Teen diagnosed with ADD confused and a little lost....and that is just me!

[Hmmmokthen]

My son (I am going to call him Fred) is nearly 16 and we have always known he could be diagnosed with ADHD. We chose not to pursue this as on the whole we all managed. However, Fred is not coping with the increased expectation of independence at school now. We were referred to a Paed on another matter and she instantly asked re ADHD. Fred had already been diagnosed with dyslexia and part of that assessment demonstrated that he is really quite bright despite his lack of academic achievement. Anyway with my Fred's consent we and his teachers completed the Connors and he is clearly ADD (the H is less of an issue now he is older).

He does indulges in risk taking behaviour; everything from too much to drink in a public space (last night!), jumping out of tress (two weeks in hospital after that one) and has I am sure flirted with illegal drugs etc. He has little sense of self preservation and lacks brakes and has been known (!) to be rude to those in authority from teachers to Police. Of course he is rude to us too but it is hard to separate out what is 'normal' teen defiance. Achieving his 5 GCSEs is appearing more and more unlikely. Sometimes it feels as though he has made no progress at school since leaving Juniors with Level 5 sats. He has been on a 14 - 16 placement at the local Tech and his lecturers there acknowledge he is bored because the pace suits people who struggle to understand and therefore disruptive. A vocational course post 16 might cause a problem - I can't see Fred spending months how to lay bricks without throwing them around for example!

We are seeing the Paed tomorrow and I am sure she will want to start medication. Fred is not opposed to this, my husband and I are not sure what to think despite masses of reading.

Any advice would be welcomed. Stories of teens who started medication would help. Any thoughts about the questions we should be asking would be fantastic. He is just a couple of months before Exams - this feels really make or break.

[Hmmmokthen]

Oh I hope the Meds help your young man. I would say that Fred is still very fidgeting, more so than his siblings and still struggled with staying still. He did not manage to stay in the exam hall for a single one of his mocks. He was either sent out or begged to be allowed to go :(. He has however stopped some behaviours, mainly those which involve him hurting himself. I can see that his use of 'brakes' has improved over the past year so perhaps this will become less of a problem for your young man too?

My lad is year 11, I am guessing yours is year 10? I wish I had sorted this before. Fred is reasonably cooperative on the whole and talking this evening he said if the dr suggested Meds he would try them. I have been trying to think if advantages to having ad(h)d. Multitasking when in the working world might be one? Fred is also quite good at solving problems, if unable to do a BTec he is considering plumbing. I can imagine him being good at that once he has got over the hurdle of learning stuff in the first place.

[Hmmmokthen]

As an aside, son number one has aspergers. He is very happy now he works with people who share his interests! It is interesting to see the associations within families of different atypical ways of working.

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We shall see what the paed. says in an hour or so. Thanks Mary, you are right we have tried all the non med options. Will come back later with the results of our appointment.

[lougle]

I hope it goes well for you!

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Well Fred now has Ritalin 10 mg. he took one this morning (at home with his dad) and has texted saying he is able to concentrate on what he is doing!!!!!!

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I do feel a bit like that. The rest of me is just furious that I did not sort this out before.

Btw Fred Asked me if it was placebo!!!! I said probably not but who cares!

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Two times a day for now with a review in four weeks. Next step is to find out if gp will prescribe it as not many do apparently. Then we will have to consider post 16 prescribing. Anyway, a lot of finding out to do before we worry about any of that. Will it help Fred at school? We shall see.