ADHD / ADD Support Group

I am not a doctor but I am an adult with ADHD and a husband with ADHD and one of my sons now 18 who has never been medicated is ADHD. I can say with my son when he was young I got him busy at 7 he started riding horses and would ride the rubber off his bike and this helped with moods and melt downs. Now for me I can not miss my Adderall XR one day. I have to be doing something if I am stuck sitting to long or stuck in the house to long I will have a melt down. I have to always keep my brain doing something it can be reading learning or get moving. I know its hard and it was for my son. This young man is going to graduate HS this year and is on the move 24/7 its when he sits around his moods start or any real change in plans or routine. Routine is a big thing any unexpected change will cause a melt down and this is the same with me also as an adult. I wish you luck I am surrounded by ADHD my sons friend have ADHD we are a real interesting group when we are together. But no joking it is hard to figure out and the melt downs are hard. You son is very smart and need to have his brain stimulated all the time. For me if I am not my brain feels like the TV remote stuck on and flipping really fast through channels. Good luck I wish I was more help.

Thank you for your comments. I have him enrolled in year round sports, but he gets real negative when he looses or is not the best, but he does not want to practice to get any better. He can be very negative and I don't know where this comes from since I am always giving him positive reinforcement. It seems like the coaches are miserable coaching him. He refuses to meet up to challenges, gives minimum effort, and to be honest with you I don't look forward to his games because I get so embarresed when his name is called 1,000,000,000 ect times then he gives the coaches lip... I feel bad saying that...Everything I offer to do with him to keep him busy he usually turns down. If I make him go, hoping for a positive outcome it is usually miserable, he will see to that, so I just don't do it much anymore to eliminate the drama. He loves video games but I limit them a lot, and he goes into major meltdowns whenever I tell him to turn it off, even when I give him a 10 & 5 minute warning...So I have no new ideas to try and I feel like were running in circles. 95% of mornings are not nice, he always wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, no matter how softly I wake him up. That sets the day to be not that great...I just don't know what to do. My older son is so mellow and we just look at him and wonder where this all comes from...I feel like a bad mother saying all this, but I really could use direction. I want so bad to help my baby, but I feel lost.

I approach these issues with some skepticism. Being very active, going from task to task, may be just the way you are. When I play basketball and am involved in every play, that's a good thing, when I won't just sit while I am on hold but will do 1 or more other tasks instead of wasting time, that is also a good thing. I now regularly put my callers on speaker phone, and do another project while I am on the phone and think I am more productive than others.

I am not sure why an active sports regimen wouldn't help address some of his activity. If he doesn't do his chores, some form of mild and consistent punishment (give him an allowance and reduce it, ground him, etc) isn't better than more meds.

I missed part of your post (okay ADD has its limits). I would just talk to him and try to see what's bothering him. I agree the video games are not good, but see if there is another type of activity he likes. I think he has to choose it.