New to meds with teen son
 

Hello all. My son is 14. Diagnosed with adhd at 11 years old, treated briefly with Ritalin but did not seem to help much. He was recently also diagnosed with depression, I believe much attributed to improper support/treatment for adhd. His doctor prescribed aderall but insurance wont cover it, so now she's prescribing vyvance and wants to add zoloft in a few weeks. I am so nervous to use either of these with my son, let alone in combination. The side effects seem frightening but so is the prospect of leaving him untreated. Any advice? Personal stories?

OP: I would absolutely dread starting my teen child on a battery of "hard" drugs... Have you done a lot of research on this adhd dx and alternative remedies. Even look into homeopathics. My grandson who is now going on 20 and a college student was a pretty active child growing up and my daughter would never go the drug route for him, thank goodness. To me and I'm 81, these is such a huge push to drug drug drug.

When I was growing up our elders would say "do you have ants in your pants"....no labels for high activity children.

The depression issue, everyone has ups and downs...look at his sugar/carb consumption. I would not be quick to start on a bunch of drugs. My goodness how they are pushed. C

Hi Aclay

Welcome to NeuroTalk :).

I am sorry to read about your son.

You can use the Search function (https://www.neurotalk.org/search.php) to find threads here which could be helpful for you.

All the best.

There are special assistance /IEP plan at most schools, those might help him redirect and slow down..

OP: I was curious about homeopathics for your son's dx and found quite a bit of info. I would even consider seeing a homeopathic doctor down the road.

Treatments for ADHD: Homeopathic Remedies for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

If you don't know how homeopathy works, do a little education work. It works that Like given Like = Cure

I forgot to mention in my original reply to you, I worked in a private school for some time in the admissions dept and was in charge of dispensing drugs to some of the children,, part of my dread in this position. One young boy who was about 10 at the time was the son of an allopathic MD and he came into the office daily for his ritalin "fix" and how I dreaded doing this...he was like a little zombie...Then one day we we were talking he said before he left for school he was given his prozac pill. To me, this was like child abuse. Wonder how he's doing today...lost track of all these young children. C

Sorry to hear about your son's struggles. Just wanted to say - I agree with other posters that caution around medication is good, BUT depression is not just having normal ups and downs, and if a doctor believes strongly that medication will be helpful, take that suggestion seriously. Ask your son what he wants to do - 14 years old is old enough to have a say about how he is treated. But don't just dismiss these issues as a phase or part of growing up. As someone who grew up with untreated anxiety, depression, OCD etc, I look back and feel bitterly sad that everything I was going through was treated as a passing phase or "normal" ups and downs. I'm 30 now and it's taken me the past six or seven years to claw myself back towards a functional state after spending my childhood and teenage years battling mental illness by myself while my family acted like it wasn't a big deal.