Life of a Parent with ADHD

A few months ago my daughter was diagnosed with ADHD. There were a lot of mixed emotions. I was happy to hear I was not crazy. Sad because my daughter is struggling with something she doesn’t understand and unsure about proper treatment.

Going back to age 3 I started to notice all the fidgeting, constant redirection, and lack of speech and communication skills. My pediatrician said it was just the age and she would grow out of it. At age 4 I brought the issue backup and was again shot down. I was told all kids have listening problems at this age and she would be fine. At this point I was getting discouraged. I felt like nothing I was doing was correcting the behavior and I was at a complete loss on how to help her. By the time she had hit 5 we had multiple complaints from preschool teachers about her needing a lot of redirection and she was exhibiting the same behavior at home.

For two straight years it was like me and my husband were stuck in groundhog day….

Eat your food.

Don’t touch.

Stop picking.

Sit still.

Each day we repeated the same thing multiple times even 5 mins after we would say not to do something she would be straight back at it. After 2 years of repeating the same thing you would think there would be some improvement but unfortunately there was not.

We moved across the country and found a new pediatrician. A woman I had never met before witnessed me have a complete mental breakdown in her office. After years of stress built up and hopelessness I had found someone who had listened and she guided me to a psychologist. I was relieved. Maybe it was the crying and she felt bad but it was enough to get my foot in the door for some help.

After testing we were given the results and she was diagnosed with ADHD. She takes medication once a day is going to go through occupational therapy. I have parenting classes I have to go to and we have reached out to her elementary school for further testing.

I encourage everyone to advocate for yourselves and your children. If you think something is wrong or your don’t like the answer being provided to you, seek another opinion. It doesn’t hurt to reach out to someone else because it might benefit you or your children in the long run.

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