RE: adhd, there IS light at the end of the tunnel

[cooncreekers]

 
ahhh life is SOOO good, DS, who was diagnosed in 1st grade, (believe me, i have 2 other kids w/ it, so i know) has struggled thru w/ average grades. you know the drill, brought home tons of homework, after school meds, mom trying to keep the rest of the family quiet until homework is done. what a struggle it has been, well, i am so blessed to be able to say, he has overcome it! of course, he will always be adhd, but at 15, he can now use other ways to bring his attention back to the task. he does still take his meds, but thankfully he is mature enough to know what he has to do at school that day, and whether he will be having tests or not, so he can decide if he needs it that day or not. this is the best part of it all, that he totally understands his affliction, and can control it himself, whether with the meds or other actions. btw, and this is why i am dancing around the room like a crazy nut tonight, he has gotten, for the 2nd 9 weeks, a 5.16 gpa!!!!!! he is a sophmore, and if you remember your high school years, that is not the easiest year. he is taking double math, which is algebra2 and geometry, his hardest subjects! i just remember so many years of struggles with him, the flash cards, my own made up tests to quiz him, everything we have done to help him, and now i can see it has all paid off! i must confess, i did think the slight improvement last year as a freshman, and most of all, the first 9 weeks of this year, i kept having the feeling that " the other shoe was gonna fall"  like my grandma used to say. like any moment, he would slip back into the old " c"  and " d"  grades. but, he has certainly proven himself this year. he has very high expectations as far as college, and i have to admit neither pa or i have had any education past high school. as you can tell, we are all elated, and just as proud as peacocks! sorry if i am rambling, but i just had to share the good news with my best friends! []

[fivegonefishing]

 cooncreekers
That is great news!  I love hearing positive reports.  My DD is in grade two and has only been diagnoised since grade one, we are at the beginning of our journey and it sure is nice to hear things do work out.  DD goes for further testing next Friday, another mild stone on our journey, and we are looking forward to getting some answers.  I wish the best for your son and I can kinda feel your pride for his accomplishments.
 
 Tammy[]

[cb]

 cooncreekers
I understand your excitement.  Thirty-two years ago, our youngest was diagnosed as " hyperactive" .  There was no such thing as " adhd"  then.  This kid got kicked out of the Sunday School nursery at 1 and 1/2, got up in the middle of the night to ride his little fire truck in the street when he was two, was prescribed Ritalin at very young age, etc., etc.  He " fidgeted"  in grade school, was " different"  in high school and got grants to go to college!!  He now is married to a marvelous woman, has three cute kids, is a great dad, a great son and owns his own business, etc., etc.  God blesses us all, if only we ask!!

[cooncreekers]

 cooncreekers
how wonderfully HE does !!!!!!! [] now i must make sure that i can use my DS`s life and our experiances to encourage others to just hang in there, this is a very hard struggle, but with HIS help, we shall overcome!

[rednekrubbrduck]

 cooncreekers
It gives us hope for our son.  He s just starting out in the school system, and I m always so worried about how s he gonna do.  It s good to know about others that have overcome, and done well.  Thanks.

[cb]

 cooncreekers
I m always glad to offer encouragement.  When Mike was young, we didn t know anyone else who had gone through anything like this.  It was a very frightening, stressful time and I would have welcomed a sympathetic ear.  (My mother told me to " Make him behave!" )  It s laughable now, but wasn t then.  Hang in there.

[cooncreekers]

 cooncreekers
yes, it seems so amusing to me, virtually every adhd parent (usually mom) that i talk to, someone, from grandparents on down to teacher, wants to blame the parenting skills, or lack of! DD#2 even had a 2nd grade teacher that supposedly had taken many classes in special ed needs, ya right. she said it was a disciplinary problem! don`t ya think that would have been the FIRST thing i thought of myself? we don`t need more guilt over the fact that our children do not react and obey like the others, do we! what we need is guidance from someone who knows what is going on, support, and answers. course, there is alot more known about this problem than 15 years ago. and even more so than 30 yrs ago, as when DH was labeled,"  disturbs others and can`t concentrate" . so, if i have learned anything about it at all, its this, the parent has GOT to know the school personnel, be there all the time. KNOW what your child is doing, just be involved and you will have a much better idea of what works and what doesn`t. and the most important thing, seek out other parents to talk to, compare notes, and you can help someone else who is a step farther away from finding success than you are. and never forget, these children are highly motivated and intelligent, most i have seen are labeled (ORALLY tested) gifted.

[rednekrubbrduck]

 cooncreekers
They think Thomas Edison was ADHD, as was possibly Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein, etc.  Not sure who else..but goes to show you something.  We can see the gears in our son s brain always turning behind his puppy dog eyes.  One of the other hinderances we re having is his slow speech (think Edison was that way also), so they think he s got a " learning dissability" .  I keep telling them..may be the stuff you give him is just to easy..which makes him bored.  Your son shows that once you challeng them with harder things...they start to excell.

[fivegonefishing]

 cooncreekers
Lots of famous people are suspected of being either ADD/ADHD or LD
 
 http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/disorders/famous.shtml
 http://www.adhdrelief.com/famous.html
 
 These names collected from various sources, and accuracy is not guaranteed.
 Ansel Adams  - Photographer
 Ann Bancroft - (1931-present) - Actress
 Alexander Graham Bell - (1862-1939) - Telephone Inventor
 Harry Andersen - (1952-present) - Actor
 Hans Christian Anderson - (1805-1875) - Author
 Beethoven - (1770-1827) - Composer
 Harry Belafonte - (1927-present) Actor/Vocalist
 Col. Gregory " Pappy"  Boyington - (1912-1988) - WWII Flying Ace (Black Sheep Squadron Leader)
 Terry Bradshaw - (1948 - Present) - Football Quaterback
 George Burns - (1896-1996) - Actor
 Sir Richard Francis Burton - (1821-1890) - Explorer, Linquist, Scholar, Writer
 Admiral Richard Byrd - (1888-1957) - Aviator  (was retired from the navy as, " Unfit for service" )
 Thomas Carlyle - Scottish historian, critic, and sociological writer
 Andrew Carnegie - (1835-1919) Industialist
 Jim Carrey - (1962-present) - Comedian
 Lewis Carroll - (1832-1898) - Author - (Alice in Wonderland)
 Prince Charles - (1948-present) - Future King of England
 Cher - Actress/Singer
 Agatha Christie - (1890-1976) - Author
 Winston Churchill - Statesman (Failed the sixth grade)
 Bill Cosby  - (1937-present) - Actor
 Tom Cruise - (1962 - Present) - Actor
 Harvey Cushing M.D. - (1869-1939) - Greatest Neurosurgeon of the 20th Century
 Salvador Dali - (1904-1989) - Artist
 Leonardo da Vinci - (1452-1519) - Inventor/Artist
 John Denver - (1943 - 1997) Musician
 Walt Disney (A newspaper editor fired him because he had " No good ideas" )
 Kirk Douglas -  (1916-present) - Actor
 Thomas Edison - (1847-1931) - Inventor (His teachers told him he was too stupid to learn anything)
 Albert Einstein - (1879-1955) - Physicist  (Famous Tongue Sticking Out Picture)
 (Einstein was four years old before he could speak, and seven before he could read)
 Dwight D. Eisenhower - (1890-1969) - U. S. President/Military General
 Michael Faraday - (1791-1867) - British physicist and chemist
 F. Scott Fitzgerald - (1896-1940) - Author
 Malcolm Forbes - (1919-1990) - Forbes Magazine Founder & Publisher
 Henry Ford - (1863-1947) - Automobile Innovator
 Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790) Politician / Elder Statesman
 Galileo  (Galilei) - (1564-1642) - Mathematician/Astronomer
 Danny Glover - (1947-present) - Actor
 Tracey Gold - (1969-present) - Actress
 Whoopi Goldberg - (1955-present) - Actress
 Georg Frideric Handel - (1685-1759) - Composer
 Valerie Hardin - Gothic poet, Artist, Children s Author
  Mariette Hartley   - Actress (Tells of her and daughter s ADD)
 William Randolph Hearst - (1863-1951) - Newspaper Magnate
 Ernest Hemingway - (1899-1961) - Author
 Mariel Hemingway - (1961) Actress
 Milton Hershey - " The Chocolate King"  - (1857 - 1945)
 Dustin Hoffman - Actor
 Bruce Jenner - Athlete
 Luci Baines Johnson - LBJ s Daughter
 " Magic"  Johnson - Basketball Player
 Samuel Johnson - (Author
 Micheal Jordan - Basketball Player
 John F. Kennedy - (1917-1963) - U. S. President
 Robert F. Kennedy - (1925-1968) - U.S. Attorney General
 Jason Kidd - (1973-present) - Professional Basketball Player
 John Lennon - (1940-1980) - Musician
 Frederick Carlton (Carl Lewis - (1961-present) - Olympic Gold Metalist, American track-and-field athlete.
 Meriwether Lewis (Lewis & Clark) - (1774 - 1809)
 Abraham Lincoln - (1809-1865) - U.S. President
 (Entered The Black Hawk War as a Captain and came out a Private)
 Greg Louganis - Athlete
 James Clerk Maxwell - (1831-1879) - British Physicist
 Steve McQueen - (1930-1980) - Actor
 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - (1756-1791) - Composer
 Napoleon Bonaparte - (1769-1873) - Emperor
  Nasser (Gamal Abdel-nasser) - (1918-1970) - Egyptian Leader
 Sir Issac Newton - (1642-1727) - Scientist and Mathematician (Did poorly in grade school)
 Nostradamus  - (1503-1566) Physician - Prophet
 Ozzy Osbourne - said he was ADHD on TV
 Louis Pasteur - (1822-1895) - Scientist -
 (Rated as mediocre in chemistry when he attended the Royal College)
 General George Patton - (1885-1945) - Military
 Pablo Picasso - (1882-1973) - Artist
 Edgar Allan Poe - (1809-1849) - Author/Poet
 Rachmaninov, (Sergei Vasilyevich) - Composer
 Eddie Rickenbacker - (1890-1973) - WWI Flying Ace
 John D. Rockefeller - (1839-1937) - Founder, Standard Oil Company
 Nelson Rockefeller - (1908-1979) - U.S. Vice President
 August Rodin - (1840-1917) - Artist/Sculpturer
 Anna Eleanor Roosevelt - (1844-1962) - First Lady
 Pete Rose - Baseball  Player
 Babe Ruth - (1895-1948) - Baseball Legend
 Nolan Ryan - Baseball  Player
 Muhammad Alwar al-Sadat - (1918-1981) - Egyptian President, Nobel Peace Prize Winner (1976)
 George C. Scott - (1927-present) - Actor
 George Bernard Shaw - Author
 Will Smith - Actor/Rapper/Entertainer
 Tom Smothers - Actor/Singer/Entertainer
 Socrates  - (469-399 B.C.) - Philosopher
 Suzanne Somers - Actress
 Steven Spielberg  -  (1946-present) - Filmmaker
 Sylvester Stallone - (1946-present) - Actor
 Jackie Stewart - Grand Prix Hall of Famer
 James Stewart - Actor
 Henry David Thoreau - (1817-1862) - Author
 (Lev Nikolayevich)Leo Tolstoy - Russian Author (flunked out of college)
 Alberto Tomba - (1966-present) - Italian Alpine Ski Champion
  Vincent van Gogh - Artist
 Russell Varian - (1899-1959) - Inventor
 Jules Verne - (1828-1905) - Author
 Werner  von Braun -  (1912-1977) - Rocket Scientist (Flunked 9th grade algebra)
 Lindsay Wagner - (1949-present) - Actress (Bionic Woman)
 Gen. William C. Westmoreland - (1914- present) - Military (Vietnam Era)
 Robin Williams - (1952- present)  - Comedian
 Woodrow Wilson - (1856-1924)  - U. S. President
 Henry Winkler - (October 30, 1945 - present)  - Actor (Fonzie)
 Stevie Wonder - (1950 - present )   -  Musician
 F. W. Woolworth - (1852-1919)  - Department Store Innovator
 While working in a dry goods store at 21, his employers wouldn t let him wait on a customer because he " Didn t have enough sense."  
 Frank Lloyd Wright - (1867 - 1959) - Architect
 Orville Wright - (1871-1948)  - Airplane Developer
 Wilber Wright - (1867-1912)  - Airplane Developer
 William Wrigley, Jr. - Chewing Gum Maker
 William Butler Yeats  - (1865-1939) Irish Author
 

[fivegonefishing]

 rednekrubbrduck

 

ORIGINAL:  rednekrubbrduck
 
 They think Thomas Edison was ADHD, as was possibly Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein, etc.  Not sure who else..but goes to show you something.  We can see the gears in our son s brain always turning behind his puppy dog eyes.  One of the other hinderances we re having is his slow speech (think Edison was that way also), so they think he s got a " learning dissability" .  I keep telling them..may be the stuff you give him is just to easy..which makes him bored.  Your son shows that once you challeng them with harder things...they start to excell.
 

 My DD has been in speech therapy since she was 3 and still see s a therapist once a week.  We go this Friday (have been on a waiting list for over 8 months) for testing to determine if there are any LD s or not.  Also, if the work is too easy, she can t concentrate, gets bored when in fact, if the work was more challenging, she would be more interested.  I think it s a catch 22.
 

[rednekrubbrduck]

 cooncreekers
Wow...My DS (and other s kids) stand in good company (cept for maybe Ozzy).  I dated a gal (before Lori..so don t worry) who s son was ADHD, and on medication.  His school wanted to put him in remedial programs..and his mom put her foot down, had a friend who was big on children with special needs rights and consulted her..and threaten to sue cause they refused to test him and challenge him (kept saying he had learning dissabilities).  She won out, and now he s like9 or 10, and in the gifted program now at his school and doing quite well.  I m at the beginning of an uphill battle with DS s school, but I m starting from the get go, and plan on fighting the good fight.  As someone once said...you are your childs best advocate.

[cooncreekers]

 cooncreekers
[] i gotta smile, duck, when i read your posts. your DS has a very special dad! that`s all it takes, i think, someone in THEIR corner! []

[Gamecock Camper]

 cooncreekers
cooncreekers,
 
 It is so good to hear the news of your DS and that he is turning the corner.  Our middle son has a similar condition which includes ADD (but not ADHD).  Our son has Asberger s Syndrome, which is best described as a highly functioning autistic person.   Most people/teachers see his behavior clearly as ADD.  As the list of famous people (from fivegonefishing) confirms, these people may have had ADD or ADHD, but they also have a gift that us " normal"  people do not have.   The child psychologist that our son sees has told us that the ADD part will never go away, but as our son matures he will learn better how to deal with it and cope with a world that does not always seem natural for him.
 
 I am so glad that your DS is managing his ADHD.  Our son is also coming around.  He has always scored in the top 1% nationally on any test he has taken, but cannot remember to do things like put his name and date on the top of his assignments or homework.  He also has a great difficulty in copying something from the whiteboard to a piece of paper.   We have worked with the school (great principal and teachers) on developing a 504 plan.  This plan outlines what accomodations the school will make so that our son will be in a positive environment and help is given where needed.  Some of the things we have done include having a second set of school books at home.  Have the teachers always check and initial his assignment book to make sure all the homework (and worksheets) are sent home.....etc......   So if you surround yourself and your son with the right people, anything is possible.

[rednekrubbrduck]

 cooncreekers

 

ORIGINAL:  cooncreekers
 
 [] i gotta smile, duck, when i read your posts. your DS has a very special dad! that`s all it takes, i think, someone in THEIR corner! []
 

Thanks.  One of his biggest hinderances has been the egg donor.  She wanted a Stepford Child.  A lot of the " problems"  she claims is him being a normal kid.  Her parents even say that (I make sure he still sees her parents cause they shouldn t be punished for the choices she made), and they have had no problems with him either that aren t typical " growing boy"  stuff.  Since she s been out of the picture..we ve seen an improvement.  She didn t want to work with him or anything.  We think he plays " dumb"  partly for attention.  He lets what he knows slip here and there (and more frequently lately).  Example...yesterday on PBS..they were thanking their sponsers for the show...before they said it on tv..they showed the words " thank you" ...and Logan read the words and said them without any coaching or anything.  He then realized what he did..and turned towards us sheepishly cause he knew he was busted again.  He s a lot smarter then he s letting on..and hearing stories about kids a little older, but, doing better, gives us knowledge, and hope, that the payoff will be worth it.  So thank you.

[PI]

 cb

 

ORIGINAL:  cb
 
 I m always glad to offer encouragement.  When Mike was young, we didn t know anyone else who had gone through anything like this.  It was a very frightening, stressful time and I would have welcomed a sympathetic ear.  (My mother told me to " Make him behave!" )  It s laughable now, but wasn t then.  Hang in there.
 

 cb,
 Your comment made me chuckle. Our son was diagnosed in first grade. He is now 23, went to an alternative school, got a diploma and is now working with my husband in the security alarm business.He hopes to own his own business someday. He has a lot of skills he has learned over the years thorough various jobs. He also went to school to learn how to install show quality sound systems in autos. What made me chuckle is that my mom used to also say" make him take his pill. or make him do this or that"  My response to her was that if she wanted to come over and make him that she is welcome. She may have to hog tie him to do it but she was welcome. I also reminded her that she needed to just be the grandparent and  leave the parenting to us. She didn t like it but needed to hear it. They forget and have to be reminded a couple of times.