Please hold my hand and tell me your experiences of Inattentive ADHD

[westcoastnortherner]

My DD 8 has just been given a diagnosis of Inattentive ADHD, by a pediatrician, we have been told to read about the condition, take her to see an educational psychologist and consider medication. I live in Canada, but I am originally from the UK.

Does anyone have any advice or experience of this condition and how does the medication affect your child?

[streakybacon]

Ds has inattentive adhd, along with autism. Medication is effective in helping him to focus, limit his impulsivity, and it allows him to engage far better than he did without it. But it's not a cure and the problems are still there, just to a lesser degree.

It's different for everyone though. It depends on the individual's presentation of the condition, the various medications, dosages etc, and how the individual responds. And of course which other support methods are in place at the same time. The only way to find out if it works for you and yours is to try it. Short term options are better as a starting point than longer duration medications (especially those that build up) as you can stop them immediately if any adverse side-effects appear. Most psychiatrists would start on low doses of short acting drugs for this reason.

[ADHDCoach]

Hi,

Many children, particularly girls, are not identified as being ADHD because of the less hyper-active, more inattentive nature. Of course the same applies to many less-hyper boys too.By adulthood most people are classified as combined type, meaning moving between the two states of ADHD, some may spend most time in inattentive but can be quite hyper in speech or when excitedl; others mainly hyper until addictions, struggles, exhaustion slow them, and then seem classic inattentive. All shades of:

hyperactive full-of-energy, positive, charismatic, trouble
inattentive procrastinating, information crazy or TV/Apps/games/books/facebook, dreamy

But underlying this all is the same ADHD neurology, a brain that is different to "average/normal" brains due in large part to a highly heritable genetic difference in how dopamine and nor-adrenaline (nor-epinephrine) are processed in the brain. I am an adult with ADHD and also an Adult ADHD Coach, if you are interested please have a look at a new video I made about what it is to be ADHD and how our particular set of negative and positive traits can affect us.

YouTube Film: The Integrated Model of ADHD (6 mins)

Once you get the basics of ADHD, about low dopamine, under stimulated minds - so more easily bored and distracted, less emotionally controlled, poor time sense (tend to be late, fail to plan and think ahead, procrastination), more maverick (a little less socially compliant, more likely to challenge authority - often for good reason!), and usually more creative, intuitive, funny, verbal, empathetic and able to see the big picture. If your child is ADHD/ADD the odds are likely that at least one parent is too as ADHD is as genetically inherited as height, so it might be a chance for one of you to get some help too.

Hope that helps

Andrew Lewis (ADHD myself, diagnosed at 42)
Adult ADHD Coach
//www.SimplyWellbeing.com

[NotCopingWithSchool]

As well as medication do a lot of reading about supplements.

Particularly zinc, magnesium, omega, B12.....

And a lot of reading about diet as well.

[willitbe]

My ds age 10 was diagnosed with ADHD inattentive type last year. After much debated and research we finally gave in to pressure and gave a trial of Ritalin. I was going to refuse to give it any longer than 6 weeks.

Trouble is the med's actually worked. The school were amazed, instant improvement in concentration and participation in class. At home it is very noticeable the difference between when med's are working and when not. We also had none of the horrible side effects that we were concerned might happen.

We have tried two versions of the longer acting Ritalin, but they have not worked, so we are sticking with the short acting.

In slight contradiction to the previous poster, neither my dh or I have ADHD.

[popgoestheweezel]

Interesting reading her, we go to Camhs tomorrow to see if they are confirming ADHD for ds. He already has dx of PDA/asd. If confirmed psych has said he will recommend trial of medication. I have very mixed feelings about medication, but we are pretty desperate.

[westcoastnortherner]

Thanks everyone, I am fairly sure that I too might have it