I have mixed feelings about medicating my child.
As I have discussed previously, my son has various issues, ADHD, High functioning Autism, Tourette’s Syndrome and OCD to name a few.
To me though, he is just my boy, with quirks! Or that is how I saw it for the majority of his younger years.
As he gets older (he is now a 13 year old teenager), he is more self-aware and understands that his issues are causing him problems with making and keeping friends. He is also frustrated that he can’t produce the same amount of work as the other children around him at school even though he feels he knows the answers to the questions being asked of him, but can’t put it down on paper.
He decided that he wanted help from the doctors to change his life, hopefully for the better.
With this in mind, for the last couple of years, we have been pushing to get him seen by a paediatrician for medical help.
Medicines however are serious and shouldn’t be taken lightly. They alter the chemicals of the body; in Owen’s case, specifically the brain. I am not sure I like the idea of his brain being altered. I always said when he was younger that I would not medicate my son, I just wanted extra support for him in his lessons. But now he has decided he wants to take medicine to help, so I agreed.
The hardest thing is deciding which issue to treat. OCD is treated with antidepressants, ADHD with stimulants, Tourette’s with blood pressure meds! They are all so different, how do you choose? Well, we decided with the help of the doctor to try and treat the issue that was causing the most problems in his life right now, which is the ADHD. ADHD causes issues with temper and concentration, affecting his school life dramatically.
We started out on our medicinal journey with Methylphenidate Hydrochloride, a powerful short acting stimulant. This was taken 3 times a day at 4 hourly intervals, the first dose being at breakfast. After a few days, he started to have manic moments and at one point he had a serious crash and started talking about suicide! At this point I took the decision to stop the medication immediately. I took him to hospital as he was in such a mess emotionally. They admitted him for observation and after a 36 hour assessment, they deemed him safe to come home and it was decided that he had experienced a bad reaction to the medication.
Back to the doctor we went. The doctor decided that we should try to use the blood pressure meds next as they can help to calm people down, helping some with ADHD and also Tourette’s Syndrome. Surely this would be the perfect combination, right? Wrong! These meds caused serious dizzy spells and he had a black out at one point due to the low blood pressure.
Back to the doctor! We are now on a medicine called Elvanse. It is a long acting stimulant. So far, we have had a really good response from it, although the first couple of days were a bit iffy. The first day he was high on life! (Very worrying from my point of view as you have to remember these drugs are stimulants, ie speed!). The second day he crashed. But by the third day, he levelled out and has been great on it for a couple of weeks now. He has been able to produce work at school, achieving an award for the amount of work created in his English subject.
On the weekends we do have to make sure he wakes up early and takes it so that he isn’t struggling to sleep at night. He is still a typical teen and likes a lie in on the weekends so this is something we have to keep on top of. I am unsure if they can have a break from taking the meds on the weekend, I have seen posts online where people only take the meds during the weekdays when they need to be able to concentrate and have a break when they don’t but I will need to clarify this with the doctor.
We are going abroad next week for a holiday and I have been told that I need to get a letter from the doctor about the meds as they are a controlled drug which could mean I would be arrested if found to have them on my person without proof that they are prescribed for my son! I have requested a letter from the hospital, but it hasn’t arrived yet so I am nervous about this.
How do I feel about medicating my son now? I am still in two minds about it. I think he could be helped in other ways if he had extra support in school, but due to financial restrictions they say that they cannot offer this to my son. I have home-schooled him in the past, but he prefers to be in a school environment with his friends, so I have let him choose for himself. He is 13 and knows his own mind. The meds are definitely helping at this point so I am happy for him to continue with them, however I keep a close eye on his behaviour as I have seen first-hand just how dangerous they can be.
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