Comment by relaxing
18 days ago
This is a sobering account. Thank you for sharing.
I’m curious, is the ADHD child receiving treatment? On medication?
I wish more people understood how this goes, when their answer to every social ill is “people need to do better” and there’s no allowance for those who don’t possess the same capacity.
Unfortunately he does not receive the typical ADHD treatment. As he also has a tic disorder (Tourette’s). Standard ADHD medications are contraindicated in people with tic disorders because they exacerbate tics.
This is why some people who have ADHD actually get worse on medication, as they may also have mild cases of Tourette’s that haven’t been identified. Tourette’s and ADHD commonly occur together along with OCD. I call it the ADHD trifecta. My son has behaviours consistent with all three (the most overlapping symptom being impulse control (or also known as compulsive behaviours). It’s a difficult combination of behaviours to manage, and with Tourette’s in particular, it’s not just verbal tics or motor tics, it’s also severe disinhibition (think having no filter), and uncontrollable rage (also because of the lack of filter). So the ADHD medication makes all those behaviours worse.
He instead has off label medications. Clonidine, and a SNRI (I hate that he is on an SNRI, but he’s been on it for 4 years and before he was on it, life was really extremely distressing and hard most of the time so I often remind myself of those times when I feel guilty that he’s been on an SNRI for as long as he has).
So a lot of the management of his ADHD has to be through behavioural approaches since we can’t use medication to help. Hence doing things like this money thing, and him suffering the consequences of his poor money choices.
He’s lucky to have you looking out for him.