I have ADD and I believe that my daughters do as well. My oldest's teacher has even agreed with me that she probably has it. I was diagnosed once by my therapist 15 years ago and more recently by a specialist. I take Adderall, but do not feel comfortable putting my daughter on it. She is inattentive and I would like to try other strategies first.

My meds help me, but I can function pretty well without it if I have structure.

Anyway, I can take her to the specialist, but at this time, since I don't want meds, I am not planning on it.

I told my X husband about what I thought and some strategies I was using and he went ballistic. He said that I should never have talked to my daughter about this as it was putting a negative label on her. I bought a book that discussed Add and young girls and she and I looked at it together.

I feel that it was a relief to her to know why she was having so many problems with organization. It was a major relief to me to find out.

How are any of you dealing with non believers and people who don't support??

Thanks,
Shelley

I'm still figuring all this out because it is new to us and to our family but
my daughter (and I) were just diagnosed with ADD. My husband seems to feel I have it but isn't so sure my daughter has it and is not crazy about the fact that she is trying medication and isn't supportive of it. I am the one that is home with the kids and around them the most and I insisted on the testing and trying meds, etc. I just stood up to him and said we need to try this to see if it makes a difference and a few months from now look back at how things have been going. I am absolutely certain HE has ADHD really bad, but he scoffs at me when I try to say that. His mother tells me he was an "exhausting" child to raise and she doesn't know how I keep up with him. He is one of those people that has managed to channel the ADHD in a positive way - meaning very organized and busy and out-going and popular and he makes a lot of money working two full-time jobs and several free-lance jobs and is constantly on the go and juggling a million things at once. He is actually exhausting to be around and at age 50 I don't see him changing. If he has a day off we all HAVE to be doing something or going somewhere. My daughter and I are the ADD - relaxed, inattentive, daydreaming type so both of us I think are frustrating to him. My three sons I think are going to take after my husband. At ages 8, 4 and 3 months (yes, three months) I see three little carbon copies of him so maybe when his sons are older he will understand what I (and his mother) deal with.

Shelley...I read your post again and saw you mentioned you didn't want your daughter to go on meds yet. I'm 40 and just started meds myself at the same time as my daughter. I have 40 years of bad habits to try and undo, my daughter is seeing positive results right now. SHe will be 11 years old in a couple of months and I wanted to tell you she started Adderall XR a few weeks ago and she calls it her "happy pill". She used to get frustrated and stressed out and called herself stupid a lot. She is the inattentive daydreamer type to. For the first time she has a clean and organized bedroom and closet (chose to take on the task herself about the third day of being on meds) her grades have improved in math and spelling and she is keeping her backpack and locker clean and organized. Her teacher (not knowing about the meds) commented to me the other day about how relaxed and happy she has been at school and how she is doing better schoolwork. I'm just thankful that she isn't frustrated with herself and stressed out anymore.

An ex...well stop any logical discussion there!

First thing I would do, is get a proper assessment. Yes, kids want to know. I would have wanted to know. You get called a lot of names being an ADHD kid. Meds is a secondary issue as is a school based identification.