DD9 sounds very similar. Her unmedicated personality is very bubbly, exuberant, and excitable, like a little puppy dog flinging itself into a lake. When we medicate her, she seems to gain about 10 years in maturity in 60 minutes. Her affect is definitely flatter, but not necessarily in a negative way, she is just acting more mature. The over-excitablities decrease. It makes her less "fun" but she doesn't function well when she is so excitable. She does say that she feels "freer" when she is unmedicated, but school is really tough for her, as she would probably be wandering aimlessly, completely distracted by what all of the other kids are doing or talking about. So there are trade-offs. If we miss a dose she becomes sort of manic for a couple days so we really can't take med breaks.
