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Regular Features

THE PARENT COACH
Dr. Steven Richfield provides articles on many different aspects of raising a child with ADHD.                                   

ASK THE ADVOCATE
Each month we our advocate will be answering questions from our visitors about yours and your children's rights in the educational system.    

PARENTS TALK
A mother is trying to help her teenage son learn anger management.   

MOTIVATION TIPS
Five great ideas for motivation, including The Shoe Race, Trading Places and more.  

ORGANIZATION TIPS
Organize your child at home, and maybe find some tips that will help you as well.  

ADHD IN THE NEWS
Headlines about ADHD, Learning Disability and Mental Disorders

Study on ADD and TV
The recent study published on watching television between the ages of one and three and the possible link to ADD/ADHD did not take many considerations into account. The author of the study even admits that he cannot conclude that television watching and ADD/ADHD are linked.

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Parent To Parent

One mother writes:

I have a teenager (age 17) with ADHD.  He has recently begun smoking marijuana, he is sneaking and lying.  I have looked into getting him treatment but the insurance companies will only pay for counseling when he is "only" smoking marijuana.  I am not sure where to turn. He is taking medication for depression as well as Adderall for ADHD.  Any ideas? 

Get info on the affects of pot. If you can convince your son to read the info maybe he will see for himself that it's a dead end street. I teach high school Jrs. and seniors. I speak very frankly with them about the use of drugs. one thing I point out is... if life "sucks" then why make it worse with drugs. It's a band-aid over a gunshot wound and only makes the "suckyness" of a situation worse.  On the other hand, if life is good then why alter it with a fake sense of acceleration or enhancement. It WILL ultimately ruin any good aspects of life you're experiencing. I had a friend tell me once he use to do cocaine. the thing that stopped him was, he looked around at who he was hanging out with and told himself that if he weren't doing cocaine he wouldn't be caught dead hanging around these people. It woke him up. I shared this with my students and have had several tell me it made a difference.

Your 17 year old is no child. however he lives in YOUR home. Tell him you love him but you insist that you know who, when, and where he is.  The "buzz" is not worth the bite you get from smokin' a blunt. Don't do anything that won't give you a positive return in your life. Sound cynical?  Not really, if you help someone as a volunteer, do work for someone "just because", get the drift? In other words, what goes around comes around. Smokin' dope has never and will never give you a positive return in your life. It will only take and give back NOTHING.  Look around at who he is hanging with. do they have long term goals?  If so, can they back up what they say?  He will hear all the "positive" info about dope from those who do it. Duh! He needs to ask himself where he sees the "friends" he's hanging with in 10 years. Does he want to be there?

Share this with your son. I hope he's smart enough not to be led by the nose like a hog to slaughter. Be an individual not a follower.

Take care

Dr. Science

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I have a son 15 who is ADHD and ODD. Our story is very long and I am sure like most of us with children with these diagnosis, our stories are similar. When we suspected that our son was smoking more than cigarettes, which we do not allow, I turned to many different places for help and was able to find help at the local Youth and Family Services. Their services are based on a sliding scale and depending on income fees could be little to none. He went for outpatient therapy three times a week. If you have this service in your area it is worth looking into. It was beneficial for us. I hope this is of some help.

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No experience on this one.  I thought providing our add kids with knowledge about drugs as as well giving them meds should cease the need for self medication.

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They need to be aware of the influences of culture (best friends can influence us (our) kids  emensely). Let them know that drugs kill.  It is a no win situation.  Maybe as why he takes them (drugs))  And have him tell his doctor.

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I also have a teenage son that has begun to use marijuana.  I understand all his reasons for doing this, he has struggled long and hard through his school years.  He has always felt left out and he has the normal need of wanting to fit in somewhere.  He thinks that he has found that in his new “friends.”  He is tired of school and tired of almost failing every day, despite trying.  He has one more year of high school and he just wants it to be over.  I know all these things, I understand but I cannot accept his solution.   

Although we are not through it yet, I can share with you the steps we have taken so far.   

1)   I sat down with my son and discussed the dangers of drugs, the rules of our house, what the consequences would be if he continued to use illegal drugs.  We talked not only about the physical dangers of getting high, but the emotional danger.  I showed him information on this to let him know that I was not making all of this up.  We also talked about drug trafficking, I showed him information on how terrorists receive money from the sale of illegal drugs.  I showed him pictures of what happened on 9/11 to let him know where his money was going to.

2)  I made an appointment with the doctor who prescribes his medication for ADHD and let the doctor know (in front of my son) what was going on.  I told him I thought he should be aware in case there were any drug interactions.  We scheduled a drug screening to make sure we knew exactly what we were dealing with (only marijuana, there were no traces of any other drugs). 

3)  I made an appointment with a mental health facility for a complete psychological evaluation.  I wanted to make sure we were treating the correct diagnosis and decided to start again at the beginning to set up a treatment plan. 

4)      He began counseling on a weekly basis

5)      We began monthly drug screen tests. 

We only started all this a few months ago.  I wish I could tell you how all this worked, long term, but I can only tell you that my son has not had any illegal drugs for  30 days now.  I guess this is the longest he has gone without for a year, so that is good.  I hope that he lasts and begins to see the benefits of “being straight.”  In the meantime, we are monitoring more closely all of his friends, his activities and his whereabouts.  He doesn’t even go to the store any longer without us checking how long he has been gone and what his eyes look like when he comes back.