Living with ADHD

We've known for a long time that Seth had some ADHD tendencies but we've always just called him our "wild man" and laughed it off. He's very active and has more energy than anyone I know!

I was worried as he entered Kindergarten and wasn't sure how he'd ever make it. The teacher was very strict and had a very scheduled day. In some ways that's good and in others, it's not. They got along but I could always tell that he definitely wasn't her favorite student. I felt bad for him and wished for a better start to his elementary education.

As we entered into 1st grade we found out that there was a teacher available that Josh had for 2nd grade. She was a Christian teacher and we felt so blessed to have her once! I spoke with her and she was aware that he was active and was willing to take on the challenge.

After a couple months of school and Seth coming home on yellow or orange, I knew things had to improve! Plus, things at home had taken a turn for the worse. There were some very strange and unreasonable behaviors taking place. I talked to the teacher and she said he definitely had signs of ADHD. At least I wasn't really losing my mind!

The teacher wrote a letter and we got Seth into see a specialist. She went over a check list with us. Anything over 25 was considered ADHD... Seth scored 49. It was pretty obvious that he needed to get this under control. We talked about our options and decided that medicine was the best way to go for us at the time. We went home with a prescription for Adderall. He started the next morning and within a week we saw changes at home and school. It was amazing!

A couple months later we started having some more issues with his behavior and questioned the medicines effectiveness. We saw the doctor again and she recommended that we up the dosage. So he started taking a little more and that seemed to do the trick. Back on track.

However, a couple more months went by and we started seeing signs that something else might be going on. He started speaking very "properly" for lack of a better word. He would enunciate his words quite often. We noticed that he was having hard time playing with friends and sharing. He often felt like the friends were out to get him and trying to make him mad. This was hard to watch as a parent because he would then just play by himself in the corner or in his room. There are some other issues as well.

We saw the doctor last month and she suggested that we have him evaluated. We're now working on getting that done so we can get him the treatment and help he needs. It's a long road but I'm glad God is with us. I'm not sure I would make it without knowing He has a plan for Seth's life!