ritalin or alternatives?

Hi Maddie - My son has epilepsy and extremely severe ADHD. He'll be 30 in July. I think the old saw that people outgrow ADHD in their teens is finally worn out. The people I know who have had it or ADD, such as one of my daughters still have it into their adult years but it presents new problems then in the school years. I will say for my children who are now 26-ADD and 29-ADHD, life was extremely hard for both of them until they finally found what therapies worked best for them but I had to really spend a lot of money, changed doctors many times until finally I found someone I found that I felt diagnosed them both based upon sound medical principals and really looked at their whole pictures before prescribing. The way they were both ultimately diagnosed that seemed to really fit the picture was by a computer program designed just to diagnose ADD or ADHD. Make sure too you know the difference. VERY briefly my son's mind but also his body is in constant motion. I probably have at least ADD too. I topic hop like crazy. I even interrupt myself. But his body is always in motion, mine isn't. Even if he's dead on his feet he's always moving. My daughter who has ADD has a mind that jumps around, short attention span, interrupts a lot, but they both have high IQ's and I do think they capture topics faster than most and once they do, even if the explanation hasn't been finished? They're onto something else. I know my daughter got A's in college and didn't read each word she thinks because of ADD - she self learned unwittingly how to skim read and get it all. She was telling me about this and I realized I did the same thing but never realized it. Then I read that is another potential symptom of ADD. With my son the worst drug we tried wsa Ritalin both short and long acting but that was his indivudal response too. He became extremely depressed and had stomach cramping. I wish I could remember the name of all the drugs he tried, there were so many and none of them worked. I remembering figuring at some point in his school years that by his junior year in HS he couldn't possibly make it and sure enough the 3rd quarter he was getting all F's and I got desperate. I started doctor shopping again, found a new one and we went there. He spent THREE hours with my son, alone, got to know him. I filled out a very long questionnaire and he had all of his medical records. IOW he was very prepared and he took in the whole person. The only patients he took were those with ADHD or ADD. He used a drug that no one used any longer but it worked for him. The only one out of many tried that finally did. I felt like manna from heaven had fallen. It is basically speed, and again he does have epilepsy which frightened me. He started him on an extremely small dose and titrated it up very slowly. He was a psychologist and did this with the help of his neuro. His individual reaction was it didn't seem to stimulate sz's. And that's the paradox of having ADHD or ADD and possibly why speed doesn't stimulate sz's, because speed for him? Motored him down so much I couldn't believe it. It'd actually put him to sleep if he were tired. But it could in others I suppose. I think it would in me. I just tried one before I was diagnosed and felt like I was going to shed my skin I was so nervous. I thought I might have ADD and if so - that certainly was not the drug for me. It scared me after I'd taken it. It did have one bad side effect which was that he has absolutely no spit at all and that can be extremely uncomfortable but we found if he sucks on sugarless lemon drops, so his teeth don't rot out, his mouth isn't dry. He also gets random drug checks in his job so he always has to provide a doctor's statement that's he is on speed - dexidrine. So he won't be canned. He's had no problem with that so far. He's decided to only use the drug for certain events such as meetings, presentations, feels he's going over the top, loosing his temper too much or is annoying people. He is in management so he does have to have good people skills. For that I'm thankful he finally found something and oh he went on this and all those F's turned into A's. All those years of struggling through school and the last three semesters of HS he was on the honor roll. You bet I had a huge graduation party for him. He says, unbelievably to me, he can't "feel" his ADHD. That amazes me because his body is never stationary off medication. The other thing he had him do is to buy a computer program that is basically biofeedback for people with ADHD. He did have good success eventually with the program but I don't think he was sophisticated or motivated enough at that age to apply it to his virtual life. My daughter did find a drug that was a non stimulant but it was also addictive so she decided not to take it. That was Ativan. She recognizes she has ADD and verbalizes it on the other hand she doesn't see a need to medicate herself for it. Her ADD makes her have big blow ups at times. Her frustration level is about one millimeter long and it hurts her socially and has professionally. It's frustrating to me she has hurt herself so much by not using medication but she's an adult now - it's her choice. She did just recently get a new computer program I haven't seen yet she said is helping her stay on topic, not interrupt, and it's teaching her how to diffuse her temper. She said. There are two drugs for ADD or ADHD I know of off the top of my head,but sorry the names I'm not able to retrieve with my lousy memory. One of them that starts with a "C" both of my children tried and it didn't help them, which doesn't mean it won't help you. There is also a new non stimulant drug out but I've only seen a few advertisements and can't remember the name. I would heavily suggest you research who specializes in this problem. Ultimately we used a psychologist and an MD coordinating together with my son who has had the most success in conquering this mainly because he wanted to but he went through a lot of drug trials until we finally found one that works. His life improved a hundred fold once he got on top of this too. It always sadsdens me to think of the hell he went through with t his for so many years because we couldn't find the right treatment for so long, and not for lack of looking. Good luck. Gretchen

Coffee - caffeine compounds - help a few persons with executive function challenges. Caffeine is a known weak stimulant in the same category of medicines (the central nervous system stimulants - alerting agents) as stronger Ritalin, Dexedrine, and Adderall. However, all of the above medicines including weak caffeine can lower the seizure threshold for some of those with epilepsy. People's responses to caffeine are known to vary widely. Some persons benefit from caffeine vs others who do not/find that caffeine tends to lower the seizure threshold. Good luck.