goingcrazy24

MoMoF1bOy5
Recently my son had a major melt down and to be honest I thought I saw the devil. I had to sit on him to dress him and he refused to take his medications. That day we had a check up with his pediatrician and my son preoceeded to tell him that Nobody Can Make Him Stop Being Bad... I cried for 3 days just for the overwhelming thought of not knowing my child anymore.
Then he met with a psyciatrist and they have now deemed him as Severe ADHD, ODD, and a Mood Disorder as they don't want to lable him Bipolar. He is on 30mg of Adderall XR and 1mg of Risperdal. He still isn't sleeping or eating very much and is still very aggressive. I am looking into getting him into a behavorial Specialist maybe that may lead to something better.
The hard part is that I am a single mother working 2 jobs to try and maintain a normal life but now I have to quit my day job to maintain him. I am also on the verge of loosing my 2nd job and I don't know what to do anymore... I am trying with all I got and advice would be great......
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
Many parents have noted that stimulants can make a child with a mood disorder much worse. I would strongly consider calling the prescribing physician and let him/her know about difficult child's behaviors if I were you. How is school going?
 

SRL

Active Member
Sorry things are so tough right now.

Is a psychiatrist the only specialist that has seen him? We really recommend developmental pediatricians and/or pediatric neuropsychologists for the young ones. Psychaiatrist tend to jump into medications right away without doing the more extensive testing you would find at the other specialty areas.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Rather than a Behavioral Specialist, I'd take him to a neuropsychologist for a new evaluation (they re very intensive). If he has a childhood disorder (neurological) or an emerging mental illness, it will be hard to make him follow a behaviorist. I'd want to know the real problems in detail before I went that route. The earlier you get to the root cause, the better it is for the child. Many of our kids started out with an ADHD/ODD diagnosis., but very often that wasn't right, and the diagnosis. turns out to be something else. Because it's so hard to rightly diagnosis. a very young 'un, the medications given can be wrong and maybe not even needed. We had the same experience with our son. He was on Ritalin at three. If I could go back in time, I would have waited until he was a bit older and had a better diagnosis...he is not ADHD, although it looked like it when he was very young. In hindsight, I'd be much more careful about trusting anyone who diagnosed my son before thoroughly evaluating him, and therapists don't do that. Only NeuroPsychs do and some hospitals that have MDE. Good luck.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I am so sorry. Things sound very difficult. But Welcome, I am glad you found us!

If your son has a mood disorder, treating that should be the first priority, other diagnosis's should be treated after the moods are stabilized. What they are giving you now is a medication that many, if not most, people with mood disorders find increases mood cycling (the stimulant) and a medicine to try to make him less aggressive (risperdal - and atypical antipsychotic medication).

They need to remove the stimulant and put your son on a mood stabilizer if they truly believe he has a mood disorder. It may even take 2 mood stabilizers to make him stable. After the moods are stable, medications for aggression like risperdal can be added if needed. And if he still had ADHD behaviors, stimulants can be cautiously trialed.

Many times the "ADHD" in kids with mood disorders disappears when moods are stabilized. This is because it can be a symptom of the mood disorder.

I really think you NEED to see a developmental pediatrician AND a neuropsychologist to try to figure out what is going on and the best way to treat it.

I wish you luck, this will be a long hard road.
 
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