My son, Javi, takes his 40mg dose of Vyvanse when he wakes up the morning, we had over to his day camp, and he spends three hours learning about finances and budgeting (this week). Then we come home, have lunch, and he does his chores. There's an hour of quiet time followed by some screen time and then he heads out to play with the neighbors.
Whose kid is this? What planet is he from?
While things are so much better than I'd imagined, an old enemy has rared its ugly head. Anxiety. Strong, relentless, overwhelming. Javi's back up pacing at night. He gets upset when we have to run errands or otherwise disrupt the day's schedule. He cries, yells out, and either picks at or bites himself (today's result was bloody knuckles from gnawing on them).
Summer has brought a laid back schedule, but it has also ushered in lots of unknowns. Javi can "what if" for hours. What if we oversleep and he's late for camp? What if the kids don't like his hair cut? What if his clothes get wrinkled in the night? What if the bread is stale when it's time to make a sandwich? What if he takes too long to eat and doesn't finish his chores. What if he does his chores wrong? What if the night's dinner makes him sick and he can't go to camp.
All day long. He was up pacing by our bed at midnight last week because he just knew he'd forgotten something, but didn't want to wake me up until he figured out what that something was. I gave him a glass of water and sent him back to bed.
There's not much else I can do as he transitions into vacation mode. His anxiety will dissipate and we'll be in a normal groove, soon. He'll feel more confident in his day and his ability to get through it without any catastrophes, soon.
Soon. We have a lot riding on that one little word.
Until the transition happens, we're using patience and consistency to help Javi find his footing. We're continuing with his meds and treating summer as just another season -- despite the havoc its wreaking on Javi's emotional state.
And, above all us, we're hopeful that bloody knuckles are the worst of it.
Does your child have ADHD and a comorbid condition like anxiety? How do you handle transition periods? Can you please tell me that bloody knuckles are normal?