Reply #2: The agony right now is this is the child of a bipolar mom. I went into this

[GreenPartyVoter]

diagnosis process expecting a mood disorder and this is what they came up with instead. I can see it, to a point. I often feel a lot of those symptoms fit me.

But I worry about giving him the wrong med. I worry about what this will do to his developing brain. I worry that it will stunt his growth when he is already small for his age. And the warnings about heart issues is pretty darned scary too. I guess if he was in one of his really awful rude and hurtful modes I would feel less fear and more concern about addressing that, but he's been so good lately. The only real issue we are facing is the problem with his grades, which in theory could be addressed by the meds if he truly has this ADD disorder.

So I'm here weighing the pros and cons: side effects, screwing with a growing brain vs maybe giving him exactly what he needs to succeed in school and feel better about himself. I have long seen him as being very vulnerable to drugs and other risky behaviors for a number of reasons. It was one of the main reasons we started him in counseling to begin with. I need to get ahead of that potential train wreck and stop it from happening.

Thanks for sharing your son's story with me. Food could definitely be a problem here. We've had to put mine on vitamin & mineral supplements because he's low on some things.