Hi, my name is Dennis Swanson. I am the father of a beautiful almost 8 year old son.

Gabriel has just started the 2nd grade. I have watched him grow from a bouncing toddler to his now active self. He has always been a very energetic child.

I first started noticing that he was a little different when he was close to 2. He seemed like he had a mind of his own. When we would go visit my folks it would where me out keeping him from grabbing his Grandmas nick knack's. I tried to resist slapping his little hands but finally out of frustration, began. The sad thing was that he never seemed he would learn to stop.

My friend Jerry Seiden who's works with ADD children and Parents seemed to indicate that I and my son had ADD related issues. Being a man of faith and skeptical of medicine. my wife and I just tried using our faith alone to deal with the issues related to our son. One time I became very frustrated at my father for mentioning that me might look into medicine for some treatment for Gabe. He had indicated to me that one of my nephews had been treated for ADD.

When Gabe started preschool, and throughout that year,he seemed very distracted and would get angry and defiant at his teachers when asked to change direction, he had a mind of his own. It was like he would give himself permission to do something and how dare someone try and change his direction. On the other hand Gabe can be extremely loving and kind to others. When he started kindergarten the actions started all over again but this time he had a very non-understanding teacher who just flat out told us to keep him home for another year.

Being with my son so much I tried to point out how creative and self motivating he was at home. He would let his imagination sore then go build the thing he had just envisioned. When he played with his friends Gabe always seems to be the leader and quit capable at that. One thing about Gabe that frustrates the adults around him is that he always wants to explore things around him and shows an almost uncanny fearlessness on his own. One of us might be very concerned for his safety ridding his bike up to the park but to him it seems quit natural. Gabe has kicked and hit holes in the walls of our house in several rooms he can get very angry.

My wife and I are separated right now and I have started dealing with my own ADD. I am involved in a ADD recovery 12 program and have been on Adderal. I noticed that now I can focus better at work. Finally after desperation my wife Asked our Pediatrician to give us some medication. He put Gabe on 10mg of Stratara them 20mg. After being on it for approx 4 months, his terettes and ticks along with depression seemed even worse. After taking adderall the first time, he seemed to be relaxed and with in the first hour just wanted to lay down and rest. That afternoon he enjoyed a family BBQ and swimming with his sister. We had been invited over to my sons parents in laws home. Gabe was so well behaved. The next day. He came to me and asked if I would take them all to church. Again after his having Adderall before going, he seemed more relaxed at church, usually Gabe can give himself permission to leave his class which frustrates the adults to no avail. I took Gabe and his 2 sisters to a fast food restaurant after church, yes he did ask to go to one that had an indoor play place. The awesome event that took place that day materialized right in front of me. Gabe was behaving himself, almost a perfect gentleman. And you know that even though Gabe usually is one of the ringleaders at a facility like that yelling and climbing etc. He choose to sit and visit with me the whole time. I just sat there and listened to him poor his heart out about a lot of his likes, motorcycles etc.

For the first time in both of our lives the two of us had a real father son conversation, priceless!

I hope you can catch Jerry and myself on ADD Reality with Jerry Seiden

ADD Reality Check

Best Regards

Dennis

PS Finding out about my sons adhd help me to come out of self denial and see I had ben ADD my whole life. No wonder!

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