For My Hyper 7-Year-Old: Coffee

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Be careful, coffee is hot!

It'd be nice if everyone had the same brain chemistry--but they don't.  I don't even call it ADD anymore but simply autonomic nervous system disorder and it can have a hundred symptoms.   My whole nervous system is basically backwards.  Give me a sedative and I fly to the moon.  Give me 40 mgs of dexodrine and I fall asleep.  When I was a kid I had night terrors, walked across town a few times in my sleep and after a sleep study was told to have another one cause I moved and talked so much they didn't have a clue cause I was in REM way more than normal, but the only thing that should move in REM sleep is your eyelids.  I've broken my forearm on the nightstand.  My parents shouldn't have had kids, but they did and those drugs work for me cause the right side of my cerebral cortex is too thin--like not having enough insulation over a live wire.   I have no side effects from speed cause my brain doesn't see it as speed.  If you don't have the disease you'll have all sorts of problems on drugs not meant for you.  Years ago it took tons of time to know for sure if a kid had a focus issue.  And a lot got the label because of poor testing.  Today--they stick you in an MRI and you do tasks and PET scans.  It's right there in your brain clear as day.  If you got it you need to treat it and if you don't--good for you.   Caffeine is only a stimulant to a normal nervous system, whatever that is.  If your kid has a good doctor and all the scans and studies and has a disorder requiring a stimulant then do the right thing for your kid. Cause when I go to the internist and my pulse is nothing and my BP is 116/72 and I just took a huge dose of stimulants--I teach them that brains are all different.

I remember YEARS ago being a camp councillor, one kid with hyper activity issues woke up in the middle of the nigth, woke up all the other kids, when I finally got them to calm down he couldn't sleep, I asked what he normally does and his answer was "my mom gives me a glass of coca-cola" My first thought was "BULLSHIT!" but the look he had was "i'm serious" So i figure what's the worst that can happen? 20 minutes later, he was passed out snoring. Ritalin is a scary medication. I'd try coffee over that in a HEARTBEAT given my experiences..