College students are using Adderall (or it’s cousin Ritalin) to help them study. Adderall and Ritalin are commonly prescribed to kids with Attention-deficit disorder (ADD or ADHD). It helps a person stay on task, boosts concentratioin, and helps him/her stay focused. All things college students are looking for when studying for a big test.

One girl said “Addy” (as college students often refer to it as) helped her feel motivated and not restless. She felt like she could focus on her homework without longing to watch television or get distracted by the radio. She went on to say with “Addy” she doesn’t feel jittery or anxious like she does with a big cup of coffee.

College students say they can get the drug just about anywhere; the library, the cafeteria, the dorms. Students who have a legitimate prescription sell their stash rather than taking the pills themselves. A student can get one pill for around $5 except during exam time when the price hikes up to around $25 a pill due to supply and demand. So it’s easy to get, it’s fairly cheap, and it gives kids the results they are looking for.

But it is still a drug and, as with any drug, there are some pretty serious side effects. It can cause “severe sleep deprivation, rare heart problems…and it can be addicting.” My son doesn’t take Adderall, but he does take medication for ADHD and there are many other side effects that weren’t mentioned in this piece, including:

• loss of appetite,
• dry mouth,
• headaches,
• stomach pain,
• nausea,
• weight loss,
• diarrhea,
• confusion,
• chest tightness,
• heart Palpitations,
• depression,
• aggressive behavior, and
• suicidal thoughts.

Plus it can be a precursor to abusing other prescription drugs. Or even illegal drugs. With habit forming drugs like Adderall kids feel like they need their fix.

Another student said using Adderall is kind of like cheating, “It takes away your own coping skills and your own ability to evolve your own study skills and work ethic. So it’s kind of an easy way out.” Teens need to learn good study habits and not rely on a drug to help them get good grades.

Post from: Blisstree

College Students Abusing “Smart Drugs”

A few months ago he was diagnosed with ADD. I felt terrible because we waiting so long to talk to our doctor about this diagnosis. I really think if we had gone to the doctor sooner, it would have helped him tremendously. Now he’s about to finish his sophomore year in high school and his grades are not good. Now we need to spend time finding the right medication that will work for him. We need to spend more time working on study skills again now that his brain is cooperating. And now is the time when these bad grades really effect him. Now these grades are on his official transcript that colleges and future employers may see.

We have yet to find the right combination of medication and nagging that works to get him on track. It’s getting better, but slowly. I’m a big education pusher. I’m all over my kids to get their homework done to the best of their ability and in on time. I’m not afraid to schedule meetings with counselors and email teachers. I’m on the verge of pulling a Rosanne and wearing the most embarrassing outfit I can find and following him around school to each of his classes. Almost.

We can check grades online to see what assignments are turned in and which aren’t. I know there is some debate about this. Our parents didn’t have that much information when we were kids. They just had to wait until midterms grade came out to ground us. Now we can ground our kids daily for missing assignments. I, however, love the fact that I can see all assignments online. By midterm it’s often to late to make up for lost work and he would end up failing. If I can see homework assignments in real time it helps me help him. I know when he’s in college (if he goes) I won’t get the luxury of seeing each assignment grade, but that’s ok. Without a high school diploma he can’t do anything. He can’t go in the military. He can’t go to college. He can’t get a job that pays more than minimum wage. We’re just working on high school right now. We’ll cross the college bridge when we get there.

About a week ago we sat down and went through every single assignment that was still missing. My son showed me what was completed and just needed to be turned in and then he worked on the assignments that still needed work. He is currently taking a PC Operating Systems class. It’s a dual credit class which means he not only gets high school credit, but he also get college credit. His grade for this class will be on his college transcript. Right now he gets to take the class for free, but if he fails it then we have to pay the local community college the fee for the course. It will be around $300 and I told my son the money will be coming from his savings account. All the money he just got for his birthday will be going to this class if he doesn’t get this grade up.

So (I thought) he was really focusing on that class and getting that work done. He showed me the three assignments that were missing and he had them completed. But when I checked online on Tuesday he still hadn’t turned them in.

I finally had enough and told him I would be going to school with him on Wednesday morning. So Wednesday morning I dragged my tired butt out of bed early and my husband and I accompanied our son to school. I feel like meeting his teachers face-to-face works better for us because he can’t give me this song and dance about how his teacher didn’t explain it right or won’t give him another copy of the worksheet or whatever excuse he comes up with. We met with each of his teachers that morning. He turned in all the assignments he had done and we got info and/or worksheets for all of the remaining missing assignments. All was going well.

His PC Operating Systems teacher wasn’t in the room right away. We checked several times and he wasn’t there yet. I was about to give up when we decided to check one more time. He was there. We walked in and I looked at my son and said, “Ok, turn in Chapter 11, 13 and 14.”

He looked down at his shoes and said, “I can’t.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“They aren’t done.”

“What do you mean they aren’t done. I saw them.”

“I lied. I just showed you old assignments and labeled them Chapter 11, 13 and 14.”

I was stunned. “You lied?” I stumbled.

“Yeah, I’m sorry.”

I was ready to strangle him right there, but we were in front of his teacher and a few students were in the room so I kept my cool. I told him to bring home all of his books that night and he’d be working on everything the remainder of the week and through the weekend.

I know teenagers lie, but I was just so taken aback that he faked his homework. He knew he wasn’t going to get away with it. I check his grades every day. I know he hasn’t turned it in. He was going to get caught eventually. It just blows my mind.

Needless to say, he has been grounded to his room since Wednesday. We sat down and discussed the lying. I told him I understand homework is boring to him and I’m going to be mad when he doesn’t do his part. Homework is his job right now. But I will not tolerate lying at all. I think we had a good talk.

And now his doctor has upped his ADD medicine so hopefully that will help. He seems to be doing better the last couple days. He’s gotten quite a bit done and is getting caught up.

Raising teenagers is so exhausting.

Post from: Blisstree

Lying About Homework

In third grade the teacher told his mom that she thought he had ADHD. So she took him to the doctor. The doctor looked him over and asked a bunch of questions and decided to put him on some medication that he would have to take each day he was in school. That concerned us because it seemed like we were just medicating him so the teacher could handle him at school. My husband and his ex decided not to have him take the medicine.

Now we understand ADHD a little better and we know this is common. Kids with ADHD often take medicine only on days they have school because the medication helps them learn better and helps them be less fidgety. The medicine then wears off by night. However, we didn’t do our research back then and I feel like we did a real disservice to our son.

When he was in sixth grade, he moved in with my husband and I. Education has always been very important to me with all of my kids so I immediately took an interest in helping him get organized and doing better in school. We set up some guidelines, talked about using his agenda to keep track of homework and came up with some rules and consequences for late or missing work.

Things went “ok” in sixth grade, but it’s been going downhill every since. Now that he’s in high school I’m terrified he won’t graduate and I don’t know what to do. We’ve tried to praise him when he did things well. That didn’t work. We tried to motivate him (read: bribe) by offering to buy him an Xbox 360 if he brought home Cs or better on any report card. That didn’t work. We tried to punish him by taking away electronics (computer, video games, cell phone, TV) when he didn’t bring home all Cs or better. That didn’t work.

Shortly before Christmas we took him to the doctor to talk about our struggles. Our doctor asked us questions. He asked our son questions. He evaluated his school habits and chore habits. Then he diagnosed him with ADD. He no longer has the Hyperactivity, so it’s just ADD at this point. He prescribed Stratterafor him to take once a day every day and told us it would take about a month for it to get in his system.

He’s been on Strattera for over two months now and I don’t see an improvement in his grades. He still has several missing assignments and I’m still worried he won’t graduate. We have a meeting with his counselor and his teachers set for tomorrow morning (way in earlier than I like to get up, but that’s how much I love this kid). I’m hoping we can brainstorm some solutions to help him with his schoolwork. We also discussed the continued struggles with our doctor last week and we may consider increasing his dosage to see if that helps.

But I keep thinking back to when he was in third grade and how we didn’t start the medication then. It likely would have helped if we would have done something earlier.

Earlier this week, I was reading an article in the Roanoke Times called ADHD From A Teen’s Point of View. I wish that was something we had read seven years ago when we first heard of the possibility of our son having ADHD. Blake Taylor has been living with ADHD for most of his life and now, as a college freshman, he wrote a memoir about his experiences, called ADHD & Me. I’m looking forward to reading this book and learning more about how this young man dealt with his disorder and was still successful. I’ll let you know what I learn.

Post from: Blisstree

ADHD & Me

An article at ADDvance, titled Helping Your Teen with ADD (ADHD) Prepare for Independence has a detailed list of the activities and tasks your teen needs to know how to do in order to transition into the real world, starting with skills in middle school. Tasks include:

• Learning to do laundry
• Purchasing clothing
• Managing time
• Organizing their living space
• Keeping track of personal items
• Steps for managing a car
• Managing money (balancing a check book, paying bills)
• Record keeping
• Personal care

So many of these tasks we learned to do by watching our parents. Are you setting good examples and taking the opportunity to teach life skills to your kids as you go through daily life?

Post from: Blisstree

Giving Teens With ADD The Tools For Success In Life