Over Medicating or Under Parenting
My son has has struggled to find the rhythm of his own personal ADHD journey. My wife and I have watched him bounce between the sweet and gentle child he normally is and the alternate ADHD fueled rampaging first grader.
Since diagnosis, we’ve seen several course corrections in the medicinal arena. He’s changed meds (the first one nearly knocked him out to the point they were going to call an ambulance) and the dosage of hismeds have bounced around. We are still in search of the happy medium between calm and hurricane Xander.
Today we’ve hit another fork in the road. In order to address his lack of sleep, the Pediatrician has suggested a separate medication dose right before bed. It’s causing a bit of consternation on my end.
Something needs to get done, I know that. The boy is physically exhausted in the morning and that doesn’t put him in position to be successful at school. I’m not even addressing the fact I have to chase after him to get him out of bed and get dressed so we can head out to school.
Ultimately my biggest qualm is the fear that we’ve come to this as an issue because of a failing on my end as his father. Maybe I’m projecting, maybe I’m just seeing an uncomfortable truth. The problem is I’m not sure how I can ever be certain one way or another.
I don’t consider myself to be a perfect Father. In my experience anyone who would claim that title wouldn’t be worthy of it. I think part of me is worried that I should know a different path, a better way to get things done so he wouldn’t need to take a pill that dramatically alters his brain chemistry.
Despite my wishes to have the deus ex machina solving his problems I am no closer to having the answer than I have been since the day he was born. For now I suppose I need to believe that tells me something.
Life is a waiting game and to truly see the result of this change I’m going to have to wait. As I’ve mentioned in my bio, I’m not good at waiting and that may be what is driving me crazy about this whole situation.
