My son was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 5 yrs old he is now 18 and a high school graduate although he only graduated by the skin of his teeth so to speak. It has been a really rough 13 years we have gone through as he was also diagnosed with other things besides the ADHD. He also has ODD = Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Bi-Polar Disorder, Scocio-Affective Disorder, <--- not sure if spelled correctly sry. Among others I can't even remember anymore. He has been on all different kinds of medication none of which worked for him. When he turned 15 we had a homebased program coming in for therapy for him and they told him that since he was 15 if he refused there services they would no longer be able to help him so that is what he did and they stopped coming and he stopped taking his meds and also stopped going through any type of Mental Health Treatment. I myself am on an anti-depressant called effexor and i take trazadone to help me sleep plus i take topomax for migraines and also ibuprophen for osteoarthritis in my back and i also suffer from anxiety attacks. My daughter takes zoloft for depression. Depression runs rampant in my family as well as other mental health illnesses as well as his fathers family. Now that he has turned 18 im affraid they will take him off disability but i know he isnt able to do much of anything in the workforce as he doesnt make friends easily and when he does they are way below his age level. His concentration isnt what it should be as just recently he was trying to make a wooden box for his games and cut himself right down through the tendon at 85% to where they have to do surgery to repair the damage or him risk losing mobility in his thumb completely. He is unable to live on his own without assistance as he cant get around without someone going with him and making sure he gets back or he would get lost. Well that is all i can think of right now. If anyone has any advice for me im all ears id appreciate anything you throw at me. Thanks.
Remeber to stay positive and it will work out.
If this makes you feel any better, I was born with two wholes in my heart not one but two. The smaller one closed up as most do, but the other one was the size of an acorne so they had to go in and close it up. I was only three months old at the time. After my heart surgary the doctors told my parents that I would never be able to make friends, never be able to read or write, never be able to spell, never be able to go to highscool or college, and they also told my parents that I would have to spend the rest of my life in a mental institute. I never graduated college but I had two years at Landmark College, which is a special school for people who have learning disabilities, one year at American University and then one year at the New York Film Accademy where I studied directing and editing films. I now have a website that is about to launch this Friday called www.friendsofquinn.com: a social networking utility groupe for young adults who have learning disabilities, and in the future there will be doctors and celebraties who have learning disabilities as well, who the kids will be able to blog back and forth with. I also have book coming out next April 6 talking about mylife. The title of it is A Different Life subtitled, Growing Up Learning Disabled and Other Adventures. I to use to suffer from depression and was on effexor myself for awhile, and I had been on many other medicines in my life for my learning disabilities. One day I thought what would happen if I just stopped taking all of these medines, and I did. Not all at once of course, but I just had enough of being on medicins and it was hard at first, I felt like my mind was going crazy, but I fought it and then one day I woke up and my depression was gone, and I can consentrait just fine. I am not saying that you should do what I did, but I am seeing a theropist once a weeks. I saw her at first for a year and a half, then I thought I did need to see her anymore. So I stopped for awhile and my life was going back down in the tubes or anything, but I actually felt lonely with out seeing her. So my mom actually made me go back to see her and I am really happy that I did. I think your son, and I think everybody in life needs to see a shrink, even shrinks need to see shrinks. But I think that if he saw a shrink it would change his life around, and you should let him chose if he wants to see a man or women, but of course you should see a man and a woman first before chosing. Hope this helps. Good luck!