Re: To Medicate, Or Not To Medicate

[Anonymous]

Day 2 of Ritalin for my ADHD son today.

He had a dose in the morning, and a second at lunch. He cleaned the car for pocket money this morning, and did really well. He had trouble getting started, so the Ritalin doesn’t improve his motivation to get going, but it certainly helped him stay on task. He spent a couple of hours cleaning the inside of our car, and did an extremely thorough job. No coming inside for breaks, no giving up because it was too hard or taking too long, no asking for help more than a brief question about what he could use to clean the seats. Very different to his usual self. He does get hyperfocussed on things, but still seems to fluff around wasting time, or gets lost in the little details and loses sight of the big picture. Today was a real improvement.

He also had a rehearsal this afternoon, and noticed he was better able to pay attention, was less talkative, and had more energy to put into his performing (probably because he was channelling it better instead of wasting it by jiggling and fidgeting). While on the Ritalin, his conversation still seems rather rambling, but he spends less time pausing to gather his thoughts, and he doesn’t seem to go off on tangents as much (sort of hard to tell after only 2 days though).

He was pretty tired after the lunch dose wore off, though he picked up again once he had eaten tea and had a shower. It’s promising for when he has a later dose though. It seems like he won’t have insomnia from a third dose, as some people do. Actually, he hasn’t reported any side effects at all yet.

Three doses tomorrow (8am, noon and 4pm). And another rehearsal, in the evening, so we have another opportunity to see what improvements occur in a setting that requires concentration etc. I am tempted to delay his 4pm dose a touch, so he is covered fully for the whole rehearsal, as well as to get an idea about how late he can get away with taking it before it affects his ability to sleep. Mostly because he has performances later this year and a 10-12 hour slow release preparation will be wearing off as his performances start, so I want to have an idea about how we could manage it. I want to ask the doc if it’s possible to take a short acting Ritalin on top of the slow release stuff (as the SR is wearing off) so he is covered by medication through to later in the evening (a dose about 6pm to peak around 7-8pm and see him through till 10pm). Just for those nights when he has an important event and the wearing off “slump” happens at a really bad time. I could delay his SR dose till later on non-school days, but I couldn’t do that on school days, as firstly he needs the effect of the meds at school, and secondly, I would have to take the tablet into school to give it to him at the appropriate time (too many hoops to jump through if I want the school to deal with the medication rather than me doing it – alright for a long term, regular dosing regime, but too much work for a once-off change in dosing).

Ugh. I think I need me some Ritalin too. Wanted to have an early night, but have just wasted hours on the computer. It’s now way past the time I had planned to go to bed. Roll on September, when I have my psych appointment!!

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