Medicate the Child/ destroy the gift with the ADHD?

Hi Megan’s Mom,

I have a 14 yr old daughter with ADHD. She is not overly gifted in visual arts but she is very gifted with computers. She will sit for hours using the computer to design Web Pages, Power Point Presentations and other non-game type things. She has been on Ritalin on and off since she was 6…most recently Concerta 36 mgs daily. I have not noticed the meds interferring with her “gift”, she is still very focused on what interests her. What I do notice about the meds is that they help her to focus on the task at hand even if it is not of special interest to her. Thankfully, she is old enough to verbalize how the meds affect her, and what she says is very positive. She says that at school she can focus on what the teacher is teaching and therefore gets her work done correctly, on time and her grades are good. She takes her meds in the a.m. on her own…no reminding from me… because she sees the benefit in her own life and is happy with how the meds help her with her school work. The meds have not changed her personality. She gets good grades, is well liked by the school staff, tried out for and made the cheer leading squad for her next school year (10th gr) and is functioning very well in her life. I did notice when she was younger (6yrs old) that the meds made her “zone out”, but after I finally got the internet and was able to research ritalin more extensively…I believe the dosage was probably a little too high for her back then. As far as artistic gifts… I have another daughter that is extremely talented in that department, but since she is not on medication…I can’t make a good comment on the subject. I do, however, believe that my artistic daughter has inattentive type ADD, but has not been formally diagnosed. We are working around her organizational problems and “day dreaminess” as best we can without meds. She is currently on the Honor Roll in 6th grade, so even though it is a bit hard for her to concentrate, we are not going the med route with her at the moment. She has tested into advanced math for the 7th grade year, and if the organizational/concentration problems become a detriment to her ability to handle her school subjects, I would most definitely seek a diagnosis and possible meds for her. I feel from the experience with my oldest daughter that the ritalin has not removed her “gifts and talents” and I would assume that it would not remove my artistic daughter’s talent either.

I hope this helps in some small way.
Best wishes with your daughter!

Medication only allows my son’s to tap into their organizational skills, they are still very right brained and creative but the meds allow them to function in the literal, academia and organized world. I liken the right brained artistic types to being in a fog of their own making…they are gentle souls….who appreciate things that many take for granted..

Without medication my artistic, right brained creative geniuses feel overwhelmed. They know they are smart but they can’t pull it together to show how smart they are. The difference medication made for my daughter illustrates this point. She has always been able to take any creative and open ended project that most kids would drown in and complete it. However, before medication as she got older she feel further and further behind her peers as she couldn’t keep up and focus on her curriculum. She was tuning out and tuning into her own world and missing the world around her. By the time 5th grade hit she was DEPRESSED! She was overwhelmed, giving up and shutting down. That was when I got my head out of the sand and saw a specialist for ADD….We went on meds in 5th grade but I regret not doing it sooner…as I can’t recapture the time she was tuned out and not learning…this led to more confusion and self-esteem issues….

She has been on meds for 3 years and we have see the artistic and creative muse come back with a smile on her face and a go get em girl attititude. She is organized now, she does things on time, and she isn’t that overwhelmed and she isn’t the lost little girl she was in 5th grade who didn’t understand what she needed to do. She knows her gifts….and she is very smart but I regret not getting her help sooner..as we have been playing catch-up ever since…

Artisitic gifts aren’t appreciated in our modern day society….it is the organized, and literal and left brained people who are able to get places….But what cracks me up is when I have some of my academia friends come to me with problems that need a creative solution and I say something like…”Have you tried this?” And they say…”I would have never thought to try that…” I think that will work!!”” and off they go..with my creative right brained idea but they have the organization they need to carry out the solution…

I can come up with many solutions to problems as that is how my brain works, but I need someone to help me “organize” my ideas into a “plan”. People who have brains like mine make a good CEO’s…we are more people oriented, we notice everything….we see the big picture..but get bogged down in the minute details…What great CEO’s do…is to have a great Executive Assistant to help him organize his thoughts….and he delegates… and evenutally his ideas are put into place..A great CEO is not a micro-manager…

The stimulants are in your system for a short time when you take them. Don’t be afraid of trying them….My artistic gifts are still there and so are my kids gifts…medication helped us “tap” into what we are capable of and helped us realize what we needed to do compete in the organized and literal world of academia…

We have not noticed any loss of creativity with medication. My son is profoundly gifted and is extremely creative on or off meds. In one respect, medication has increased his creativity, or at least his ability to implement it. My son has some pretty serious fine motor issues, but also has the soul of an artist. He loves to scuplt small figures with clay (I have them all over my house) but sometimes has difficulty making his fingers do what he wants. Meds improve his fine motor skills, which allows him to do more with his work.

Andrea

“a gentle soul in a fog of his own making”

Sometimes I have this “hes too good for this world” train of thought and feel very sappy for even thinking it. I like your version better :)

Megan’s mom -

When we first decided to medicate our then 10-yr old son, I was worried he would lose his clever sense of humor and his one-of-a-kind different drummer personality. But he’s the same child, and still has his wonderful gift with computers and electronics of all kinds. (Reminds me of Debra’s daughter.)

Actually, I should correct myself — he’s not quite the same child. He is actually happy now. Not because the medication makes him experience a mood change, but because after being on the meds for two and half years, he now knows he can be as successful as all the other children (despite his dyslexia and dysgraphia). He is “there” now during class lessons, and he is “there” when his teachers give instructions. It has also opened doors for him socially, because now he can think through his actions and words before blurting them out.

That was the gift that Ritalin gave to us and for that I will always be thankful.

Experiences with medications differ between children. We cannot predict for you what your child’s experience will be. But don’t let the myth of the zombie-like-child-that-can’t-think-for-themselves deter you, because it just isn’t real. If you start medication and get a zombie-like child, it’s not the right dose or it’s not the right medication or perhaps it isn’t even ADHD, and it’s time to return to your doctor for help.

I am wondering….because your words and actions are impulsive and argumentative in nature.

And for your information….my kids are not “stimulant garbage.”

I have to remember to count my blessings and my gifts and not try to compare myself with others who have gifts that I don’t have.

We can all learn from one another and I think we need to reverence our similarities and cherish our differences…

ADHD is really not a gift; some types of ADHD - Attention Deficit - is how the human brain/mind responds to a kind of subtle brain injury.

The right ADHD medicine tends to temporarily reduce ADHD symptoms and in some cases enhances the ability to be creative.

Ideally, an ADHD medicine delivers a temporary benefit to the person who takes the ADHD medicine; if there is no benefit or if the disadvantages exceed the advantages, then there is no appropriate reason for taking the medicine at all. That’s my view.

nt

I’m sorry pgd, I didn’t mean to imply that ADHD is a gift but from what I’m reading, the ADD often is associated with a gift. My daughter is a wonderful artist but unfortunately, she has been branded by others as having the “artist’s personality” since she was 4. So, in other words, she daydreams about beauty and nature and her artwork.

My plan is to not only tell her that she has an attention issue but that she also received a wonderful gift that few people have. I’m not sure that I can explain it much better than that. My husband has the same gift/burden but he is a musician.

I really like Dr. Hallowell’s book “Driven to Distraction” because it stresses this gift idea. I bet most kids with ADD have a associated gift but it is not always so easy to recognize it and society concentrates on the negatives.

Thanks to everyone for your input. Megan’s Mom

Same here-my ADHD son has been medicated since first grade-no choice, he couldn’t read or sit still for any subjects but Science, Math, and Computers. He is not artistic-he is more into HARD fact subjects. He could comprehend Algebra in second grade but could not tell you the main idea in a story. His abilities in those subjects has not changed. His ability to pay attention to a story long enough to “get” the main idea has changed, dramatically.

A child who is being medicated correctly will not have personality changes from the medication. They stay the same basic person, just one who is able to stay focused long enough to finish something that doesn’t excite them.

I did post facts about Dopamine and parkinson’s a few days ago. I asked you a question, you did not answer. I am out of here..

Kinda reminds me of my cherished dd as well as myself. Both of us have ADHD. Sometimes we ‘latch’ onto things - get singularly focused and it is difficult for us to switch gears and/or let it go. My daughter and I affectionately call it ‘obsessed’. Good thing we both recognize this tendency and dd is learning to handle this “quirk” at such a young age.

Can someone refresh my ADHD-impaired memory? Isn’t trouble switching gears one of the DSM ADHD diagnostic criteria?

My 9 yo is artistically talented. (Anyone else have a child who at age 3 knew the colors periwinkle and puce? At age 5, her Thanksgiving table decor rivaled Martha Stewart and she impressed her interior designer aunt.) Before medication, the ONLY time she could focus was her art projects. We since learned that was hyperfocusing.

She is still creative and talented.

And yup, I probably had all your same fears - losing personality including creativity, etc. None of that happened.

You are so full of it fattim. Your street corner neuro psychology is so inane and you are talking out of your ass. Unless and until you have read something beside a romance novel kindly keep you dangerous and stupid theories to your self.