Ritalin prescribed for daydreaming...

hiddencatRN, BSN, RN · Apr 14, 2012

I subbed today as a school nurse. A student has an order for ritalin with dx of daydreaming. Since when does daydreaming require ritalin?

ADHD has an "inattentive" subtype. Instead of hyperactivity you daydream excessively and get distracted easily.

Wave Watcher · Apr 14, 2012

I am very aware that daydreaming could be an indicator for ADD, or ADHD, but why not have written that as a dx. Everyone daydreams from time to time. If this is the case everyone should be on ritalin. Just saying.

Not everyone day.....................................(crickets chirpping)...........dreams. Oh, look butterflies!! ;-)

leslie :-D · Apr 14, 2012

ADHD has an "inattentive" subtype. Instead of hyperactivity you daydream excessively and get distracted easily.

...in which adderall s/b prescribed only if it is interfering with one's abilities and grades.

my dtr had a thorough workup when she was 4yo, and was officially dx'd.

while meds did help her academically, she lost her personality.

come to think about it, she actually became *spacey* and subdued on ritalin, although she could finally concentrate.

i took and kept her off her meds, strategizing alternative ways for her to cope.

it was challenging...very much so, still is.

but at 22, she has created her own unique ways of functioning, and it has been a journey.

i dislike it when treaters dismissively dx a kid with ADD...

as it really is a debilitating impairment, that requires collaborative efforts in a child attaining relative success...as a child and adult.

these prescriptive stimulants are nothing to mess with, and s/b used as a very last resort.

and in cases like my dtrs, i still opted not to use meds.

never regretted this decision, either...despite all the challenges.

leslie

caliotter3 · Apr 14, 2012

I am very aware that daydreaming could be an indicator for ADD, or ADHD, but why not have written that as a dx. Everyone daydreams from time to time. If this is the case everyone should be on ritalin. Just saying.

As with many things, it is the degree of daydreaming and whether or not it is adversely affecting performance. If performance is not adversely affected, then there should be no problem or rush to diagnose.

Morainey, BSN, RN · Apr 14, 2012

Sounds like I need some Ritalin.

sharpeimom · Apr 14, 2012

my husband takes ritalin 20 mg. for add. i've known him for thirty years and he's always been a daydreamer. he was able to

concentrate well enough to earn two phds -- the first by age 24 -- which is young. he was started on it about a decade ago and it

has made an unbelievable difference. i've always had to make him lists with two or three things or he'd forget. before, i'd lay his

clothes out the night before or he could kill an hour just standing in our walk in closet off who knows where.

he can concentrate long enough to do a couple of hours of research or to work on a new book, when that would have been totally

impossible before. teaching a class was never an issue for him, but getting him to wrap things up sure was! he has some sense of

the passage of time on ritalin where he had none before.

i feel kids are diagnosed with add, adhd, and odd far too quickly and too often and too many just plain wiggly kids are medicated

when nothing is wrong with them, but that does not negate the fact that some children and a few adults genuinely need these meds to lead average normal lives.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Apr 15, 2012

Oldest son is an Asperger's kid. The school wanted to medicate him as far back as third grade for what they believed was ADD---his inability to focus and his tendency to talk out of turn---and I said NO WAY. I didn't want him turned into a zombie for the school's convenience, and I told them that. They weren't thrilled, but I wish now that I'd been even more assertive with them because they proceeded to treat him like something stuck on the bottom of one's shoe for the rest of his academic career.

When he was in fifth grade, I got an outraged phone call from the principal over a remark Chris had made to a classmate who'd been teasing him unmercifully for weeks---he finally had enough, and called her a "one-legged prostitute". Frankly, I thought it was rather creative, given the sort of language children were using on the playground even back in those days, and since we'd just been to see Titanic in the movie theater, I knew where he'd heard that term. But I had to pretend to be outraged too, and if I hadn't verbally supported a two-day in-school suspension, the principal would've kicked him OUT of school for three days. :madface:

We did a lot of therapy and anger management sessions in those days, which enabled him to get through his childhood and teenage years without hurting himself or anyone else. He succeeded in obtaining his GED, then joined the Army about four years ago with great expectations for straightening out his life and learning to "play well with others".

Unfortunately, since he came back from Iraq he's been alternately depressed, agitated, irritable, expansive, and grandiose, which adds fuel to my suspicions that he's not ADD, nor has he ever been.....and if I'd let him be medicated when he was a child, he'd probably be twice as messed-up as he is. :down:

Libitina · Apr 15, 2012

I used to work in human services with adolescents who were considered "high risk" basically street kids.
Most of them who show any sign of abnormal behavior or aggression are usually medicated as a first option. The reason why day dreaming is medicated is because its faster and "more reliable" to suppress the issue verses using alternative methods to deal with it. We have some areas in this country of great health care, but others really are lacking.
If you have netflix I recommend:
The Business of Being Born
Forks over Knives
Sicko
Burzynski
These documentaries are eye opening....

I'm currently watching the business of being born. One born every minute really shows the difference between UK and US births imo. Obviously, I only really get to see the ones who have to come to theatre in my job.