Can ADHD or other mental health problems cause a behavior that could be mistaken for what I think/thought is going on?
ADHD (all 3 versions) have intense emotional swings (not as intense as bipolar disorder, far more intense than neurotypical folk... Including "annoying" emotions to others; like anxiety & rage, and dangerous emotions like depression), sensory "schtuff" & attendant issues, disassociation, hyper&hypofocus... Including to reading micro-expressions (which can manifest as social awkwardness/ social obliviousness/ &/OR extreme charisma... To the best of my knowledge only abused kids, SPD kids, & ADHD kids read microexpressions as "naturals"), giftedness-issues (Including asynchronoustic development), impulse control issues, meltdowns, insomnia, and often a co-morbid learning disability (dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyslexia, 2D spatial reasoning, 3D spatial reasoning are the most common).
So... Yes. There are a lot of shared symptoms with PTSD &/or child abuse.
ADHD kids are also abused.
Abused kids are also misdiagnosed with ADHD.
Plus he has been diagnosed with ADHD but isn't on any medication because his parents would have to tell his school which would stigmatize him.
The
hardest times for ADHD symptoms in a persons life are hormonal fluxes. Toddlers, teens (puberty, not 13-19), & pregnancy/menopause (for women). No matter how solid one's coping mechanisms... It takes a solid 1-2 years to relearn everything. From the basics (emotional monitoring & regulation) to the subtle & complex. It sucks.
The upside of going through those periods off-med, is that you never "have" to be on meds, ever. Going on meds during one of these periods? Means that whenever you go off them? You're going to have to spend 1-2 years acting like a toddler/teen learning all those coping mechanisms. For that reason alone, a lot of ADHD parents who are perfectly pro-med / may have their kids take meds during intervening years... choose
not to medicate during the worst of it. So that their kids have the skills to be able to be off meds whenever they choose the rest of their lives... (Or until pregnancy/menopause if female)... And to go through this period of extreme suckiness while they're still kids/ have the safety net of being at home with their parents who can pick up the slack & help them along through it... Instead of taking an easy button now, and paying for it later. For other parents, especially where suicidal impulse has become an issue, the easy button is flat out needed now... And their kids can make the decision as adults whether or not to take 1-2 years of serious hardship to make meds optional. There's no right/wrong decision, IME. Both being on or off meds have serious consequences & serious gain. So it's a very individualized choice. ADHD is for life... But unlike PTSD, it's not cyclic. There is no break, no lessening of symptoms. It's part of who you are. Period. It's not like taking meds now will make things easier later. You either go through it now, or go through it later.
The fast & dirty test for ADHD is to hand them half a can of coke (half a cup of coffee, mtn dew, whatever high caffeine bev. is readily avail) when a kid is
either bouncing off the walls
or glazed & confused/ away with the fairies/ disassociating... And see if it calms them or brings them front & center. Kids before puberty get "overtired" (which looks like mania), so the stimulant level has to be really low. Every good ADHD specialist I've ever known has parents do this, or does it in office to finalize before diagnosis... And most recommend a trial at home even before eval. The flip side of this is that both parents, and ADHD adults often use mild OTC stimulants (like coke, coffee, tea) to self-medicate. Unlike Rx, meds, these stimulants are very short acting (minutes to maybe an hour, instead of all day every day), and they are very minimal / just take the edge off.
