I'm glad that you have a diagnosis.

Don't beat yourself up for things that are in the past, and don't try to make up for it now. Doing either will get you and Jake no where.

I hope that the meds can help and that he can stay on a low dose.

guilty because of all the times I got frustrated and yelled at him or punished him for things that he really couldn't help.

Remember that "ADD does not CONTROL you....you have to LEARN to control yourself despite the ADD." don't kick yourself for having standards and rules, he will need to learn to follow them regardless of whether he is diagnosed or not.

My brother was ADHD and never learned to follow rules because everyone said, "he can't help it, he has ADD" Well, now he is out of the Army (less than honorable circumstances) and struggling to fit in with society.....he never grew up because noone expected him too until it was too late. Don't feel guilty for teaching discipline and standards.....your son will need to learn that stuff now, just like all the other kids.....

Good luck! I know that you will do a great job and I hope that the meds help him focus on what he needs to do

All the best to you and your son, Dharma.

Don't beat yourself up for things that are in the past, and don't try to make up for it now

I'm trying not to....and that's a good point, btw.  D and I are both going to try to not treat Jake too much differently than his siblings.  We're going to make his instructions and homework and chores more simplified...instead of saying "go clean you room" we have to break it down into simplified steps or else he'll forget...but apart from that we're going to try to make his life as normal as possible.

Remember that "ADD does not CONTROL you....you have to LEARN to control yourself despite the ADD."

Exactly.  That's part of the reason we decided to medicate him.  He's simply not able to focus enough to get a handle on his behaviour at the moment.  We're thinking that once he's medicated and calmer he'll be able to start recognizing and adjusting his behaviour.  He's also going to go to group sessions and one-on-one counselling with a pediatric psychologist..hopefully he'll pick up some stuff there that will help him along.  And we already told him that just because he has ADD doesn't mean he's going to get away with stuff; in fact he'll probably get away with less than his brother and sister because we'll be watching him closer!

All the best to you and your son, Dharma

Thank you, Raven.  I'll pass that on to Jake too!

K~

Isn't it kind of a sigh of relief though? This problem has a NAME...and it's not that Jake is just...off the wall....there really is something that's wrong.

I'm also glad that it's a low dose of medication...hopefully there will be lots more of "Jake" shining through and less "ADD". I have the feeling you'll have your boy back.

Does he understand the whole thing? How hard for a young boy to understand...*I* don't even understand and I'm an old lady.

Best to all of you K! Keep us updated how things are working out...

Hey Dharma...

Heres a big hug for you and one for little Jake as well..

It will all be ok!

Hello,

Please don't be taken in by the wave of overmedication of (mostly) male children. The wave today is to stop all this "hyperactive" behaviour , mostly in boys, by giving them pills. The main problem here is that there is a movement to stop boys from acting like boys. Though sometimes they also apply this to girls who don't fit the "mold". This is a huge problem. Just think of what our world would be like today if Edgar Allan Poe had been given antidepressants after the death of his family, instead of him writing the first detective novel or the first true horror novel. He wrote past the pain and we all came out ahead. If it was up to these people today, anyone with the slightest sign of agitation, sadness, ect. would be medicated and anylyzed. I'm fairly certain that they say that your son doesn't pay the greatest attention in school and has a "behaviour problem". Most likely the teacher is upset because he (and maybe some other boys) don't want to listen about saving Mother Earth, or little ponies, or anything else the girls find so attention grabbing. When I was a kid back in the '70s and '80's we learned much different stuff, about patriotic heroes and big machines and science...and still boys didn't all want to pay attention. They wanted to go play outside and "do stuff". So, what about now, when all the lessons in the classroom are designed to calm us and make us all great little bores. Please, do yourself and your son a favor, and at least get a second opinion from a hopefully non-biased source. Thanks for listening to my diatribe.