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My Story

A Mother's Perspective

DISCLAIMER: This Site is a resource one only!! Since I am indeed NOT a medical expert I went and did some research for this site in order to give more informed opinions... more factual information can be found through my links page!

Why drove me to create this site? That's a really good question. To answer it I must tell you a little story.

 

When my daughter was 18 months old I began to suspect something was very wrong. She had a destructive nature the likes of which I had never seen. I originally assumed she was going through the "Terrible Two's" early. By the time she was 3, I was convinced that despite taking Early Childhood Education, my parenting skills weren't very good. Life at home was a personal hell. I was having marital difficulties and chalked it up to that.

 

After leaving the marriage, I discovered that my daughter's behaviour was not improving with my new found patience and skills like I had hoped. At that time her behaviour was shocking. I was afraid to sleep for fear that she would hurt herself or even me. Why? Another good question.

 

She often crawled in my lap for a hug and then punched me in the face. If I refused her something I would often be swore at, hit (often with a broomstick or toys) or other forms of physical retaliation. She would get up in the middle of the night and dumped all my shampoo down the drain, paint the walls with my make-up, one night I caught her trying to take out all my good (and extrememly) sharp knives. I even caught her spraying the sink with my oven cleaner at 3 am!!

 

I went out and bought a hasp and padlock and put them on the door to my linen closet. In there I now kept my knives, good glasses, cleaning fluids and other pieces I could not replace or that were potentially harmful. Still , I could not sleep. The retaliation for THAT move was severe! She slammed my hand in the bathroom door to the point where I needed a tensor wrap long after the scrapes had healed.

 

My next move was to invest in a personal alarm. It was designed for travellers to put on the doorknob of a hotel room and worked by motion sensors. I attached this to her bedroom door (it's illegal to lock or block her exit in any way) and finally thought I could get some sleep! If she moved that door even a little..I was going to KNOW.

 

That almost worked. She soon discovered that hitting her door would set off the alarm and bedtime became a several hour nightmarish ritual. She was in Senior Kindergarten at this point and I started getting complaints from the school about her behaviour. Apparently she was treating the other children at school the very same way.

 

It was my Mother who urged me to call a specialist and have her tested. I did. When it was confirmed that she had ADHD ( a rather severe score) I actually felt relieved! Imagine! Because of her aggressive and overly destructive nature I was strongly advised to consider meds...she was only four years old.

 

This site is meant to be a resource for other parents like me struggling to cope with daily life. You will see my disclaimer throughout the site reminding you of this as I have no desire for hate mail about presenting "incorrect" information.

 

I am an opinionated woman however and have included my thoughts and points of view on some of the standard topics for those who wish to read them.

 

It will be my ongoing mission to research and add as many credible (!) links on the subject of ADHD and related disorders in the "links" section. I hope to expand that to include books and other sources of information as I find them as well.

 

I have included a Forum (message board) for those who wish to use it as a means of supporting and sharing information with one another. I have also created a Chat Room for the same purpose. The Rules? Only one..TOLERANCE.

 

Enjoy!

 

... and good luck ... }