Queen of the Distracted

Imagine life in a house with 6 kids - now imagine if 5 of those kids and their father have ADD/ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) - that is our house! Welcome to an inside view of my life and our home dominated by ADHD... THERE IS NEVER A DULL MOMENT!

Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls!

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls!"

Those were our oldest daughter Rachel's first words, from the time she was a toddler she would belt them out proudly standing on the arm of the couch. At the time we had no idea what ADHD was or that it would play such a central roll in our lives.

Since then we have learned a lot, not the least of which is how many individuals and families suffer in silence. We have experienced first hand how misunderstood and misrepresented a disorder can be.

As a family we decided to take action - to risk embarrassment and labeling to get this important message out to the world. Come join our family, share in our lives, and see ADD/ADHD as we see it...
A gift with a heavy price tag.

WELCOME to life in the ADD/ADHD House!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Dear Dr. House,

Dear Dr. House,

All the children have signed a petition.  They insist that it is time to give their youngest brother afternoon medicine.  In fact, this comes up just about everyday from around 5:00 pm until bedtime.

It came up a lot this afternoon as he was riding his bike from the front to the back door.  He would pop his head in and laugh maniacally, slam the door, and then race to the other door to do the same. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

Personally, the kicker for me was when I walked into the hall after cub scouts and found him gagged and tied at the wrists and ankles.  I thought maybe the older boys scouts had reached their limits, maybe this was their form of a petition. 

I was not sure whether to be relieved or concerned when I found out J.J. had done this to himself.  He proceeded to show me exactly how one would go about gagging and tying oneself up with a piece of rope, his cub scout belt, and his Webelos scarf.  He was very excited.

You know, afternoon medicine has come and gone in our house.  At different times it has helped with anxiety because of racing thoughts, helped control over-stimulus, frustration, raging tempers, impulsive mouths, random full bodied attack hugs, it has even helped some of our brood get to sleep at night (including my husband, Mark).  Up to this point I have not considered his good-natured obnoxiousness medicine worthy.  As a whole he has been more comedic relief and entertainment.

Until recently, he has been able to reel it back in when reminded.   However, he came to me the other day and asked me to make an appointment with you for himself.  He said he is finding it really hard to control his thoughts and actions, he thinks he needs afternoon meds.  Regardless of the outcome, it is certainly time to address it.  Until then I have to go, he is riding off on his bike, with a wooden stake in hand, looking for vampires.

Thanks for your constant good care,

Lisa

* Dr. House is our psychiatrist. He is wonderful and can only be compared to the TV Dr. House in intelligence, otherwise his is just the opposite.  He is kind, compassionate, empathetic and my kids get jealous of each other when their siblings have an appointment and they don't.

2 comments:

Christian M. said...

Though I do want to say, if anyone his age could cope with meeting a Vampire...it would be him.

Lisa Aro said...

LOL very true! He was talking tonight at dinner about how he was going to be a vampire slayer for Halloween -- he plans to deck out his bike with wooden stakes coming off the wheels and handle bars. It's all good until he hits a bump. I think garlic was mentioned. It was pretty elaborate!