twistedingenue:

star-anise:

clevermanka:

mckitterick:

Hey, ADHD folks, some advice please?

My 5-year-old nephew was just diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, and his teacher wants him to go on meds to ease classroom management. He and my brother are really hesitant about that.

What’s it like for such a young kid to go on ADD meds? Good or bad idea? I mean, I really wish I’d started back in my teens or twenties (geez, that would have helped), but at five one’s brain is barely finished forming…

Advice?

My dude’s brother and nephew could use some advice if you’ve got it.

So, I’m a masters-level psychotherapist, and I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 23. A lot of my work concerns adults with ADHD, though I’ve spent some time in multidisciplinary clinic settings that treated kids 0-5 with mental health concerns. Medicating at this age is very normal. I was never medicated as a child, but I can talk some about what growing up with ADHD is like and a bit about what being medicated is like.

Keep reading

I started medication when I was 6. As much as I still have problems now (because ADHD is lifelong and can get worse as you get older) I can’t imagine how much worse I would be if I was unmedicated as a child.

I have very few memories as a kid, but my mother relates how coming back from an overnight girl scout trip, she forgot to give me my meds. I was ….insufferable apparently. Enough that she stopped, and gave them to me.

Twenty minutes later, I can stay in my seat, hold a conversation, and read my book. Like I wanted to do in the first place.

Now, imagine that during the school day.