My 15 year old son has a diagnosis of inattentive ADHD,got it when he was 13. He chose not to medicate at that time as we were managing at home (I'm a Paediatric OT so that helps!).
Come to this April and he didn't do great in his mock exams...he put so much pressure on himself expecting 6s and cried when he got 3s and 4s. In one paper,upon reflection,he missed out on a 5 because he'd not read 2 questions properly. He also did very poorly in History,his favourite subject,because he misread the question. He also said he had a lot of time left at the end of the majority of them which made me think he'd rushed them.
I arranged an appt with a psychiatrist to discuss trialling meds to see if they helped his focus. My son had to be present and he got completely freaked out about the side effects. I've explained that some of them probably happen to about 1in 1000 people but he's still a bit anxious. I've reassured him that I'll be keeping a close eye on him and monitoring him and if there's any dodgy side effects, we'll stop them. I've also said he doesn't have to try them but as a parent,if I think something is going to help him achieve his potential,I am going to be in favour of it.
Any tips on how I can get him to be less anxious and panicky about this. I'd really hate for him not to try them and then for the GCSE year be really tough for him and end badly.