Holly Moses 0:05
Welcome to the autism ADHD podcast. I am so happy that you joined me today, I want to take a moment and ask for your help, please take just a second and give the podcast a five star review. This will help me continue the podcast and keep bringing you helpful information. Thanks so much again for taking the time to give that five star review. Now let's get started. Hi, everyone, thank you so much for joining me today. Before I jump into our topic, I wanted to share some very exciting news. Amazing online continuing education for therapist is coming soon, I will be covering neuro affirming approaches for mental health behavior, social interaction, ethics, and so much more. So if you are a therapist, and you want valuable continuing education, please get on the waitlist, just click that link in the show notes. And you will be on your way to getting the training that you want for supporting neurodivergent children and teens. All right, now let's get to today's topic, which is my experience with ADHD medication as a parent, and also as a patient, a person being diagnosed later in life. And there are a lot of feelings around putting your child on medication. I understand I have been there. I don't think any parent wants to have their child on medication. And I'm going to talk about the concerns that I had in PAF still at times about specifically my oldest child. So he came to live with us from foster care at age four. And when he came to live with us, it was clear that he had severe ADHD. And it impacted his life in a lot of ways. He is creative, he gets so excited about his interests and wants to learn all about them. And he has so much energy, he's the kid that people comment on in public. And they would often say I wish I could just have some of his energy or wish I could bottle up that energy. And you know what I'm talking about. If you're a parent, who people have don't do that about your own child. He's also had challenges with impulsivity which negatively impacted his learning and making and keeping friends and it just made it so much more likely that he would be corrected by other people. And that is not it's not good for a lot of reasons. So I know the impulsivity was really taking a toll on his mental health. And he felt sad and upset after doing things without thinking first, it would get him in trouble. He was an attentive as well, which was a big struggle, his brain was so busy that he had difficulty listening and remembering to follow even one to two step directions. He struggled with remembering, you know, a sentence he just read. And he's an amazing reader. He always has been. But remembering what you just read is important for so many things, remembering what you just heard from someone. Those differences and executive functioning, working memory processing. They were really big for him, in attention, impacted him socially is it seemed like he wasn't listening to what his peers were saying. He wanted to but his brain was constantly interrupting itself. His body was constantly interrupting himself. He was really struggling and you know, we had a lot of concerns again, like most all parents starting medication, you know about side effects that can happen. would it impact his growth? Would he you know, grow at a slower rate if he took a stimulant What do you lose weight with it change his appetite? You know, I knew that some kids don't feel very hungry and then they eat last they lose weight. Sometimes ADHD meds can contribute to increased anxiety and he was already anxious, but then also knew sometimes it actually helped with decreasing anxiety in some kids and I think the fear was what will happen, you know, what if we do something that ultimately hurts him in some way, and that is such a big fear for parents, understandably so, you know, he already kind of struggled with sleep problems, his body and his brain didn't slow down to sleep. And we were concerned that starting a stimulant would make sleep problems even worse for him. We were also, you know, concerned how he would feel about taking medication, what impact would that have on him, because, you know, unfortunately, there's still a stigma around taking medication. And we knew he would probably need to take some type of booster during the school day. And I wanted to make sure that, you know, we had tried all other supports before trying medication. So even if medication wasn't his future, he might be in a better place with his support. So, of course, he was in therapy because I cannot stress enough how important mental health therapy is neurodivergent kids and teens and adults go through so much. And I don't think of therapy as optional, I think it is necessary. We worked hard to get him support in school, and to educate staff. We made the dietary changes, we tried all the things, the environmental changes, you name it, you can think of it, we did it, probably more than once. He was still really struggling though. We had to consider medication. He wanted to listen, he wanted to follow directions. He wanted to be able to think before he acted. All these corrections at school, and in the community were really weighing on him. His struggle with friendships was bringing him down. He was making progress with therapy, but he needed more help with his neurology. So again, the next step was medication. And although it's a difficult decision, of course it is, I had to remember that there are two hearts here, two hearts. One hard is where we already were. We could continue on the same road for him him feeling bad about himself being corrected so much more than the other kids around him. Him feeling like he was going to jump out of his skin, feeling like he couldn't make friends. Or we could go with the other hard trialing medication, potential side effects. Again, we're choosing between two hearts, not one but to. So after we had tried all the other things, and we're confident that we figure out, you know, all the things that were supportive for him and maybe things that weren't, we began that journey of medication. And, you know, it definitely was a journey because there were side effects such as weight loss, and, you know, trying different doses trying different stimulants, trying non stimulants, there were concerns about his appetite. So we needed to supplement his diet while he was on one of the stimulants that he tried, you know, with healthy and high caloric drinks. We provided just constant access to a variety of healthy foods outside of mealtimes, just in case he got hungry, we'd remind him to take a few bites of food, you know, before he'd start each new activity, so we can just sort of roll that in there and did his transitions. And, you know, here's the thing, even though there were ups and downs, overall, he felt better. He was corrected less often. He was able to maintain a couple of friendships when he wasn't before. He was able to learn and retain more information at school, there were a lot of positives. Now on to my own personal journey with ADHD medication. Those of you who know and listen to me I was diagnosed with ADHD late in life. And thank goodness because getting the diagnosis provided so much relief for me. I can now understand why my brain works the way it does. So instead of being frustrated or mad at myself for losing Things are getting things and, and the list goes on, I can approach myself with more understanding and support.
Holly Moses 10:08
Now, I wasn't sure that I would even start a stimulant, you know, I had gone for so long, without line, but I knew that I needed more help. I'm already in therapy once a week, I've already put in all the environmental supports such as timers, and visual timers, and colorful post it notes currently green at this moment next to me. Reminder, I mean, you, you name it, I put it in there. And even with everything I had already done, I was still struggling. And I first tried to stimulant at a very low dose. And I just could not believe the difference. I could catch myself on the road of distraction so much faster. And for example, instead of catching myself, eight steps away from the original thought or task, I caught myself at around five on average. And keep in mind, I know this because I count in my head, I take data all the time when I'm meeting with clients because I need to assess progress. So I'm used to doing that. So then I tried an extended release stimulant, which I found overall helpful, but not as much as the immediate release that I took right away before work. That wasn't my passion. My individual need was when I had to do things that weren't interesting, like paperwork, managing email, administrative work, for my therapy practice, I don't need any help. When I see clients, I don't need any help at all with a stimulant, because I'm 100%, attending to them, I am with them every single moment. Because supporting neurodivergent kids, teens and adults is my passion area. I love every single second, and I don't get distracted, not at all. You see when an ADHD person is doing something they're very, very excited about and passionate about, they're not going to get nearly as distracted. It's how we're wired. So life would be very different for us, if we all had the opportunity to do what we love all of the time. But of course, there are many things outside of our passion and interests that we're gonna have to do. And that's where we often get distracted. And boredom sets in big and fast. So about a week after I started taking the stimulant, my husband and I went to the grocery store. And as we were walking through the parking lot towards the grocery store, I noticed this pet store. And I said to him, oh, there's a new pet store there. I'd like to go in there sometime. And he looked at me and gave me kind of this strange look and said, I'm Holly that's been there for years. He asked me, Did you take your ADHD meds? And I said, Yes. I'm in my late 40s I been to the grocery store 1000s of times in my life in nothing could have prepared me for my first time at the grocery store while taking a stimulant. It was as though I was walking into another world. Although I had been to this particular store so many times. It was a entirely different experience. And the best way that I can describe this was all the times before the 1000 times before I was moving through the store, as if I was looking through a paper towel roll with a fog around the circle. That's just the best way I can think of describing it. This time was different. It was as though I put down that paper towel roll in the fog was gone. I saw everything I saw the colors and I noticed the lighting differences. I noticed the smells I mean it was it was amazing. I saw all the fruits and vegetables there were so many um I guess because I just kept looking before through this tunnel. I wasn't able to see all these things before. When we were walking down the canned vegetable area, everyone knows what I'm talking about. I said to him, I had no idea there were just so many brands of green beans. And I've got caught some strange looks from people in the aisle. That's okay. I'm sure they don't hear that every time they're there. Now ADHD medication doesn't take away all distraction. You know, it doesn't take away all the impulsivity or hyperactivity. But for some people, it can really help. It is not an easy decision. It wasn't an easy decision for me to make for my child. And it wasn't an easy decision for me as far as taking medication, myself, but for us, the provas outweigh the cons. That's not the case for everyone. So you want to make sure if you're considering medication for you or your child, consult with a qualified medical professional who has experience working with neurodivergent people. It's always a great idea to work with a psychiatrist, a physician's assistant, or nurse practitioner, someone who has specialty training and experience. So thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate you supporting the autism ADHD podcast and you are the reason why I keep coming back every single week. Again, if you are a therapist, and you are looking for great continuing education trainings, check out that link below so you can get on the waitlist. Thanks so much, and we'll talk soon. Bye bye.
Holly Moses 17:11
Thank you for joining me for this episode. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any important information. Today's episode is brought to you by the free behavior detective guide. If you are a parent, a teacher or a therapist, and you support a child who struggles with challenging behavior, you absolutely want to get a hold of this free guide. So take a look in the show notes and click the link and you'll be on your way to getting the free guide in your inbox. Thanks so much and I look forward to seeing you next time.
Disclaimer 17:47
All content provided is protected under applicable copyright patent trademark and other proprietary rights all content is provided for informational and educational purposes only. No content is intended to be a substitute for professional medical or psychological diagnosis advice or treatment information provided does not create an agreement for service between Holly blanc Moses Crossman clinical group the interviewee Holly Blanc, Moses LLC and the recipient can tell your physician regarding the applicability of any opinions or recommendations with respect to your symptoms or medical condition or the symptoms or medical condition of your family member children or adults who show signs of dangerous behavior toward themselves or others should be placed immediately under the care of a qualified professional
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