My son, 7, recently was officially diagnosed as ADHD and prescribed medication to help him focus in school. We have noticed recently that he has much more aggression and general angst / anger on nights when he was medicated in the morning for school.
Is this something that anyone has dealt with? Are there any tips for how to help him calm himself and sort out his feelings?
Posted Dec 22, 2021, 12:43 PM UTC
Yeah, when I began my medication I was extremely touchy. Most kids or boys with ADHD from what I understand usually do have anger issues and the medication at the beginning can make you feel like a loaded cannon. I’ve been on meds for a while now and I can still see that im a lot more touchy but a lot less irrational if you get what I mean? So it’s like before My meds I didn’t have the mental capacity to think something through before doing it, but now I may get set off from something small but it’s to a much smaller degree. If I were you just be patient with him as he adjusts to it :)
Thanks, that is what we are doing. He has had a temper for quite a while, but the post-medication temper is off the charts. It probably does not help being the middle of 5 boys either.
What medication is he taking?
Focalin XR.
Unfortuntely it's common to feel this when the medication is wearing off. I also feel this way when my med is wearing off. Search on Reddit and ok Google for "Ritalin/Concerta comedown". Ritalin and Concerta active pharmaceutical, methylphenidate, is a close cousin to Focalin's dexmethylphenidate. Maybe a small (half of a Ritalin IR 10 mg) tablet when the Focalin is starting to wear off could alleviate (but not completely eliminate) what your son feels. To a certain degree all users of stims need to learn to cope with the comedown. Maybe therapy could also help him understand what he feels when the medication is wearing off and give him the mental and emotional tools to deal with the Focalin comedown.
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