Misc Smart drugs for a 6 year old with ADHD?

[JessFR]

What makes you so sure he actually has a legitimate problem? Apart from what the highly fallible doctors think.

Also, this IS medicating him. It's not 'suppliments'

 

[Draven26]

First of all it's not my child.. I just babysit him. Second of all he's been told by a bunch of doctors that he's got severe ADHD which he does. I was 6 too once and I had energy but I wasn't distracted with homework and paying attention to shit like this kid is. And his mother doesn't want to medicate him with anything.. but she was just curious about herbal supplements and nootropics but if he shouldn't be fucking around with anything at his age then that's all you had to say man. I thought I had anger issues you fuckers need to chill man I just wanted some advice but if you don't want to help fuck it just close the damn thread.

 

[yteek]

Adhd can be diagnosed at 6. In fact it's usually pretty obvious. Not saying he should be on meds but undiagnosed ADHD can lead to serious problems later in life.

Just cause it can be "diagnosed", doesn't mean shit. It is over "diagnosed" and the fact that these same doctors churning out these labels are more then willing to give them amphetamine without question only highlights the pure fuckery.

 

[Listening]

Please just don't do it. Regardless of one's opinion on the ADHD diagnosis at that age, the stuff you mention in the OP may or may not be healthy long term and this is exponentially riskier starting from such a young age where the brain is still developing. Don't do it. It is not worth risking this child's future life to find out if these things might possibly have a positive (or negative!) effect when taken regularly starting from that age. It is 100% unethical IMO.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

Adhd can be diagnosed at 6. In fact it's usually pretty obvious. Not saying he should be on meds but undiagnosed ADHD can lead to serious problems later in life.

Indeed ADD or ADHD can be identified as young as 5 or 6.

There's nothing wrong with giving someone who is 6 years old ADD/ADHD medications.

They're taken by a lot of people worldwide including children, who are monitored by doctors and other medical professionals, and the medications are taken in extremely low doses. Someone who has ADD/ADHD does not react to amphetamine or methylphenidate the way someone who does not have ADD or ADHD does. These medications are certainly a lot more studied, and known about than smart drugs/nootropics and research chemicals are.

Would you deny someone who is a kid and who is bipolar/manic, or even schizophrenic medications that would help them? Or a kid that's a diabetic insulin?

 

[JessFR]

The problem is so many children have been misdiagnosed by a flawed and corrupt system. I'm not denying the existence of add or adhd. But i have seen myself how the school system has compelled the parents, and then together compelled the doctors, to get a diagnosis that is more in line with the wishes of the school than the reality of the child. The kid misbehaves, maybe because of their temperament, maybe because of outstanding psychiatric reasons. The school wants him or her medicated, and if the doctor doesn't give them a diagnosis they wanted, the school threatens the parent to expel the child and quietly makes it aware that a different diagnosis would be within their capabilities to handle, and poof, a new diagnosis appears. I've seen it happen. And that and so many other very dubious cases of add and adhd from incompetent, corrupt, or manipulated doctors result in many feeling the entire disorder doesn't exist.

I don't agree, and I'm not saying the OP's kid isn't a completely legitimate case, but it's hard to blame them.

 

[yteek]

Indeed ADD or ADHD can be identified as young as 5 or 6.

There's nothing wrong with giving someone who is 6 years old ADD/ADHD medications.

They're taken by a lot of people worldwide including children, who are monitored by doctors and other medical professionals, and the medications are taken in extremely low doses. Someone who has ADD/ADHD does not react to amphetamine or methylphenidate the way someone who does not have ADD or ADHD does. These medications are certainly a lot more studied, and known about than smart drugs/nootropics and research chemicals are.

Would you deny someone who is a kid and who is bipolar/manic, or even schizophrenic medications that would help them? Or a kid that's a diabetic insulin?

What a load of bullshit.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

What a load of bullshit.

It's true. Try talking to actual medical professionals, experts in ADD/ADHD, and people who have ADD, or ADHD who have taken medications for their ADD or ADHD...instead of just being anti-medication, pretending you know more than neurologists or other medical professionals, and angry for a silly and pointless reason.

 

[yteek]

It's true. Try talking to actual medical professionals, experts in ADD/ADHD, and people who have ADD, or ADHD who have taken medications for their ADD or ADHD...instead of just being anti-medication, pretending you know more than neurologists or other medical professionals, and angry for a silly and pointless reason.

It isn't white and black, I'll leave at that.

 

[SixBuckets]

The first line of treatment for young children with ADHD is behavioural therapy. If that fails, medication may be considered.

I think this is a pretty appropriate approach and would advise against trying to skip the first step.

 

[emjay]

Indeed ADD or ADHD can be identified as young as 5 or 6.

There's nothing wrong with giving someone who is 6 years old ADD/ADHD medications.

In fact (assuming they haven't changed it in the most recent update to the DSM), it's not even supposed to be diagnosed UNLESS it was present before the age of 7.

I was diagnosed with inattentive-type ADHD (which is actually considered UNDERdiagnosed because we generally aren't troublemakers like hyperactive-type) at the age of 23. I WISH I was diagnosed as a kid but this has come to negatively affect my life in a severe way, which is much more likely to happen to people who AREN'T treated when they are children. As is drug addiction, as it so happens.

 

[Erikmen]

Well, my niece was diagnosed when she was a small kid and all the medication she took made everything worse now.
She became vulnerable and like some of us, she started to medicate herself to get some fun out of it.
I believe she´s now addicted to a lot of pills.
Sometimes, it´s a bit difficult to judge what would have been better for us.
I guess in theory it could work, but we never really know.

 

[emjay]

Well, my niece was diagnosed when she was a small kid and all the medication she took made everything worse now.
She became vulnerable and like some of us, she started to medicate herself to get some fun out of it.
I believe she´s now addicted to a lot of pills.
Sometimes, it´s a bit difficult to judge what would have been better for us.
I guess in theory it could work, but we never really know.

Medication is never going to be perfect. That being said, you have zero way of knowing that the medication itself was responsible for making everything worse.

Many studies have shown that those of us with ADHD are already far more likely to abuse and be addicted to drugs, and even far more likely than that if they weren't medically treated as children. It's so significant that it's the ONLY potential disease/disorder I was asked about when assessing the risk for drug abuse, going into pain management.

With everything I've gone through because of it, I would have zero issue medicating my child if I felt the diagnosis was accurate. The people who diminish ADHD and the hardship it can cause frankly have no idea what they're talking about.

 

[Hodor]

At 6 years, a child probably shouldn't be medicated for ADD unless they are so heavily impaired that they are completely unable to socialize, or require constant supervision to the point that you can't even go to the bathroom without having to worry about them hurting themselves and others, AND you've already tried therapy.

But what you should never, ever do under any circumstances is give them nootropic supplements. Because don't kid yourself: These aren't really "supplements" in the way that Vitamin C or fish oil caps are. These are pharmaceutical drugs that are normally used to treat dementia in 80-year-olds in other countries, and usually prescription-only at that. Except when you're buying them as supplements, you don't even know for sure if what you're getting is actually what you ordered, and whether it is free from toxic impurities.

 

[bernax]

I would start with getting him to eat proper fiber protein and omega 3, can really do wonders for brain function

 

[pbuilder]

Medication is never going to be perfect. That being said, you have zero way of knowing that the medication itself was responsible for making everything worse.

Many studies have shown that those of us with ADHD are already far more likely to abuse and be addicted to drugs, and even far more likely than that if they weren't medically treated as children. It's so significant that it's the ONLY potential disease/disorder I was asked about when assessing the risk for drug abuse, going into pain management.

With everything I've gone through because of it, I would have zero issue medicating my child if I felt the diagnosis was accurate. The people who diminish ADHD and the hardship it can cause frankly have no idea what they're talking about.

+1 to this dude.

I understand not medicating someone at 6 but once they are 10+, not being medicated can actually lead to comorbid disorders alongside the adhd that develope because of the problems and stresses that adhd cause in the every day life of a person with it.

This often leads to anxiety disorders or depression and ultimately a very high risk for addiction to street drugs eventually, all caused by the snowball effects of not being diagnosed and medicated for adhd from a young age.

Also, social skills stop developing because the adhd interferes with being able to properly socialize and that really leaves you screwed later in life.

Anyone that cries and whines about how kids with adhd shouldn't be medicated and it's normal for a kid to be energetic and wild clearly doesn't know the issues that develope from not being treated, which are much worse then taking low dose stimulant therapy.

Ultimately if you don't have adhd then you will never understand and have no right to give your opinion on whether a child with adhd should or should not be medicated so keep your mouth shut.

 

[kosmokramer]

But what you should never, ever do under any circumstances is give them nootropic supplements. Because don't kid yourself: These aren't really "supplements" in the way that Vitamin C or fish oil caps are. These are pharmaceutical drugs that are normally used to treat dementia in 80-year-olds in other countries, and usually prescription-only at that. Except when you're buying them as supplements, you don't even know for sure if what you're getting is actually what you ordered, and whether it is free from toxic impurities.

Hodor I couldn't agree with you more.
I will not pretend to know much at all about ADD its symptoms or treatments, but this point can not be stressed enough.

Regardless of your opinions on medications and when and when not to use them, they are still medications that have been Produced in a pharmaceutical lab and put through rigorous quality control checks and are approved for human consumption.

These medications are held to a very high standard.
The chemicals in question may be of a very high purity, but they also may not be.
They may have been produced by someone who takes pride in their work in a very clean lab, but they might also have been produced in an unsanitary lab and contain dangerous contaminants as Hodor brought out.
The fact is you don't know and have no way of knowing.

 

[pbuilder]

Hodor I couldn't agree with you more.
I will not pretend to know much at all about ADD its symptoms treatments, but this point
can not be stressed enough.

Regardless of your opinions on medications and when and when not to use them, they are still medications that have been Produced in a pharmaceutical lab and put through rigorous quality control checks and are approved for human consumption.

These medications are held to a very high standard.
The chemicals in question may be of a very high purity, but they also may not be.
They may have been produced by someone who takes pride in their work in a very clean lab, but they might also have been produced in an unsanitary lab and contain dangerous contaminants as Hodor brought out.
The fact is you don't know and have no way of knowing.

This I agree with, nootropics are just drugs that are in a grey-zone honestly, they are sketchy as hell as they aren't regulated by the FDA.

Treatment should be followed by the orders of a doctor or psychiatrist who specializes in adhd.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

More and more treatment options that don't involve medications are being discovered and implemented.

I haven't done much research on ADHD, but I am also under the impression that not treating it (I don't think this is medicine-specific) can lead to depression and drug abuse.

I'm no medical professional but six still seems pretty young in my book. Yet if it means the difference between flunking out of high school and graduating with honors from college I'd definitely pick the latter. The problem is no one can predict the future.

I theorize that medicating at such a young age would produce a lot more of a dependence on the medicine than if medicated later because of brain development, but to each their own.

 

[pbuilder]

More and more treatment options that don't involve medications are being discovered and implemented.

I haven't done much research on ADHD, but I am also under the impression that not treating it (I don't think this is medicine-specific) can lead to depression and drug abuse.

I'm no medical professional but six still seems pretty young in my book. Yet if it means the difference between flunking out of high school and graduating with honors from college I'd definitely pick the latter. The problem is no one can predict the future.

I theorize that medicating at such a young age would produce a lot more of a dependence on the medicine than if medicated later because of brain development, but to each their own.

Stimulant therapy is a very effective treatment for adhd, but if course it is not sustainable because of tolerance and loss of effectiveness of medication. The combination of stim therapy and CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) statistically is the most of effective treatment, more so then either alone.

CBT alone has shown promising results.

I think the best line of treatment to go is a balanced diet that contains nutrients shown to aid people with adhd, CBT, and then stimulant therapy that includes breaks on week ends and and tolerance breaks during the week in regular intervals.