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The Difference Medication Makes
It helped – required medication changes We had to switch a lot because Lindsay had a lot of problems with side-effects from the medications. She’d pull out her eyebrows and eyelashes. But the medication would work for her, so it was kind of like we had to live with the side-effects. And then she finally seemed to outgrow that only like in the last year. But there was a give-and-take. Some of the medications we haven’t changed, but we had to switch-hit sometimes. But there was a big difference in her concentration with the medication. We needed to check with the teachers, and we’d see if they noticed any difference with one medication or another, and go by that. We did have to try different medications before we found the one that fit. With Adam, we tried Ritalin, and he was really aggressive and moody to the point where I’ve never seen him like that before. And then my daughter Ellie tried Concerta, and she was really hyper. Not every medication works for every kid, but luckily Adderall does work for all three of my kids. It’s kind of trial and error— you do see a difference, and sometimes they do become a little bit more sensitive. And on days they don’t take it, they might become a little bit more moody, which is kind of frustrating, but kids do that, it’s just the age. I used to take Lindsay off the medication in the summer to give her the break. Around eleven, I ended up having to keep her on in the summer, because she was just a powerball. She was so impulsive, so disorganized— it was just a terrible summer. And at that point the doctor said it really wasn’t worth it for her taking off of it for the summer. In terms of taking the medicine, Nick knows it helps him. You can tell the minute it kicks in with him. I mean, you can really see it. It’s like, twenty minutes. He can sit and listen to what you’re telling him to do. And if you give him a three-step command, he can do three steps. If you give him that three-step command without any medicine, he might do one and a half. Maybe. When we put Andrew on medication we would tell him “The medicine doesn’t make you good. It allows you to choose whether to be good or not, the medicine allows you to have the choice. You have to make good choices and that we are going to hold you more accountable when you are taking your medicine.” So we tried to do that. The medication was a mind-blower. The child psychiatrist said to me, “You’ll know if it’s working. It’s not like you have to wait two weeks. I think you’ll really know right away.” So I woke Megan up on a Sunday morning early and said, “Just go ahead and take this pill now. I’m not going to send you to school unless I know what the impact is going to be. Let’s see if you have any side effects or what it feels like for you so I can be home all day with you.” I just thought this would be safer if I had my eyes on her. I gave her the pill at around 8:30 on a Sunday morning and then told her she could go back to sleep. I just wanted to be sure because the Concerta all-day pill had a 12-hour window. I walked by her room about a half hour later and she was in bed reading. I said, “Oh, you didn’t go back to sleep.” She said, “No, I didn’t feel like it. I’m just reading.” I asked her what she was reading and she showed it to me and then she said, “What did you end up doing last night?” I told her that we had gone out to dinner with some friends and I told her what we had for dinner and some of the conversation. She looked at me with such amazement and I said, “What are you looking at?” She said, “Mom, I think this is the first time in my life that I’ve actually listened to anything you’ve said.” She was so focused and she could feel the difference immediately. Talking – in complete sentences The first thing Emma did on medication was she started talking. I mean in complete sentences. Now this is a child who has a lot of different kinds of problems and one of them is that she really didn’t speak until kindergarten. She wasn’t really talking and certainly not in full sentences and certainly not several in a row. But on the first week on the Concerta she could tell us things very clearly. She had never told us about things that happened at school before; you would ask her and she would say “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember.” All of a sudden she was telling us about things that had happened at school and discussions that she had had with her teacher about certain topics. So that was the first week and so I thought, “Well, that is pretty amazing.” I used to dread taking Emma to a store because as soon as you went in a store she wanted to buy something for herself, normally some sort of toy. And you couldn’t do anything because she basically was bee-lining for the aisle that whatever she wanted was in. Many, many, many times I pretty much physically picked her up and took her out of the store screaming and kicking. If I really had to buy something I ended up physically holding her until I could pay for whatever I needed to buy and get out of the store. On the medication she was able to understand “No, we are not getting that today and you need to listen and please come with me.” And then we had to walk by the Rainforest Café, which is a little mall restaurant that has animals and screeching things. It’s like a kid trap and she loves to go there. Usually I’ll let her go in and walk around and play even if we don’t eat there. But I was able to get her to just look for a few minutes and then walk away when usually I am physically carrying her away screaming. And then that week we actually went out to eat, my husband and I and Emma. She actually sat in a restaurant for a whole meal and that was the most unbelievable thing. I was beside myself telling our child psychiatrist about her ability to sit there in a chair. I mean I’m sure you’ve heard this from other parents but it was just amazing. Normally within five minutes she is off the chair, she is running around the restaurant, and it is not a fun situation. We just don’t do it. And that was an unbelievable turn around. So we’ve kept her on Concerta since then. |
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Hospital Boston Department of Psychiatry. All Rights Reserved. The information on this website should not be taken as medical advice, which can only be given to you by your personal health care professional. Updated: February 12, 2007 |
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