Hello everyone,

over the holiday last week I was talking to a relative who believes her son is ADD.  After talking with her, i agreed.  She was frustrated with his problems in school and was thinking he was rebellious, lazy etc. etc.....  She had been using grounding, taking away his phone etc. to try to motivate him and nothing works.  I spent a LONG time talking to her about my experience (she said, "I WONDERED how you got so skinny!" when I told her about the Adderall). It was a huge eye opener to her to hear it from the other side.  I told her the punishments would NOT work.  They didn't work for me.  IT wasn't that i DIDN'T want the things that were taken away: I just couldn't change the behavior.  She really wants to help her son before he gets depressed from constant failure, has low self esteem and starts self-medicating.

Anyone have suggested reading for how to go about getting a diagnosis for a 15 year old and how to convince other family members that medication is not evil??  Both the father and step father are of the old school, 'just suck it up and try harder' method.

Thanks!

ellamenno