I am an Upcoming Sophomore who has ADHD and GAD(generalized anxiety disorder). I haven’t taken any medication for either in the past 4 years.
After reading some posts on here about ADHD I have noticed that most people who are diagnosed take medication. I wanted to know if I should take the medication.
I see some effects ADHD has on my grades and behavior but they aren’t major(I’m still in the top 15% of my class). I notice that when there is an assignment I don’t like I will daydream instead of working, and I procrastinate a lot.
Can some parents of kids with ADHD give me some advice? When I asked my parents about getting back on the Meds they said i need to make a decision and then consult them about it and discuss what we could do.
Only you and your parents can decide whether medication is right for you. That said, my son who is a rising senior has been taking ADHD medication for several years and it has helped him tremendously. It calms him down so he doesn’t have as many extraneous movements, and it helps him stay focused and organized. If he happens to miss a dose, I can tell pretty easily. And, as he has gotten older, he says he can tell a difference too. And we can all tell when it has worn off for the day. If you decide to try meds, keep in mind that it can take a while to find the right one and the right dose. My son tried two different meds before we settled on one, and then the dose needs to be adjusted from time to time, so it is very important to communicate with your prescribing doctor as you try to find the right one. Also, there is a DNA test (swab in your cheek) that they can use to tell you which type of med to try first. That test is somewhat new, so do some research and/or talk to your doctor about it. Good luck!
I resisted the urge to put my kid on meds for most of his childhood even though I knew he probably had some sort of focus shortcoming. He managed to excel at chess (national team member) even though he wasn’t on it, and to this day I wonder how much better he might have been if he had been on meds earlier, with all the issues he was having. Anyhow I finally relented his junior year in HS and his focus (not necessarily his organizational skills) improved rapidly after the right dosage was found. The only bad thing is that he’s pretty dependent, almost addicted if you will, on the medication. Quite irritable and cranky when he’s not on the medication now.
Some people opt not to take medication and use coping strategies alone. Some medicate for school but not to study on weekends. A lot depends on you, the severity of your ADHD, how it is impacting you, and how effective you are finding the meds.
There are kids who really can’t learn without meds. This doesn’t sound like you. However, it sounds like you are naturally bright, and it can become challenging when you are faced with concepts you can’t grasp immediately because you may struggle to concentrate as you work through them. That’s a tougher situation.
Using coping strategies is a lot of work but work you will need to do at some point in your life anyway, so DO understand that meds are not a silver bullet.
Personally, I worry about the impact of taking ANY drug on a regular basis and particularly ones that affect the brain. I would not hesitate if it were absolutely necessary, but in your case, the decision- which is 100% up to you, is probably more nuanced. You may want to have this conversation with the neuro-psych who did the testing, with your therapist, and with your pediatrician to get more input.
Have you had a SPED evaluation from the school? I was totally surprised at how significantly ADD was impacting my daughter. When observed unmedicated in class - she was paying attention only 60% of the time. Zoning out 40%. (Depending on the class - the rest of the students were paying attention 90-95% of the time).
The reality of that observation hit me like a ton of bricks. My then sophomore daughter’s brain was absent from class 40% of the time. How would her grades be if I kept her home 40% of the time? Yes she could cope - but it was a struggle and made high school unbearable.
She opted to medicate only for school. Not weekends and not summer. And she is on the lowest dose she can be on and still see benefits. She does not like the way it makes her feel slow (which is means it is actually doing what it is supposed to). Her grades have improved tremendously and she doesn’t hate school anymore.
One more vote for “everyone’s decision is unique to them”. There can be great benefits, but there are also side effects. Are you a HS sophomore or a college sophomore?