I sent DD into school without her ADHD meds today to see what would happen, plus she had an appt. with a psychologist this afternoon and I wanted him to see what she's like without meds. Unfortunately the secretary called to reschedule the appt. after I sent her to school without meds. But it was still good to know what happened there because it's been ages since I sent her to school unmedicated. I talked to the teacher afterwards and she was nice and laughing about the whole thing but I could tell it was an ordeal.
--DD fluctuated wildly between being cheerful and very smiley and moody or annoyed. She was much more interactive and social with her classmates, but she disturbed them, yelled at them, or bossed them around frequently
--She couldn't keep still and kept compulsively poking her pencil at things (luckily not people)
--She got no work done at all and wasn't even keeping her place in the book with the rest of the class on the correct page during reading.
--during some sort of writing assignment she told the teacher that it was way too hard and she couldn't figure out what to do
When she got home from school she was excessively cheerful and very loud.
Compare this to how she is medicated, where she is very quiet and polite to everyone. She appears focused and hard-working (although she is slow). I think it was quite shocking for everyone, she probably appeared like she was possessed today. I feel bad for her friends. I had her off meds all weekend so I'm assuming this wasn't a withdrawal effect so long after she's been off--this must be the way she really is, but I don't really know for sure.
Is there any other disorder besides ADHD that would cause a dramatic difference in behavior when on stimulants? I'm just wondering about bipolar disorder since she is so up and down with her moods and irritated by everyone when she's not medicated. But would stimulants have an impact on bipolar? I guess I'll have to do some research.
DD told me she wants to go back to school medicated, that she feels much better medicated. The problem is that she is not eating. She is 50th percentile for height and weight so it's not affecting her, but everyone at the school keeps nagging me about how she never eats lunch. She doesn't even buy lunch most of the time, or take her lunch box into the cafeteria. She just sits there and watches everyone else eat. I keep telling people that it's perfectly fine, I've talked to her doctor, it's a medication side effect, etc. but no one seems willing to accept this or let it go.
