I have so many questions to ask and I'm not certain where to begin. I just wanted to tell symptoms that we've experienced to see if anyone else has seen these things as well. Sometimes I wonder if we are dealing with some other problem as well.

We've suspected Jake to have ADHD for sometime and we made excuses for a while until last school year we got a call from his teacher. It seems that she had the same ideas we had. We tested him - using the Conner's test and came up with virtuallythe same answers. We tried changing his diet and and some other modification through the summer and had no luck.

Two weeks ago we took him to the Doctor and she felt the same - Jake has ADHD. I was heartbroken and relieved all at the same time. I didn't like the idea of medicating him everyday but I was finally glad we had an answer to his behaviors.

Some examples of his behaviors: Constant sounds, fidgeting, mood swings (cries at the drop of a hat), easily distracted, doesn't listen, forgets everything, the only things that hold his interest is TV and video games (he's never played with toys), easily angered - sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night crying hysterically and doesn't know why.

I'm sure there is more and I just can't remember everything at the moment.

Oh one other thing - he bores easily at school - although he claims the work to be difficult and he often forgets homework or library books. He always tests high and makes A's. By Christmas last year he had already met his reading and math goals for the year (so the teacher said) after Christmas break - his grades dropped, he was constantly in trouble and was always crying - to say the least we were very concerned and confused.

Socially - not so good. He's either too perky for his friends or they just don't understand him. He's got and adult sense of humor has always had. The teacher said that he didn't have one specific person at school that he was friends with - he would bounce from group to group.

Well, that's the most of it in a nut shell - is this typically ADHD - do others have similar situations in their homes.

Thanks!

Hi there,

I don't have time to respond to all of your questions, but did have a few things that jumped out at me from your post:


sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night crying hysterically and doesn't know why.

This sounds like night terrors (different from nightmares, because with night terrors, you don't remember what upset you so much). This is not usually associated with ADHD.

Are the constant sounds repetative? This could be something from the autism spectrum, but could also be ADHD. The easily angered part - that can fit in almost any category of diagnosis, but is the one most likely to need to be addressed very soon. Have you looked at pediatric bipolar disorder? I truly don't know if your son meets all the criteria - but you might want to have his doc evaluate him for this.

I wish you luck.

At Heart

Thanks for the reply. The repetitive sounds are things that sound like a service truch backing up. That beep, beep kind of thing. Bipolar is something that has crossed my mind. It's almost more than I can deal with at one time. I wondered about seeing how the meds are in about a month and evaluate where we are at that time.

Also - it cold very well be night terrors. I had also wondered about anxiety. My husband suffers from anxiety attacks and wondered if Jake could be doing the same.

... fidgeting, mood swings (cries at the drop of a hat), easily distracted, doesn't listen, forgets everything, the only things that hold his interest is TV and video games... easily angered...
These sound exactly like my 5 y/o. He's in the process of being evaluated - the dr believes adhd is pretty obvious, he's scheduled to be tested.

..sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night crying hysterically and doesn't know why.
My son has had recurring nightmares since he was 3. The dr asked some specific questions to determine if it was "night terrors" or not - NOT in my son's case (he remembers the dream and tells me about it, is anxious and scared but doesn't cry, goes right back to sleep) - your description of your son sounds exactly like night-terrors, though.

Anxiety is definitely a possibility with my son also, and something the dr plans to address in individual therapy. He has what she called "catastrophic thinking" and asks constant "what if" questions - all about negative outcomes. I've suffered from anxiety all my life, even as a very young child, so this wouldn't be surprising. Strange thing is, I never suspected it in my son because he is so outgoing (WAY-out and always going), friendly and seemingly unafraid on the surface - - but I am finding that there is a lot more going on on the inside. The nightmares were probably the first evidence of this.

It sounds (to me anyway) more like a form of autisum, possibly Asperger's. Alot of the signs and symptons overlap, and many kids are (incorrectly) dxed as ADHD before Asperger's. I know, that's the way we went.

It aslo could be more then one thing. Having ADHD doesn't make you immune to other disoders (don't we all wish). I would recomend a pediatric psych over a regular doctor. They have much more exprence and knowledge in dealing with these things.


Oh, and sorry for the lousy spelling, it's still early here. :)

The way my mother still describes my schooling was that I was an "A" student at the beginning and at the end of the school year, but could barely pull "C"s in the middle. The Docs that we talked to at the time was really leaning towards Seasonal Depression Syndrome, of course my mother did her famous "not in MY family" line with that and tried to tell me to "buckle down harder".

For an ADHD child, life is tough. It is toss of the dice everyday at school to see if I remembered everything or if I did all of my homework. Teachers have never been kind to the kid that uses the "I forgot" line too many times for their taste. Other kids start thinking of the ADHD as quirky and weird. It is damn depressing. Try to remember that when you are dealing with your son and his moods swings. Remember, it is very common for an ADHD-er to get down with the "what's wrong now" attitude that easily developes from constantly not living up to others expectations and letting them down when they are relying on you.

must say your child sounds very much like ours..and funny enough ours is called jake too!! we had the night hysterics too and when these occured he just hid on the bathroom floor and we just couldnt reach him mentally he was like something possessed it was really scary, he couldnt bear to be touched or anything we just had to ride them out, our jake is now 8 and just been put on meds and he is alot calmer, he still gets very anxious about things and has to have things done in a very certain way or flips out totally, like if someone puts tomato sauce on his plate and he dosent want it there is no way that even if you remove the sauce he will not ever eat that dinner, he is also very particular about his clothes they have to feel right and be of a certain length or again he goes into a real state of panic, again he is very bright and can indeed do things set for much higher age than him but i believe alot of ADHD children are very clever, but unfortunately our jake cannot really cope in a class inviroment and has to be taught by a 1-1 support lady which he copes with better, anyway i hope all goes well for your jake and i would certainly get him seen by a pychotherapist or whatever they are called, weve been going thru an assesment with our jake for over 5 yrs to get the right diagnosis so it does take time but hang in there! after all i always think the mum or dad know best sometimes we knew from very very early on that jake was very different from our other 2 children.

I forgot that I replied to this one before, but this time I see that you asked things that I didn't answer.

You say that you are reluctant to medicate your child all the time. Talk to your doctor. The original doctor that we diagnosed our kids with suggested that we don't medicate them on the weekends, on holidays, or during summer vacation. I know that a lot will say that there is a question of consistency doing it that way, but we are very careful watching the kids to make sure that they aren't getting negative results from that. Someday it might come to the point when they are continously take meds, but it hasn't yet. Personally, I like it, it seems like the best of both worlds. They get the benefits from the meds in school and we get to evaluate them while they are off it in the summer. I think they also get the added benefit that they have less of a chance to build up any tolerance to the meds to keep the doseage down.

I realize that this isn't the answer for everyone and there are a lot of different kids with varying degrees of ADD and in different circumstances (for example, if one of my sons had daycare, we would have to medicate him to go there). But, if you have anxieties about medicating your son, talk to your doctor. This may just be an option.