Just found your forum and hope you can help. My son was diagnoised with ADHD and anxiety 2 years ago(age 4) after a 2 week stay in the hospital for pluersie. Was treated with Adderall ER and Prozac. Was taken off Adderall about 4 months ago. Dr. believed main problem was the anxiety and he didn't need to be on the Adderall. Got serious side effects with the Prozac after Adderall was out of his system. Made doctor take him off the Prozac. Got a second and third opinion and both believe he has ADD not ADHD and the anxiety. Now wants to put him on either Stratera or Provigil. I am not finding good or bad reports/opinions for either drug for his age group only adults. Does anyone have opinions for these drugs for this age?? I am really concerned on what I hear from adult usage of Stratera (side effects), but then hear really good results from it after body gets used to it. HELP!!:confused:

Welcome to the forums. :)

My son (he's 8) in currently taking Stratera and Tenex for his ADHD and Asperger's. We've had good results. After failed attempts with Adderal, Concerta, and Daytrana, this dosage and combo is working well. There are people who have had a bad time with it, but everyone reacts differently to medication. I always keep a close eye on my kids when they are taking any medication, which is how we discovered the penicillin allergy in both boys.

I would suggest you talk to the Dr about your concerns. Ask is it's been tested in children, and how young. Any dr that gets angry or frustrated with you for wanted to know more probably isn't a dr you want to be seeing anyway (my opinion).

Can you get psychological help with the anxiety? Look up Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). We did that for school anxiety and general anxiety issues with a psychologist and it works. It is hard to tell if its attention or avoidance due to attention. We still haven't figured it out yet. Could be both.

God that sucks.

How does one diagnose anxiety in a 4 year old? Could you explain some of his symptoms? I'm not skeptical at all I'm just really interested.. I've had anxiety my whole life too but recently have believed its just related to my ADHD.

re: 4

Probably they would look for key indicators such as "separation anxiety" and "avoidance" behaviors.

Anxiety seems to be somehow related to ADD, in some people.

Anxiety is known to cause memory problems, etc. (e.g. cortisol and the HPA axis affect the hippocampus (memory storage/learning) and frontal lobes (where ADD/EF problems can occur).

A common experience is "test anxiety". Stress is too overwhelming and people's brain (recall/recognition) shuts down and they "blank out" on an exam.

Pleurisy is a lung condition similar to pneumonia. IIRC, it is inflammation of the pleural cavity. When you listen to the lungs, it sounds like two pieces of leather being rubbed together. The pleural cavity holds the lungs. (The design is set up to ensure the breathing system can maintain the "negative pressure" needed for breathing.)

Not being able to breathe could certainly cause anxiety.

I have worked with dying people (lung cancer; pulmonary fibrosis; COPD) and they often must be given anti-anxiety drugs [and even anti-psychotics] to calm them down, b/c their panic over breathing problems (sensation of suffocating/choking/chest pressure) is so high...

With being in the hospital, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic, seperation anxiety (from me), stranger anxiety (from all the doctors and nurses). He started having major issues at daycare with outburst whenever forced to join in groups or do learning exercises. When confronted by the teacher his anger(anxiety) will continue to build till he would finally "blow" and start hitting other children and his teacher (once almost gave her a black eye). We took him to counsling after talking to his peditrician, and that's when he got diagnosed. Counsling worked for a while but when he started kindergarten everything got worse. So then he was diagnosed with the ADHD with the anxiety and started medicine. The ADD was not allowing him to concentrate and stay still. He was always in constant motion (talking, leg moving, hand moving, walking). Because he couldn't stay focused on the work he was constantly reminded and the anxiety kicked in and the only outlet he knew was anger and hitting. And almost anything would set him off; kid next to him talking to themself, the letter they were learning, where he sat at the table, you just never knew where his "breaking" point was.