ADHD Trouble & The Disapearance of The Much Coveted DS

Okay, after all these years, it's finally happened. And, from what I am reading from the reports of a fellow Mum, it may be becoming a growing trend.

I THINK I know what may have been the root of our problem here (I cannot vouch for the other incident, however.)

We have been on this roller coaster with Bregon's new ADHD Doctor and the way his office functions and the medication that we are being prescribed.

Initially, we were referred to him in the first place because our Adderall just was not doing the trick. In fact it had side effects that were quite scary.

Because his grades had fallen, and the reports from his teachers had been streaming in, I knew that Bregon was having problems with immunity to his medication as far as his mindset was concerned.

However, at home, the medicine was telling a whole different story. It was not totally without effect.

I had a very depressed and suddenly overly hormonal little boy who cried at the drop of a pin and couldn't listen to even the smallest bit of conversation without zoning out.

So, the last week of school, I had him stop taking his medication. I just could not let him go on being like that, especially if it was causing him to have personality problems.

He spent the entire summer off his medications while we waited for the new doctor to finally see him.

We had appointment after appointment with them, yet never seemed to get past the gate keepers.

It would be the second week of school before we met this doctor and were able to start a new medication.

He was started on a low dosage, that didn't do anything at all or so it seemed. The next month he graduated to the higher dosage.

Last month, he graduated to the highest dosage, still without us seeing real progress or results.

The only real difference that I could see (or his teachers for that matter) was that he did have an appetite and he could at least sleep through the night without being restless.

I had THOUGHT that we might be on to something as his grades had started creeping upward, so the doctor kept him on the high dose for this coming month.

That is when IT happened. Oh, he didn't tell me when it first happened. That should have been the clue, but it wasn't.

Then again, it was the week of his birthday party and big sleepover and also the week that school let out for Thanksgiving break, too.

Let me backtrack a little for you, now. Bregon had always had a Gameboy Advance. Ever since he was 7, we had this rule about it NOT going to school or daycare EVER.

The thing was oddly small for a children's toy, and could be fitted into even the most shallow pocket discreetly.

Each day, I would do a quick room check to ensure that it was still on its charger after he left for school.

The day came when it wasn't and I was prepared when I picked him up from daycare to begin my "Talk" with him.

I told him in the car that I had something very important to discuss with him when we got home and to meet me on the sofa after putting up his backpack.

It was the only time I had EVER seen him cry in advance of not knowing that he was truly in trouble.

He hadn't any clue as to how I could possibly know that his pocket was a bit heavier that day, but those tell-tale tears were a HUGE affirmation of his guilt.

He sat there in awe and full of amazement as I asked him to empty his pocket and hand me his GameBoy.

He was positive at that very moment that I was quite all-knowing and omniscient. He never did figure out how I knew, either.

Fast forward back to the present. It was the day that they returned to school from the holiday, and he walked into the house looking as if someone had run over his favorite pet or something.

It was definitely an "Or something" as I had it on good account that every animal was present and accounted for and hanging out in the sun in the backyard at the moment!

I let him put his books up and play with his siblings a while. I didn't even bother him about his obviously upset state until after his homework was completed and the babies were in bed.

He broke down at the dining room table, telling me that he had broken a very important rule by taking his Nintendo Ds to school and now it was GONE.

To make matters worse for him, he had several point sheets and progress reports that needing signing as well, but those weren't nearly as upsetting as the Ds being gone gone gone.

He assumed that it must have been stolen out of his backpack at school the week before they had gotten out for break.

Over the next few days, however, an entirely different story came to light. I first noticed it while looking for a pen in his nightstand where he normally keeps his Ds.

There was a note on top of his birthday game that affirmed that he would keep it until he found his Ds and got to enjoy his present... one day.

I then noticed that his room was rearranged and in some form of disarray (slight.)

When he got home, he dutifully did his homework. Then I heard all sorts of noises coming from his bedroom that sounded like he was moving some serious furniture.

I went upstairs to find him moving boxes from out of his closet and going through them systematically.

I asked him what he was doing, and he replied that he was looking for his Ds. I sat him down at that point, and asked him about it the idea that it had gotten stolen at school.

He said that he honestly doesn't know what happened. He knows that he had it, that he had been taking it to school with him to play in the mornings and after school on the bus, but that he thought that maybe he had lost it at home somewhere.

He honestly cannot remember the last time he had it and cannot remember if he put it up someplace in his room or if he lost it at school or if it was stolen.

Then the weekend came and that long awaited package that contained my new Christmas tree stand arrived as well.

Husband put it together for me and he and Bregon changed the stands out, but when it came time to start decorating the tree, Bregon was curled up in a ball on my sofa.

He said he was tired, but his eyes were all swollen and he looked like he had two black eyes. He wasn't crying, but he was extremely sad.

I thought it was over the Ds being gone (it had been a week since he fessed up) but I soon realized that it was something more than that.

Nothing I did cheered him up. I put off decorating the tree 'til he was in a better mood. I know he needed a little Christmas, but he was so mopey and depressed looking it scared me.

He didn't get better, either. Saturday rolled around, and he was STILL sad and walking around like a little zombie boy.

It finally dawned on me (sometimes I am a bit slow) that it might be his medicine causing this to happen.

It's supposed to make him concentrate and in the past has had some funny side effects like compelling him to super organize his room or closets and even once he decided to clean my air return vent.

I offered him a choice of fun dinner options and he turned me down saying he didn't care what we had that night.

I very playfully asked him if he wanted to run to Wal-mart (it was about 10 at night at the time) thinking he might find that fun-he usually is up for going out like that.

He didn't want to do that either. In fact, he didn't even want to mop with the real mop (usually he finds it some sort of a treat to use a real mop instead of a swiffer which he begged me to buy for some reason- I know my kids are odd!)

I told him whatever he did, NOT to take his medicine the next morning. In fact, I moved his little day of the week container to a place where he couldn't find it.

And, low and behold, come Sunday morning, he started becoming Bregon again. By the afternoon, he was joking and playing and doing silly Breglet things.

That night, we were able to even decorate the tree and he LIKED it and had FUN doing it.

We made S'mores in the fireplace and he admitted to having eaten all of the bar chocolate (I had a reserve for emergencies or so I had thought) so we ended up having to use chocolate chips instead.

He still cannot find his Ds anywhere. He honestly cannot remember what happened to it, either.

It's not like he is an irresponsible child or anything, this toy was over 2 years old and still had its original stylus and the micro-games that go with it.

If you have ever seen one of these, you will be familiar with the fact that NOBODY seems to be able to keep up with their stylus and the games are soo tiny that it would be easy to misplace them or even throw them away.

Somehow, my child has managed to keep up with all of this while living in a very tiny room full of loads of stuff, yet manages to lose it or get it stolen while living in a rather large sparse room that is fairly organized.

I really think it is the medication. I have talked to the doctor about something different, but he only wants to keep him on this same medication and add to it if it isn't working.

I really do not want him on any of it if it's not working at all in any fashion. Before, the medication worked and he could tell when it was and you could see results.

We haven't seen ANY positive result in this particular medication and I ended up with scary, depressed, crying, fetal position boy and it SCARED the heck out of me.

So, I have made an executive decision and Bregon is not taking his medication this week, PERIOD.

If the results seem better than we get while on any of the doses of the medication, then I am seriously going to consider letting him go without them and see what happens.

I am beginning to think that these medications are not working for a reason and that maybe he can do this on his own now.

I could be wrong, but the child is having blank spots in his memory. Very large blank spots that are very uncharacteristic of him.

I know that he broke a rule and he is really being punished for it. I have decided that he will be allowed to replace the Ds after Christmas and with his own money if that is what he decides to do.

As for the medication, I am beginning to think that this type isn't for us. He had a bad reaction to it last spring which is how we ended up where we are now with the new doctor and the new medication.

The doctor promises that the medication will work and doesn't want to change it out, but I am starting to think that amphetamine based medications just are not the way we need to go.

So, for the moment, Bregon remains un-medicated and is slowly returning to his old self.

Each day, I sit down with him and we talk about how he feels and his performance in school that day.

He actually is talking about feeling like a fog is being lifted which is sort of scary. I am currently awaiting a call-back from the doctor's office as to his next appointment.

We will wait until then to decide for certain which direction we are going to take.

In the meantime, Bregon's Christmas wish is to find his Ds...or at least remember what has become of it.