difficult child 2 and his first day on a stimulant.

[Californiablonde]

So I gave difficult child 2 his first dose of Focalin around 11:00 this morning. It took about a half hour for me to notice any difference. I was in the bedroom and he was out in the livingroom playing games on the easy child. He came into the bedroom and told me he was experiencing some anxiety. Then he asked me, "what does anxiety mean again?" I told him it means he is nervous about something. Then he said, "yes that's what it is. I'm nervous." I asked him what he is nervous about. He told me he had some anxiety about winning his video game. I told him it was okay to feel nervous sometimes. Them he told me his heart was beating really fast and hard. I wasn't surprised. After all, he is on legalized speed and that's what it does. Then he takes my cell phone and plugs it into the wall right next to me to charge it. Says he want to play games on my phone while it's charging. So he starts playing games and he starts talkin, and boy does difficult child start talkin! difficult child 2 by nature is NOT a talker. At school he is mute. He will speak at home but it's usually to ask for something to eat/drink, or to discuss something about his videogame (his obsession.) He was talking fast and he barely even took a breath.

He talked about everything at random. It mist have been two hours of non stop talking. SO totally un-difficult child. He stopped briefly and asked me if I was bored of him. I told him no, he was not boring me and his talking was okay with me. He told me he was glad because he said he felt the need to talk to somebody, anybody really. Then he told me he didn't know why he felt so compelled to talk so much. Usually he's never like this and he knows it. I thought it was very mature of him to be self aware.

So that was about it. A few hours later the effects wore off and he was asking me for something to eat. I am relieved. No psychotic episodes. No rages. No hallucinations. None of the side effects that happened with difficult child 1. The true test will be to see how he reacts at school. I don't know if it will help him focus. It's a lil hard to gage his ability to focus at home. Only his teacher can tell us that. Maybe his non stop talking will get him in trouble at school, I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see. For now I'm just grateful he didn't flip out on it.

 

[Californiablonde]

Slow night I guess. Oh, I forgot, you all have husband's. Well I don't! I was with my kids' dad for nine years. He got me pregnant three times outta wedlock (one time was a miscarriage.) I bore him two beautiful children. A boy and a girl. STILL he didn't think I was good enough to marry. We stayed together nine years. Never married. He left me when difficult child 1 was eight years old because he said he could no longer live with her bipolar disorder. He CHEATED on me. Hooked up with a woman he worked with. He left us. He married HER. She is my kids' stepmom. She verbally and physically abuses them. Right now there is nothing I can do. I go to bed alone at night. I have NOBODY. Lucky y'all. You have a husband to keep y'all safe. I hope beyond hope you appreciate what you have. Right now I have NOTHING.

 

[SuZir]

I have no meaningful input about the stimulants, but you seem to have a rough night. So just

There will be the better nights again for you too!

 

[Californiablonde]

Well thank you. <3. I appreciate it. I have a boyfriend but he is new and he is so far oblivious to all this. Right now I just need a giant big (((hug))).

 

[Californiablonde]

Y'all have husband's well lucky you!!! Kiss him, hold him, make love to him. Be lucky you got him! I wish I had what y'all got. But I don't and I probly never will. God bless you. You deserve it.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

You would be surprised how many of us are single. We understand. Sounds like you were having a bad night. Hope the morning sun brings a new perspective.

My personal experience with stims and my son - no stimulant has ever made him more hyper or talkative- the opposite.

Sharon

 

[buddy]

BIG HUG
I didn't see your post somehow, so sorry. Yes, there are many of us who are single here. I chose to be a single parent from the start but that is not the most common story here. I did think I would be married at one time, but it didn't work out. Now I could only date if I could bring Q with me or have dates during school hours....LOL. Doesn't sound super appealing to me to have a boyfriend who would be available during the day unless it meant he was independently wealthy and could make his own schedule. (snicker)

There IS an option to use a smaller dose if it makes his heart race too much or makes him seem a little overstimulated. It may work at a lower dose OR it may be that he needs to build up to the right dose slower. For some medications Q needs to get liquid forms and start literally mg. by mg. using those baby droppers to build up. Maybe check with the pharmacy and see if the medication you have can be split at all. Usually if it is the right medication it will make the sluggish working frontal lobe become more typical not make them revved up like speed. But the heart side effect can certainly happen to anyone, and that sometimes can be helped by switching (I dont know why, they are all in the same class but sometimes it does help to switch). Quin has complained of that every once in a while too. We get his heart checked frequently due to all of the medications he is on.

Are you going to continue to try again today and Mon? It will be interesting to see how he responds over time as you say in school too.

It is slower here on the weekends. Sorry I missed your post, 8o(

Hope you got a good night sleep (hope difficult child did too!)

 

[BusynMember]

I have a hub, but he's still sleeping. Even when he's awake, we dont' spend every minute talking...lol. I was divorced once so I know how you feel though, and I'm sorry. I didn't enjoy being alone either.

Stimulants were bad for my family. They tried me on 5 mg. of Ritalin and I got very high, then crashed and was depressed for months all because of the up/down factor of the one stupid pill (I get depressed easily and it was very bad for me). I felt very energized and it acted like speed in my body. My son also tried many low, medium, and high doses of stimulants. They all made him mean and aggressive (he is not aggressive or mean) and we discontinued. My daughter has ADD and was tried on Vyvanse. At a low dose, she felt nothing. At a higher dose she was so manic and hyper that her friends asked her what was wrong with her (this isn't like her). She told me she could not control her talking and could not sit still an d that she wasn't going to take it anymore because it made her feel strange.

My oldest daughter abused stimulants. She and her friends crushed them in a pillcrusher and snorted them, alone or with other drugs.

Obviously, I am no t a stimulant fan. My advice would be that in my opinion if it makes him nervous, it's not a good medication for him. Anxiety is not your friend while in school and these medications are to help with school focus. The hyper-talking is probably also a side effect. Did you notice if he can sit still?

 

[TeDo]

CB, I really hope you got a good night's sleep. It sounds like you were super stressed or something last night. I realize you have a lot on your plate right now and I know how alone you feel. I don't have a husband. My boys' father and I were planning on getting married after they were born. We had it all planned out. He took off 2 months before they were born and has had NO contact with them and refuses to pay child support (has sat in jail a few times I guess for not paying). With difficult child 1's issues, even getting out to meet anyone is not an option so I will forever be alone.

As for the stimulants, what you are describing is exactly why we stopped them after the first dose. The only difference is that difficult child 1 got super-hyper to go along with the incessant talking and heart racing. I watched my 3 year old "take a speed trip" and it scared the bejeebers out of me. I hope it gets better for your difficult child as he gets used to it.

 

[buddy]

MWM and TeDo's post reminded me of this, which you probably are already considering....but stims are generally thought not to work if the adhd diagnosis is not real (the actual frontal lobe not working right for "minimal brain damage/dysfunction reasons"). This is controversial and people think differently but I believe it is the most commonly held belief. Since he has a spectrum disorder...the adhd-like symptoms could be a reflection of what is going on there, not true adhd. Of course one medication not working wont mean that, because even for true adhd you may have to try different medications to find the one that works for any individual. But for other disorders that can appear to be adhd, it can make things worse. (Of course there are some with adhd who just can't tolerate medications too) So, there is no cut and dry answer, but it is just something to keep in mind.....may be that the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) front has to be tackled more before the adhd like symptoms can really be helped.

Wouldn't it be so great if there was an easy way to figure out what was what? medication issues stink in my opinion.

 

[DammitJanet]

And some of us may be in a relationship and might as well be single. I never married my kids dad and we have been together for almost 29 years. We barely talk now. I see him maybe an hour a day and most of that is arguing. Right now he is on the couch asleep even though he promised to go to walmart to buy me something today. Sigh.

 

[InsaneCdn]

We (our family) find stims extremely effective. But... not one of us has ever experienced the reaction you described. The only two side effects we've had are appetite suppression (in our case, mild), and rebound effect (severe... we switched to long-acting for this reason).

Things like "heart racing" and "non-stop talking" would seem to signal the need to try a different medication, for a minimum.

 

[Liahona]

How did the medication work for today? Was there more heart racing and non-stop talking?

 

[Californiablonde]

Lahona, I skipped medications yesterday since it was a holiday and he didn't have school. I gave him another one this morning before school. I forgot to mention that my son is still on Intuniv, although at a lower dose. He finishes taking his 2 mgs of Intuniv tomorrow, and then he drops down to 1 mg for a week after that. So there is the factor that he has 2 medications in his system right now. I won't know how the Focalin fully effects him by itself for a little over a week. I have his IEP meeting tomorrow so I am going to ask his teacher how he did with his first day of taking a stimulant at school. Hopefully she will have good things to report.

 

[buddy]

Wishing all good things. Did you just decide to do the one dose? Will be interesting to see if a.m. vs. p.m. are different.

 

[Californiablonde]

Yes, Buddy, I decided on giving him one dose for now. It will be interesting to see what his teacher reports tomorrow. It was a lil hard for me to tell when the medication kicked out of his system at home. Maybe the teacher will be able to better assess it than I can. I don't know if he will need more than one dose just yet so we'll see what she has to say about it tomorrow.

 

[Liahona]

Keep us updated. Hoping for good news.