My son is 16 with ADD, he is a good kid, not too many behavior problems, in fact most of his teachers think he is great! His main issue is focus. He has been that way since he was born. He is in special education in the 11th grade. He has a teacher this year who he had last year. Last year he had her for science this year for english comp (go figure) Anyway, she has been a thorn in his side since school started this year. (He has reacted to her attitude toward him ...she complains that he didnt turn in an assignment so she gave him detention to do it and he decided he didnt have to go cuz he was going to do it at home and he put his head down in class) She has told him that if he does not take his medication, he will fail her class. I don' t know how I should handle this. I do not want my kid to feel he is inadiquate without meds. He refuses to take any because he does not like the way it makes him feel. He doesn't want to be a "Zombie". I don't make him take it-I just opened up to the idea of meds last year and tried to get him to take them. I tried to get him to try them but he did one day and then tongued it for about 6 weeks. I was uping the dose because I didn't see any effect. Anyway-this teacher was aware of the fact that we were trying the drugs and now feels she cannot handle him the way he is. I am going to call her today and get her side of the story-I did get a message from her on my answering machine where she did mention that he said he is not taking his medication, she just wanted me to know. If anyone has any response as a parent dealing with the school system, I would like your input. Thanks

I would like to personally punch the teacher's lights out myself. Sounds creepy and mean to make an issue of his meds like that. I cannot imagine any of the teachers here reacting that way....

What meds is your son on? How do they make him feel? Do they help him at all? What is this about him being a "zombie"? Has he tried any other meds/doses/dose schedules?

Sorry to fire questions at you, but I am hoping to clarify this to give a good reply :).

He was on Strattera about 3 years ago. They did not do much for his ADD at all. We then last year tried Concerta. He tried it one day and did not like the effect. It made him feel weird so he pretended to take it until I finally caught on. I do not want to make him take any drug that makes him have an undesirable feeling to him. After all, he's in his body all day, not me! His teacher thought he was taking it I guess because we had discussed it last year with her that we were going to try meds. He doesnt have any bahaviour problems other than typical teen issues-his worst issue is focus and if he is not interested in a subject is even harder for him to focus. He gets decent grades and most of his teachers like him and say he is very respectful and funny and a good kid. He has those few, like this teacher who has trouble or there can be trouble if there is a bad group of kids in a class with him and they feed off of eachother. I am going to call the school today and see about switching his teacher. This is probably an english credit so he will still need the class.