<p>My son has just been diagnosed with ADD in his junior year of college. He complained from the start of school about his inability to focus, but I thought it was all dorm distraction. His grades have been less then stellar, but not horrible. </p>
<p>After his extensive testing he was told that he did in fact have ADD, and to this point his high IQ has enabled him to get by. Next step, an appointment with a psychologist and medication. Has anyone elses child been through this? Has medication been of great help?</p>
<p>I have to say that this diagnosis explains alot about his childhood. It was really a full time job for me to keep him on track and motivated through out his school career. And some of his "quirks" now seem to make much more sense. It was just never considered because he did so well in school. I feel kind of guilty now...</p>
<p>Don’t feel guilty, I’ve had 40 year old co-workers who were recently diagnosed. If he’s a junior he’s chugging along well. Be prepared if he decides he doesn’t “like” the amphetamines and decides he doesn’t want to be medicated. Some kids don’t like the way it makes them feel and he may very well decide after a while that he’s made it this far.</p>
<p>Happydad’s stepsister was diagnosed in her first or second year of college. She tried several different medications and dosages before finding the one that she considers to be optimal. In her own words, this has been life changing. She is much happier on medication than she was before.</p>
<p>My friend has a very similar story in many regards - not diagnosed until Sophomore or Junior year in college, grades okay, not stellar, once he was diagnosed it explained years of struggle, etc. We just had dinner with them last week and she mentioned how painful it was to realize they overlooked it for so long and he was so unhappy the year before they tested him. Now he’s on medication and is doing fabulously, he’s happier, calmer, and doing better in school. You still have a little way to go but you’ve turned the corner.</p>
<p>helpfulmommy, gosh, do you have about 4 hours to chat about this? This really hits home. My son was diagnosed as ADHD of the inattentive type as a sophomore. Here’s his profile, and tell me if this doesn’t sound familiar: very bright student does awesome in elementary school, pretty well in HS then struggles in college. His intelligence allowed him to compensate for his lack of focus, but as the demands grew in college this was no longer possible. Being “of the inattentive type” he did not display the hyperactive qualities that teachers most easily recognize. In fact, ADHD inattentive is very difficult to see in smart kids. </p>
<p>When you speak of quirks, how many of these did he exhibit: hyperfocus on certain activities like Lego or gaming while seemingly unable to read an entire book? Poor hygiene? Poor organization? Lack of follow through? Yet amazingly creative, out of the box thinking?</p>
<p>Read “Driven from Distraction” and you will see your son on every page. The good news is that many of the world’s most creative, entrepreneurial minds are ADHD. </p>
<p>My son is taking Adderall and it helps. It is not a silver bullet, however. I wish it was but he still needs to learn proper study skills and organization. Sadly he’s burned up 1.5 years of college with correspondingly so-so grades. But he’s a young man with his whole life ahead of him. School can be difficult for these kids but my son excels at hands-on activities and labs that are of interest to him. I think he’ll be fine, but man, what a ride.</p>
<p>Beastman~That is exactly my DD, but she is still in high school. Very high IQ, very hard time with focus and organization. I don’t have much to say about the college aspect yet, but wanted to agree about trying several different meds if needed, and try to be patient. Due to other factors, DD was not on an ADD med until this year(junior year h.s.), but she is on a med that works wonders for her now.</p>
<p>My son is a Jr. and will be tested by his school this semester. I had to ask for it because I believe he has ADD (inattentive). Beastman’s description fits my s exactly as well! My hs aged d was diagnosed in the spring as was I! My pediatrician stated that It is was of the most under diagnosed disorders. It also runs in families. My d has responded quite well to medication and has completely turned her grades around. I am hoping for the same for s. As to the guilt…I too feel terrible about my kids’ struggles but this is only just starting to be recognizable. I hope that in the future elementary and jr high teachers will look more closely at those smart, well behaved kids who are disorganized and forget to hand in homework etc. It might save those kids and their families alot of heartache.</p>
<p>My son is in 11th grade and is ADHD inattentive. High IQ. Displays all the classic signs once you know what the signs are.</p>
<p>BE PATIENT. My son’s meds stopped working. He tried a few others, but had no patience for the tweek and changing to find the correct combo. We are not a happy family with him off the meds, but he is old enough to make this decision. Add to that the drug shortage for ADHD right now. </p>
<p>I suggest you look at CHADD and other groups. CHADD is a great resource for all ADD issues, including how us non-ADD types can live with those who have ADD.</p>
<p>No time for guilt. Treat this as you would a diagnosis of Diabetes. Learn as much as you can to educate your family. Try diet changes. Help him implement techniques along with meds. Help him understand the meds may be counterproductive, but don’t give up on them. With him at college, it will be more difficult to find the correct medication. My son was not also the best judge of what worked. Some drugs can create much “moodiness.”</p>
<p>Helpfulmommy, please don’t feel guilty! I felt the same way when D was diagnosed in August just before her freshman year in college. (Long story about why the testing happened just weeks before she left.) Same situation as others have described - high IQ and very disorganized and unfocused, but still managed to do fairly well in high school. </p>
<p>Biggest mistake we made was sending her off to school without meds - the psychologist said “let’s just see how she does.” It was apparent pretty quickly that the combination of a heavier college workload and her ADHD was a recipe for disaster. That’s when the fun began - trying to find a psychiatrist to prescribe meds, from 800 miles away. College health service initially wouldn’t give me a referral since they hadn’t made the diagnosis; the diagnosing psychologist didn’t know anyone in her college area. Then once we found a doc to evaluate her and prescribe, monitor, and tweak the meds, we had to deal with the insurance company because she was out of state. Lesson learned: if your S receives a diagnosis and meds before he starts college. you’ll be way better off than we were!</p>
<p>PRJ makes a good point on the troubles of dealing with this from a distance. My son’s university’s health service does a very thorough evaluation including IQ testing, learning style, ADHD testing etc etc but their wait list is EIGHT MONTHS. So we had the testing done at home, and thus his psychiatrist and prescriptions are at home. He can only see the psych while on break, which is not too often, and I have to monitor his need for prescriptions, get them filled - really a trick now with this bizarre shortage of meds - and send to son at school. Not ideal but seemed easier than him finding a psych in the town where he’s at school. </p>
<p>Another good reason for dealing with this before leaving is that it’s difficult for your child - and for you as his coach - to judge the effectiveness of the med, and to make tweaks, without the two of you in the same place and time. I spent the whole first semester asking, hey, how’s it going? Good. Need to tweak dosage? No. But then he has a panic attack in an exam and his psych recommends cutting the dosage. These things are all easier if your kid is at home.</p>
<p>Another one here with a nearly identical story…son with very high IQ, good grades in HS but was often said to not being reaching his full potential. Continued to complain about not being about to focus and we finally had him tested between freshman and sophomore year of college. Yep…he has the inattentive type. I burst into tears when the psychologist told us his IQ put him in the top 1% of all people and it was only because of that he was able to compensate all those years. I still feel guilty that we didn’t have him tested earlier but many of the ‘signs’ regarding academic performance just weren’t there (and he went to a very academically rigorous HS). To complicate matters, he was also diagnosed with a sleep disorder about 3 weeks after the ADHD diagnosis.</p>
<p>He’s on several medications for both the ADHD and the sleep disorder. He is doing fabulous with a cumulative 3.9 GPA through last semester and a first ever 4.0 GPA last semester. He is feeling so confident now that he has decided to do a STEM major with plans for medical school.</p>
<p>This is what the psychologist told me - kids with high IQs can often compensate for years grade-wise until one day they run into a brick wall. She said she has had many young adults come in for testing after their first semester of medical school or law school or grad school or even at the start of a challenging career. So don’t feel guilty. It’s not easy to pick up with a kid who isn’t having behavioral issues and has decent grades. Many folks aren’t diagnosed into they are well into careers and families. Consider it lucky he was diagnosed now.</p>
<p>PBS had a great program on a “strengths based” approach to ADHD, including inattentive type. There are books out on this topic as well. My daughter cannot take meds for her ADHD, due to another condition, and now that she is in college, I wish she could.</p>
<p>For her, it has helped a lot to work with the college on having accommodations available. She resists using them, but in one instance during the past semester, her first at college, one accommodation was a godsend. The dean convinced her that the accommodation was “fair”: she does not want any favors. The dean told her that it was real justice to be able to do one’s best work.</p>
That’s almost exactly what D’s psychologist told us.</p>
<p>MomLive, if you don’t mind my asking, what type of sleep disorder? D has always been a night owl - cannot fall asleep until very late (actually early morning) but then can’t wake up in the morning. She’s tried some sleep aids so she can fall asleep earlier, but they make her so groggy that she rarely takes them. This then interferes with her taking her ADHD meds - if she wakes up too late in the morning, she’s doesn’t want to take it, because then she is still stimulated at night.</p>
<p>He was diagnosed with narcolepsy. His symptoms were not being able to fall asleep and then had a hard time getting up but the major symptom was that no matter how much sleep he gets he still felt tired. You could have knocked me over with a feather when he got that diagnosis because he really doesn’t have many of the symptoms (like random sleep attacks, cataplexy) but his sleep study showed a pretty clear indication of narcolepsy. People with narcolepsy have issues with when they go into REM sleep stage - it’s all out of whack hence the reason they feel tired all the time. They never get ‘good’ sleep. The medications seem to be helping.</p>
<p>There was a thread in late October on this topic and had lots of good bits. </p>
<p>Our S2 “hit the wall” spring term, freshman year. We had a ton of testing done during the summer.</p>
<p>The testing that was so amazing in seeing how our guy’s brain worked were:</p>
<p>Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS)
Auditory Consonant Trigrams (Brown Peterson Task)
Rey Complex Rigure Test</p>
<p>We learned that he has high IQ (no news) but virtually no “executive function” – he had tried an ADD med in high school that just made him feel agitated. This time he was put on another med and that helped a LOT. </p>
<p>I like the book “More Attention, Less Deficit” and “Organizing for the ADD Life”. </p>
<p>S1 also hit a rough patch in college and was diagnosed with sleep apnea. I don’t know if that overlaps with narcolepsy or not but a CPAP machine has been a life saver. I hope you will inquire if a CPAP machine should be considered because one does need to be careful about combining meds (such as meds for narcolepsy and then for ADD – please do talk to a pharmacist as well as your MD). </p>
<p>Please tell your son that we are constantly learning about biochemistry – and he is helping us all learn. The ruts he hits now may help other students in semesters to come</p>
<p>I’m at my wits end with my 11th grade son. The ADD meds have just made him so aggitated in the last year. He survives on little sleep. Thanks to you posts, I am going to request his doctor consider a sleep study.</p>
<p>I truly believe, though son doesn’t, that the generic Adderrall is a totally different medication for him then the name brand. His problems magnified with the generic.</p>
<p>That very well could be, Longhaul. Even though there is not supposed to be a difference I have seen it when taking meds. It is so hard to get things figured out with the ADD/meds/side effects. My daughter has done wonderfully on Focalin XR with very little side effects, but it was a LONG road.</p>
<p><em>Raises hand</em> We actually go to the psychologist this Friday to see S2’s results from a battery of assessments. The psychologist said that he was fairly certain we were seeing ADD inattentive, our unfolding story of panic and disaster is at this thread:</p>
<p>Not sure that’s the way to link it. But this all happened to my son as a jr/sr and he’s now out of school alltogether until we can help him figure out what to do. It is not going particularly well right now, I must say, but at least we aren’t spending money on tuition instead of therapy, and at least we have an honest idea what’s going on. He’s a little depressed, a LOT anxious (he’ll say ordinary things, then quickly add “Sorry. That was stupid to say. Why do I say stupid things” ) but is hopeful. So that’s something.</p>
<p>My son says he can tell a big difference between the brand Adderall and generic.</p>
<p>Once he was diagnosed with narcolepsy he switched to a different type of stimulant used specifically for narcolepsy (Provigil). He feels that works better than Adderall but he still uses Adderall for tests. </p>
<p>Sleep disorders can definitely exacerbate or even mimic cognitive functioning disorders like ADHD. It’s worth exploring if your child reports sleep issues. There are 3-4 other parents on cc that report their kids were diagnosed with nacrolepsy in hs or college. It’s a disorder that shows up in late adolescent. Sleep apnea can also cause similiar symptoms.</p>
<p>I just want to thank the OP for posting, and greenbutton for sharing her DS’s story. There is not much activity on the learning disabilities forum, but I think that more parents need to know that there are others who have dealt with/are dealing with mental health and ADD/ADHD issues. It is very helpful.</p>