Do you think, realistically, that there will ever be a time that your child is med free?

I was just having this conversation with the grandmother of the boy that lives with us. They know he needs his medication but they hope there will come a time that he will be able to function and to properly behave without the medication. She asked me if I thought he would someday be able to go without.

He's only on two medications and I guess there was a point in his life he was on several others so at least we have gotten him down a bit. Realistically, I think, as he gets older and matures, I think that one we will eventually be able to take him off one of his meds - in fact we (with his doctor of course) are working at bringing his dosage down. But the other one, the ADHD med? I don't know about that one.

Of course at some point he will be a legal adult and will be out on his own - will he continue taking the medication then? Probably not, he really doesn't like taking them even when he can see that it helps him out.

My son has been on meds for ADD for almost 4 years. He will be 18 in March, I think he will continue to take his meds, once in awhile he will mention how much easier it is to focus when he takes his meds.

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Yes. My daughter doesn't take her med during breaks or summer vacation and to be quite honest I can't really tell much difference. But I'm afraid to take her off because she was doing so poorly in elementary school without it and now she does so great academically on it. But I would think once she finishes college and grad school she could probably go off it.

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I think he will always need them. It's been 2 long years of figuring out a dx and finding the right combo of meds/dosages. We are in such a different place now than we were a few months ago.

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No, given her dx -autism and bipolar disorder- I don't expect that she ever will and I'm fine with that. I do hope that eventually they will develop more effective medications for bipolar II. Then maybe she could take fewer meds, but never none.

amen!!!!

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I would hope and pray that someday she can cope with her anxiety without the meds. She does see a counselor but she's still not able to deal with the anxiety without medication right now. I hope that as she grows older and becomes more mature and doesn't have the fluctuating teen hormones to deal with that she will be able to be medication free.

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