Ds 11, ADHD, recently v. easily upset, crying almost daily, reconsider meds?

[ErnesttheBavarian]

I am going to try and make appt w. child psych, but usually long wait. in the meantime.....

Ds has in the past been prone to crying easily and struggles to deal with frustration, but atm is extreme. Class teacher concerned as he was crying in a test in class (she marked it straight away that break to see and he'd got top marks) he seems to be v. stressed and easily upset. Not good imo socially for 11 yr old boy to be crying so much/easily. Also quickly wound up and fighting with siblings. STarted secondary school in September, but this is more this year, don't know why. Obv tried to talk to him and he can't shed any light on it.

Tried him yesterday without his ADHD med, but he wasn't transformed into sunny bubbly child, still stressed, fighting, easily crying.

Unsure if it would be helped by ditching/altering med, or just riding it out. No idea how to help him Anyone else got ideas?

My ds2 12 had a episode like this a few weeks ago, just crying over everything. He said he just couldn't stand his anger, he has taken to having a few minute punching a bean bag. It has helped and he is coming out the other end now. Ds was also like this last year, more after xmas like your ds, it turned out that in the second term the year 7's where expected to just get on with high school, unlike the first term where they where supported and had their own part of the outside space, it just stopped after xmas and it was just too stressful for ds2. I think it is also a bit of that this time too, he has had his dinner room time changed so he is in with all the older ones and he just can't handle it.
I wouldn't jump into changing the meds, that might do more bad than good. Does he talk about things much or is he like mine, a closed shell? Either way try and find a way of talking to him and seeing how he feels. It could well be a little bit of hormones too.

thanks. he has said a few times that he hates taking the meds, but I think it's more the idea of it iyswim. The few times he has been without med you can really see he hasn't had his med in terms of lack of impulse control, fighting, v difficult and negative behaviours which result in endless negative responses either from us or siblings (2 of whom also adhd/add, 1 with, 1 without med) so it's not like he has a wonderful experience without. It relay seems to confirm how much the med helps and supports him.

Good to hear you've experienced similar with yr ds, so with you it was a phase that you just rode out, or did you get onto the school and get more support in place there?

Really doesn't help that his older bro's fav. sport right now is mercilessly winding up all his siblings. You can feel his glow of pleasure as he gets his reaction