I knew from the begining I was going to have my hands full with this child. Although he wasn't diagnosed until much later, I knew from the time he was very young that he was going to be special.
He was diagnosed when he was ten, and by this time it was almost a relief. ADHD*. I put off having him diagnossed until things got so bad I didn't have a choice. At that time everyone had ADD/ADHD*, that seemed to be the catch all "diagnossis" for kids that had behavior problems, or were doing poorly in school. I did not want my child, my baby, labled as a "problem child". As it turns out that was the least of my worries.
* ADD/ADHD Attention deficit desorder/ Attention Deficit Hypreactivity Disorder
* ADHD Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
After the ADHD diagnosis I decided putting him on meds was the easy way out. We tried behavior modification at home and at school with very minimal results. When he was about 13 things really started getting out of control. On top of his usual hyperness and not sleeping he became increasingly agitated and violent. Starting arguments with me and fights with his brother that I would have to break up daily. I did not think much about the fights with his brother, boys will be boys right? Wrong. He became increasingly violent at school and at home to the point he was even swinging at me. Something had to be done and soon.He started seeing a therapist. The first in a long string of them, I think there were four or five before we found one that he "clicked with".
He was started on Focalin (extended release) and WOW! It was like I had my baby back. The sweet, loving, caring little boy I remembered from years ago. He was able to watch a tv show without talking through the whole thing, play a game without throwing something, and the biggest shock was watching him sit in the floor of a busy emergency room reading a book. I have not been able to get this kid to sit still for more than a few minites in his whole life. Now he was sitting here reading a book.
After a few months of being on the Focalin and continuing with his therapist I started to notice some of his old behavior starting to creap back up, so his Focalin was increased. This started the medication roller coaster. As most of you know once the ride has started you can not get off. Since this time hes been on many different meds, dealing with the many different side effects the meds bring on. Headachs, nausea, shaky hands, sweating, sleeplessness.
Several years later he finally found a mecication that worked for him. In fact it was working so well at controlling his ADHD other symptoms started to show up. I didn't know it at the time, thinking it was his usual ADHD symptoms I schedualed an appointment with his psyciatrist thinking his meds we no longer working, boy was I wrong. Thats when the other diagnosis started. Anxioty was the first, he was started on an anti-depressant and we had another WOW moment. The difference was night and day, the mood swings that had been so prevalent were now less, his paranoia was less, but slowly more and more things were being noticed. The depression, the manic episodes, the obsessions had also started by this time as well.
By the time he was fifteen or sixteen his official diagnosis was ADHD with OCD* tendencies, an anxioty disorder, sleep disorder, and the one every parent loves to hear Bi-Polar.
I feel like I have spent most of my life fighting for my son. I have spent all of his life fighting for him. In the process of fighting to help him I realized that I could make a difference not only in his life but in the lives of so many others suffering with mental illness.
