Hi everyone,
Im new to this forum and I have been reading information on the net so much my eyes are burning out of my head. I am very stressed out with my daughters ADHD problems. I have known myself in my heart of hearts for a very long time that she had ADHD. Offically my daughter was diagnosed with ADHD in January this year. I believe I have ADD as well. This runs in my family as my brother was also diagnosed with ADHD. My concern now it the medicationsa and what they can do. My daughter was diagnosed with ADHD, Tourette's, chronic anxiety and I believe depression. I know that the depression is one of my main concerns. I dont remember if her paperwork said depression too but she is definitely having depression issues. She has been on the Straterra for about 5 weeks. I have been thinking she was doing better because her grades have improved, her homework efforts have improved, her chores efforts have improved and her handwritten has improved. However... my world came crashing down this passed Friday when I received a call from her teacher who stated she is doing worse then ever. I hadnt received a call from the teacher since she began the meds and the grades were so good it was unexpected. My daughter is having huge hysterical fits in the classroom and the teacher cant calm her. My daughter claims everyone hates her and is making fun of her. I have witnessed my daughter being paraniod about stuff like that so I dont fully believe what she is saying. However... I know she wouldnt deliberately lie. She is has been exhibiting almost schizophrenic type behaviors over the passed few months and Im very concerned. She was always so normal but inattentive and withdrawn and shy. Now she seems to be snapping. I cant put her on stimulant drugs because they make Tourettes worse. I dont know what to do. Im very upset... any opinions

Butterfly,

I hope everything is going better for you now. I see that it has been a while since you have posted anything. My son has been on Strattera for a month now and everytime I relax and think things are getting better, something will come along and blind-side me too. He was diagnosed ADD in early march and I hope things will turn around for us soon. This problem can sure take a heavy toll on the add person and the whole family. Let me know how you're doing.

Hopeful

Wow...wonder how we all missed this post!!!!

Indeed, I hope all is better now. Please let us know!

After you've attended to you daughter's emotional troubles, please don't forget to find out why it took the teacher so long to alert you to your daughter's classroom behavior issues. I think a call to the school is definitely in order.

Something about the classroom situation you described doesn't feel right to me for some reason. Why wouldn't the teacher notify you immediatley, when it is apparently such a big deal. I think you are right in believing your daughter. The poor child undoubtedly feels ambushed by her teacher's report. I will hazard a guess that the teacher is not doing everthing possible to protect your child from other students.

Be careful about writing off your daughter's account of the way she is treated as paranoia, even though she may have exhibited paranoid symptoms before. You are her strongest advocate. I strongly advise you to err on the side of caution, because if the child feels she is fighting her battle alone, the situation will not likely improve.

Good luck to you!

Butterfly,

First, I apologize for not seeing your post a lot sooner. Second always feel free to pm a moderator if you need to.

Is your daughter also in counseling? You should also contact the doctor right away and let him/her in on what is going on. Meds in treating AD/HD is good but counseling is also a must. You cannot rely on one alone.

I don't know if you have been checked out the web-sites available either. BIG has a web-site (which you can access from his post above) that is very helpful and so does livingwithadd.

Does your child have an IEP (individual education plan) at school? For more one on one help in the classrom.

PM me today if you need to. I'll give you some more information if you don't find it here on the site.

________________________________________________

As I am very lazy when it comes to typing so I have created a welcome page and ADDed a link here to get you there

My Welcome Page (http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3345)

Garry

________________________________________________

I hope things are going better now. My ds has off days too and I hope that what her situation was. I would offer a hug, but I can't find the hug smiley. Hugs to you anyway.

Ginger

Strattera may not be "classified" as a stimulant drug, but rest assured it is one. Norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor? It makes your brain's natural excitatory nuerotransmitter last longer. Norepinephrine is close cousin to adrenaline. Bottom line, this stuff when I was on it, and I have a history of anxiety, had me hopped up as hell. I ran six miles after not running at all for several months and I did it on a three degree incline and enjoyed it. That's a pretty good amount of kick considering amphetamines don't do that too me. It also made me jumpy as hell and I had been reducing my ant-anxiety dosage. Had to increase it again to compensate.

I'm no doctor, and only a doctor is qualified to make the call for sure but I will certainly share my opinion. First of all, I think strattera is yucky as hell. Especially for people with anxiety disorders. However, if you must use it because of the Tics from tourettes, try changing med balances, or dosages for the anxiety meds. Naturally you need to do this through your doctor. I advise against the quick acting anxiety drugs like xanax. They are quick, but they are also loaded with side effects, they can fog you up quite a bit, and they wear off fast too. Better to take the time to find a long acting that works and stick with it. It took me two and a half years to find lexapro but I did and I am in full remission from all my anxiety sypmtoms from three different disorders and have been for some time now. It continued to work on the strattera too, though I did have to return to a higher dose to keep it working. I quit taking strattera because for me the side effects were intolerable.

Last thing I will say is this. If you have not spoken specifically with an ADD expert regarding the Specifics of your daughter's case, and I don't mean someone with a sign on their door that says they are a specialist, I mean someone up to date who you can quiz on current studies and standard of care and get answers that whether they agree or not will at least show they are reading the literature. This would be the time to do so. The reason being is that some med mixes actually allow more tolerance that is traditionally thought for certain meds with certain disorders. A very good example would be bipolar disorder and stimulants. Traditionally one does not treat an Adder with co-morbid bi-polar disorder with stimulants under any circumstances. However, Doctor Biederman at Mass general, I think it's Mass general anyway, has shown that if you stablize the mood disorder first, that you can then agressively treat the ADD with stimulant meds and they don't cause any distress or mania. In fact, this particular subset of ADDers has a better prognosis than the others because the end result is stable. For some reason they find it very easy to maintain once they are gotten this far.

Perhaps, there is a similar combination treatment available for your daughter in which she could recieve stimulants without aggravating her tourettes?

That is probably a bit much to hope for, but the point is, you never know until you do the research and make sure your doc has done it, will do it, or your new doc has done it. :-)

Oh, almost forgot! I'm with FlakeyGirl on this one too. While I think the sudden excess of norepinephrine in your daughter's brain is probably giving her wicked bad anxiety attacks for sure, I don't doubt for one minute she is telling the truth about the rest. Anxiety, is not psychosis. Her perception of reality is fine, as you well know and the school is going to try to down play this delay big time. Morbid curiousity on the part of the teacher maybe? I would suggest getting the story straight from your daughter. Listen to it and don't question it. She isn't goint to lie. She is going to be desperate for you to believe her though. DON'T LET HER DOWN! If at any time you doubt there is an easy litmus test. Pretend you are a teenager again. What would you gain by lying? She has nothing to gain. Nothing at all. They will say attention, but no teenage girl in her in her right mind wants this kind of attention (and yes I know I used that phrase and no it wasn't a joke, your daughter is perfectly sane Dear these disorders are nuerological in origin not psychological). So, take her word for it and if it turns out that the teacher in question allowed these things to happen when he or she shouldn't have take it to their ***! The will naturally deny this, to which you simply say your daughter told you other wise. Then comments will be made regarding her behavior. This is where you can slam dunk them. If you want to be really nasty always carry a digital recorder on your person recording the conversations that take place and then transfer it to a tape later. This is the part where you explain what exactly her disorder is and is not, and what perhaps the problem is. Then you directly ask why it took the teacher as long as it did to contact you. Maybe before the meeting get some names of other kids in class from your daughter or something. Try looking up the last names in the phone book to see if you can locate parents. Just to see what information from third parties present you can gather. You can record the phone conversations too, but ask permission to do that. Anyway, the idea is to get to the bottom of this and get the truth before they cover any butts. For them the stakes are high, don't think that some of these people aren't above overlooking a little wrongdoing to protect their interests.

Strattera is a nightmare drug! That is my honest belief. When we changed my son to it he got violent. He at 71/2 cracked my ribs and almost gave me a concussion. we got him back on adderall and things have gotten better but we lost a whole 9 wks. in school because of the stuff. Talk to you dr. and my advice is get her off the stuff try another med.

what works for some doesn't work for others -

everyone is different - straterra works for my son where adderall xr did not - for me that was the nightmare drug

just keep plugging along - something will work

I agree completely.

In one of his postings, E-Boy talks about bi-polar and stimulant drugs....I was going to pass that information on as well. You say your daughter seems depressed...Have you had her evaluated for Bi-polar? Sometimes you really have to get the bi-polar under control first and then tackle the ADHD. And, by the way, Strattera takes 4-6 weeks to build up in the system and may take quite a bit of tweeking to get the dosage right - she might not be getting the full dosage of the medication yet??

Best of luck to you both,

Well, back to the dr again - on straterra 60mgs upped to 80 mgs and added concerta 27mg. my son said it was making him feel the same as when he was on adderall xr. dr dropped the concerta and put him back to 60mgs straterra - but with this the dr has not seen any change in focusing - just temperment under control. he has no interest in finishing school for the year - says it's no big deal. he could possibly pass for the year - with the exception of algebra, he could need to take 2 classes in summer school or he could possibly fail for the year. it is very hard to tell what mode his teachers are in. at different points of the year they have been tremendously understanding - but at other points they have been ready to break him!

i am running thin on patience with all of this - i know sometimes it can take months/year to get under control - but it's now to the point where i want to see my old kid back and see if that's a better situation - no meds!

thanks for any input - i needed to vent this morning - as he is in bed with no desire to get up - only 9 days of school left.