"I Refuse to Feel Bad for Treating My Child’s ADHD"
The world tells us that parents medicate for their own convenience, not for the good of their child. I say bull to that.
4 Comments: "I Refuse to Feel Bad for Treating My Child’s ADHD"
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I have researched so much on wither to medicate a child or not as I am overwhelmed with my decission to medicate. I have 3 children. One was medicated when he was 11. It was the best decission at that time and helped him quite a bit and caused our home to be functionable. My youngest is 6 and I medicated her just after her 6th birthday. She is more aggressive than her brother, more fidgety and I have noticed OCD behaviors in her, I too am a suffer of OCD and it can be torture. When she is medicated she eats way less, more withdrawn and way less impulsive. I can notice when the medicine has kicked in and I feel awful. When she is not medicated she is loud, interrupts, aggressive and hard to be around. I feel awful. I don’t have alot of support and no one I know directly is dealing with this sort of situation. I too suffer from A.D.D, anxiety and O.C.D. The ultimate combination for being too sensitive and non stop thinking.
I have inattentive ADHD and all three of my kids have varying types. I wasn’t medicated or diagnosed until I was almost 30. Once I received treatment, my life changed. I stopped drinking, finished school, and proved to myself and to my peers that I wasn’t just some “dumb blonde.” When each of my kids were diagnosed, the thought of not medicating never entered my mind. What did enter my mind was the downward direction my life was heading prior to being diagnosed and treated with medication. I really wish naysayers had to experience the anguish that follows ADHD. I guarantee they wouldn’t hesitate getting out of their own private hell.
To the parents feeling guilty…yep, I’m one of them too. My daughter now 15, they placed her on medication in the second grade and the first time I called her name and she had children responded to me with “yes mama” without me having to call her name 100 times. Totally brought tears to my eyes and for the first time I seen what the medication can do and how I can improve your communication with your child. It’s a scary thing to have to give them medicine but it’s also scary to see what could happen when your child is under the supervision of another adult and does not listen, with the outcome of that could be. I was also tired of her being the center of the attention and everyone staying away I feel now she feels that she is a part of society with friends and school it has definitely made a huge change in her life. We are doing a little adjusting With her medication to make sure everything is working properly as we have had to do in the past thanks to all the moms feeling guilty please try not to as they get older they will see how it can help them. when they are small they don’t see it as much that’s why I think they feel so guilty because They don’t quite understand what is happening.
Definitely don’t feel bad about giving medication for ADHD. If you do just remind yourself that a major part of ADHD is a problem with brain chemistry and you are treating that directly. It’s NOT treating it that’s the problem!
My 6 year old son has ADHD and we give him MPH. Of course we do all the other stuff you are supposed to do, which helps to some extent, but the meds make so much more difference than everything else put together. We give him medication breaks in the holidays but his brain function can be so obviously bad then … So all over the place he can’t even get dressed, and so hyper people look at him and think he’s insane. It makes me feel sad – and sometimes also guilty for not giving him medication.
Yes it does put him off his food – but we try to catch up at breakfast and at night. The ‘midnight feasts’ before bed have proved popular and quite effective.