we're trying to find effective (and not too regimented) ways to deal with ODD-type behaviours, from a multiple of different causes. Have alooko at the Early Childhood forum to see some posts on this book.

Meanwhile, browse the site, read various threads and see if you can find some useful information.

But feel free to start your own thread - it will attract people who can help you with your specific problems.

Marg