Thank you for your kind words, mindinggaps.
What is somewhat funny is I thought she was my difficult child, until we adopted the boy (at age 3 yr, 9 mo) who brought me here and made my first child look almost easy. But he had so many other issues to deal with— drugs/alcohol in utero, delays and learning disabilities, adhd/odd, and bad behavior in school as well as in the home. Whew!
He got kicked out of daycares and after school programs and eventually I stopped working (it was only part-time while he was in school) because he just couldn’t function well in any group setting and I didn’t trust him with a babysitter because he could be so manipulative.
As a senior in high school he started dabbling with drugs, first just cannibus but eventually meth, and by age 21 had been homeless, arrested multiple times, spent 6 months in jail for a (non-violent) crime and is now a convicted felon. As a child and teen, he had the advantage of every form of therapy, traditional and alternative, counseling, a great special education program and many other advantages. But the draw of peer pressure was just too strong for him once he hit high school. He has also been diagnosed with Aspberger’s which has been a real challenge because he so much wanted to belong and be popular. Unfortunately, his behaviors would often have the opposite effect.
If I may ask, did you ever get involved with illegal drugs? And do you take the Prozac for depression, anxiety? Like somebody else had posted here, I thought Prozac was just for depression. My daughter was actually on it for a few years but it didn’t seem to help. Later, during high school, she was diagnosed with anxiety and put on an anti-anxiety medication although I don’t remember which one, and it helped. She no longer takes any medication, but I believe she still has anxiety.
I commend you for having the presence of mind to know that you need medication to maintain stability and quality of life. So many people, once they reach adulthood, don’t feel they need medications and refuse to take them. Like my son did at age 18. Sometimes I feel if he had stayed on his adhd medication, maybe he wouldn’t have committed a crime of vandalism that was totally impulsive and out of character even for him.
Thank you for offering your perspective here. It’s encouraging to those folks still in the trenches. All best wishes to you.