ADHD & Aspergers Forum

ADHD, Aspergers and related disorders :- Post your questions, or just make your opinion known. Tell us if you have ADHD/Aspergers and what life is like for you. Or are you a parent who would like to share your experiences or need advice from others. Feel free to post your comments but remember to consider the feelings of others. The opinions expressed here are those of individuals and not those of professionals and may not reflect the views of the host. Discression is advised when ascertaining the validity of message contents. Stay safe - do not give out your address or phone number. :-)

ADHD & Aspergers Forum
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adhd aspergers and ritalin

hello, does any one know whether ritalin can expose previously hidden aspergers. My 8 year old son has dyspraxia and was recently diagnosed with adhd. he has been on rialin for about a month. Since being on ritlain his ability to focus and concentrate has improved dramatically so much so that he has become completlely obsessed with celts. He will talk for literally hours on end about them. He does not seem to be aware of how the person whom he is talking to feels and does not know when to stop. I am glad that he is getting excited about a subject as previously he would never have been able to show such detemination and focus. He has always had big problems with friendships and has severe contamination issues with food and dirt, also he has always been etremely anxious and stressed can be mega violent and is hyper sensitive to touch. His psychiatrist is saying he has aspergers as well as adhd and basicaly before ritalin i would never have thought so (i know about aspergers symotons cos my sisters kid has aspergers) could the ritalin have caused it, or is it just that his abiltity to focus allows it to show, hope this makes sense thanks a lot

Re: adhd aspergers and ritalin

Hi my son is 7 and was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 3, he was put on ritalin when he started school as his behaviour was so bad, we have always been told there was underlying problems other than ADHD and when the ritalin kicked in we found out he had aspergers as well, i think the ADHD was and is so bad that it hid this other problem so it was not picked up on.i dont think the ritalin caused the problem but took away some of the behaviours so we could actually see what was going on beneath. i hope this makes sense (probally not knowing me) and i hope it helps.

Re: Re: adhd aspergers and ritalin

thanks for replying Jennie
Your message does really help make sense of it all. I think that you are probably right about the adhd covering things up.
Does your son still take ritalin?
I am very glad how the ritalin seems to be like a door opening for R. I do not want that door to ever close but i am very concerned about the increased obsessional behaviour, the lack of eating and sleeping. R is def losing weight and has massive bags under his eyes as he cant sleep. Any further advice you can offer would be so great I feel very very new to all this and just can't stop worrying about it all
best wishes
delly

Re: Re: Re: adhd aspergers and ritalin

hi delly,my son is just starting a new drug called strattera as his ritalin has stopped working and his behaviour has got worse. i found J sleep pattern was all over the place and still is, he gets up early and takes a long time to settle at night,he also looses his apetite whilst on ritalin and we have to make sure he has eaten before he had his tablet or he would go all day without eating.i find limmiting how much we talk about his obsessions help ie we are going to talk about it for 5 mins and then talk about something else, be warned though he will probaly try and get back onto the subject of his obsession but be firm and say we will talk about that later. try and widen what he likes but be carefull you dont create more obsessions. i hope this helps.jennie

Re: adhd aspergers and ritalin

I take ritalin and found when the dose is too high, i become ossesional. my psychiatrist said it's because if the dose is too high, it can reduce your attention so much that you hyper focus and find it difficult to shift from one thing to the next. reducing the dose helped.