I tried my son on Adderall xr 10mg after a horrible time in 3rd grade last year. My son was diagnosed at age 3 as ADHD, he is 9 now and last school year was the first year I have ever tried medication. I am not really sure that it helped him that much because in the end I found that the 3rd grade teacher was a bad teacher and other parents had similar problems as we did. I took him off of meds after 3 months because like clockwork every Sunday afternoon at the same time he had terrible stomach cramps. He could not sit up straight and he cried with the pain. I guess I am just venting to see if anyone else tried their child on meds and took them off and what were the effects. He seems to be doing fine as of now, just lots of energy as most boys his age has. He began 4th grade today, I guess only time will tell.

My younger brother took ritalin for about 2 weeks then stopped. He had horrible mood swings. Always crying, he would get so depressed that he talked about suicide (this was when he was about 5years old!!!) He was mean and violent, hitting and spitting while he would scream "You b*tch" at anyone who came near him. Then at age 9 he tried meds again, this time adderall xr. He was more able to focus but this med also made him suicidal, he told me things like he wanted to hang himself from his bunkbeds, he took toy guns and pointed them at his head and pulled the trigger and prayed to god to turn the toy gun into a real one. He told me that his meds made him feel like he was high on drugs. He was only taking them because his mother made him. Needless to say I was against it in the first place because he is not severe ADD at all. At most very very mild. He doesnt have any problems at home or school besides looking out the window and daydreaming a bit too much...but that wasnt interfereing with his learning or grades. Anyway my mom wouldnt take him off the med untill I did a project on ADHD for my psych class and made her read it. Then I well..... threatened???? ya I guess thats the right word lol...or no, intimidated, thats the word... I intimidated her into taking him off the meds. He has been med free ever since. He's now 11yrs old. He gets A's & B's in school, is highly creative and intelligent. He doesnt place to take meds ever again because he thinks "it takes away a piece of your soul" Now he's the happy daydreamer that he was meant to be. If medications have side effects that you or your child can't deal with then taking them off the med is definantly the way to go. Of course you should talk to a doc or pharmacist about it because some meds need to be tappered down to lower doses before quitting.