caffeine a good substitute for meds?

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so far i haven't noticed when the drugs have started working but i've noticed when they stopped. a good example would be today, i don't know when the methylphenidate kicked in, but about 15 minutes before the last post i made in this thread i noticed that i was bouncing in my chair and my legs were bouncing, as well as being a bit hyperactive and more easily distracted. with SSRI's (Prozac, many years ago) i never noticed anything different, just that i had a few good months. so you may not notice any blatant changes but you might see an increase in averages (i.e. increased average mood over a few months, increased performance in school, etc.)

p.s. i realize that Fluoxetine (Prozac) requires a few weeks to accumulate in the body before the desired effects occur, but neither my teachers, family, or i noticed a significant change in personality, just that i was generally in a better mood.

I can only speak about myself, and not any children, especially my own. My daughter is not on any meds.

I currently take 30 mg of Ritalin a day. I had a gap in appointments from my first month and second taking the Ritalin, and so I was without the Ritalin for a few days. It wasn't like an emergency or anything, but I thought I would try out an OTC substitute and tried the "no-doz" caffeine pills. While I have never been jittery on Ritalin, I had really bad shakes from one No-doz, and I would not take that stuff ever again. I can drink coffee right after a dose of Ritalin and have no shakes, but all that caffeine in my system at once with a single caffeine pill is just awful. SO that is my experience trying out caffeine.

Kids are different, but I don't think a large dose of caffeine is advisable. A cup of caffeine beverage probably will not be harmful, but I don't know if it would help. I started drinking coffee every morning when I was 14 or 15 and it really started my day off well. I was not diagnosed ADHD back then, but it did make a difference for me- just didn't know why. Of course, the caffeine wears off quickly versus a dose of stimulant medication.

My afternoon tea helps, to perk me up.

Caffeine may help your son to pay more attention in classes but it also has some side effects.

If someone has caffeine as a regular drink since they are a child they are likely to end up addicted to caffeine for the rest of their lives. When I was younger my sisters used to drink coca-cola most of the time and so did I, we enjoyed the flavour and our parents didn´t see anything wrong on that. Right now I need to have some sort of caffeine once every 4 hours(it can be longer if its one of those energy drinks with high caffeine) or I´ll be half-sleep.

I also have some hyperactive days every now and then, guess what my parents and my parents are blaming it upon my constant need for caffeine

It seems energy drinks seems to work for me to actually pay attention but I personally think that its a very bad idea as this could make your son feel even more tired after the caffeine has worn out.

I have been on Zoloft for years now and I drank a lot of coffee the past few months. The Zoloft works miracles for depression/anxiety but when I started consuming more caffeine than usual, I started to develop mild mood swings and it is not good when you are a biology student who has to take a lot of physics classes and having mood swings. I'm trying to taper off of the caffeine now.

From a medical perspective, it would not be my first choice.

While there are some beneficial stimulant effects, there are also a range of potential side effects, some of which (confusion, irritability, hypoglycaemia, dizziness and blurred vision) would be counterproductive to the goal you are seeking. I would look at the caffeine impact in a non-school setting before embarking on this as a course of action during term-time.

The other concern I would have is the delivery mode. So-called "energy drinks" should be avoided altogether. Caffeinated soft drinks give you the unpalatable choice between HFCS or Aspartame. Neither is a great option for adolescents, in my view. Coffee and tea are often unpalatable to children and young adolescents. Caffeine tablets typically deliver about 100mg of caffeine (about 3 times the amount of a 350 ml can of cola) which may be excessive.

All that being said, I don't think you are going to do any harm by trying this as an experiment provided that you do so at moderate levels, outside of school time, with appropriate monitoring.

I have to agree, caffeine is probably not the greatest idea but it won't do harm if tried. You should try to keep your son on a constant feed of the medication you are using if his results are favourable. Remember that these medications are designed for your son's specific problem, caffeine is not.

You can also try getting him on a healthier diet. Sugar and artificial colorings are supposed to aggravate it.

Is he able to talk to himself out loud? I have trouble with executive function and staying on task (probably from AS, but parts of it seem to mimic ADHD for some reason), and that helps me.

Can the schedule be changed, or the sensory environment improved, or the work altered in presentation (but not content)?

Caffeine is just like meds - small beneficial effects in some people, some worrying side effects.

I stopped using caffeine because my eyes were twitching.....they still twitch slightly sometimes but nothing like as bad as they were doing before. Before that I'd drunk tons of caffeine and never thought it had any effect at all (I grew up with tea and coffee so I never knew any different). Frankly I don't think it did affect me much. The cessation of the eye twitching was the only difference I noticed.

But it's a drug, it's a decadent, traditional, mild stimulant for millions of people.

I see a lot of talk about drugs, but back when I was in 4th grade, what helped me immensely was good old-fashioned progress reports.

Every day my teacher would sign a slip of paper that said I was behaving, doing my work, etc., and if it said otherwise, my mom would take away the Nintendo.

I guess it might depend on the child, but you'd better believe I paid a lot more attention to my schoolwork