My son has been seeing a social worker for just over a month now because he has anger issues and gets very violent with me. Talking to his social worker has been helping and he has had less episodes than normal. His "episodes" as I call them are when he gets so angry he starts to intentionally hurt me. They were not constant and at times would only happen once a month. I wanted to get everything taken care of before he got big enough and old enough to seriously hurt me, which he is getting very close to. Yesterday he saw someone about possibly putting him on medication. We talked to this lady for an hour and she asked me questions and looked over the notes that his social worker kept from our meetings. She informs me that my son has ADHA (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and ODD (opposition defiance disorder) and she recommended Ritalin and Concerta.
I have mixed feelings about putting my eight year old on medication. I was on medication, off and on, since I was 16 and there were times where I really felt like an empty shell of my self, a zombie if you must. Maybe that is why there will be a zombie apocalypse.. all these people on medication that takes away their spirit and energy. So I decided to look up holistic ways to treat the ADHD and ODD without the use of medication. Every single website I looked at pretty much just said to make a change in diet. The exact same change in diet that they recommend for anything and everything that is wrong with a person. Can our foods really be this bad that it is jacking up the chemicals in every single persons body? Are those people that are Vegans, Vegetarians, or only eat organic suffering with these issues or are they on to something? Every page also said that they change in diet has not been proven to work for treatments of ADHD.
I have always sworn that no child of mine would ever feel the way I felt when I was on medications. I don't know what to do. Do I let my son try these medications and see if they work? Do I try to get my son to make the diet changes the websites recommended? Do I ask my son which he would prefer to do knowing that he hates almost everything that was recommended to be eaten? My ex-husband does not want our son to take ANY medication until a Psychiatrist sits down with my son and verifies the diagnosis that my son was given. I respect his feelings, but he sees his son only 2 days a month and does not see or deal with what I see and deal with every single day living with my son. I have always known that there is something wrong with my son, but I never knew what it was. Now that a label has been placed I feel like I am in a bit of denial about the entire situation. I do not ever want my son to lose his spirit, I would just wish that it was toned down and under control. If I do put him on this medication I will be carefully watching him at all times and if I ever feel that he is losing that spark that makes him the most amazing eight year old I know then I am stopping the medication or they must find something else.
How would all of you handle this situation if it was you? How have you handled a situation like this?
Hi :)
ReplyDeleteas a mom of a special needs kid I get it.. totally get it.. but first of let me tell you there is nothing wrong with your son. He just does and copes with things differently and you are now on the path of what works for him. There is no one med fits all kind of thing.. my son doesn't take either of the meds you mentioned.. but is on medication..
it is about safety - sometimes when impulse control and anger exists.. meds are used to be safe.. you can give it a trial run.. if you think or feel he is a zombie.. ask/tell the doc to change his meds.. until you find that right combination or just the thing that does work. yes there are some diet changes that could work.. in my son's case.. no more red 40 .. its dye put into foods and is emerging to have a history in causing aggression.. just my 2 cents