Eliot has pretty severe ADHD and until recently he hated reading and was none too fond of writing either. Organic, earth-mama that I am, I have spent the last two or three years trying to keep my son off the stimulant meds that all his doctors and therapists and teachers were telling me he needed. I wasn't going to be one of those moms who caved in and ran to the doctor for Ritalin the minute her kid acted up a little. But after he wound up in a psychiatrist hospital a couple weeks ago, it seemed high time to start caving.
He's been on a time-released stimulate med (that's code for "amphetamine") called Vyvanse for about two weeks and he is a child transformed. No longer lashing out at everyone including himself. Happier then I've seen him in many, many months. Liking school again. Willing and able to read and write. He's still not exactly a poster child for perfect behavior, but then, neither am I.
But I am now officially an idiot for trying to keep my son off the medicine which appears to be exactly what he needs to be a happy and functional human being. And I've never been more overjoyed to be an idiot in my many long years of doing idiotic things.
Here's my boy's story:
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The
Chicken Adventures of Golden
Eliot's Stories
|
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Chapter
1:
There was a chicken named Golden.
She was in a store with other
chickens. She was bored.
|
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Then a boy named Eliot said, “I want one
of those chickens,” he said.
He got one of them
|
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And
he got Golden. He loved Golden.
He named Golden, “Golden.”
He
gave her treats |
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She loved Eliot. She played with Eliot. Golden had
friends too.
She ran to Eliot when he walked in the backyard.
|
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Eliot
carried Golden to the corner of the block
and took Golden to a pet
show and tell.
They were on the newspaper.
|
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They
were best friends. Golden laid the first egg.
Chapter
2:
Golden got lost. Eliot was
sad. Golden was on a...
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adventure. Golden was captured.
Somebody stole
animals. His name is Animal Man.
He was doing animal experiments on
turning himself...
|
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into animals and mixed up animals.
When it was
dark, Golden got a plan with the other animals.
They made a plan.
When it was morning time...
|
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the
animals started the plan.
Golden honked. He [Animal Man] walked
backwards.
The monkey grabbed the keys and unlocked the cages.
|
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Chapter
3: Golden eventually got home.
Golden was happy. Eliot was too.
The
end.
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Well. I was just finishing this up and was about to publish this blog entry at 9:30pm, when my boy called down the stairs and said he couldn't sleep. He's been in his bed and quiet since 8pm. He asked me to come up and see what he had written. There were five more pages in his book and he read them all to me. I'll just include the first two for now because they were absolutely amazing. This kid never talks about his feelings. But he wrote this:
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| The Adventures of school Chapter 1 bad times Eliot was bad. Really bad. He was sent to the principal's office 4 times. He was the baddest kid in the school. [The picture shows Eliot being restrained by a teacher.] |
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| Chapter 2 good times Eliot eventually Eliot was the best kid. He never went to the principal's office. He was happy as can be. He went full days in school. The end. [The picture shows Eliot sitting in his school beanbag chair, smiling and waving.] |
Wow. And I thought it was going to be a story about chickens. Ain't no chickens here.
Talk about happy endings.
:)
Talk about happy endings.
:)
