OCD, ADD or other mental issue in a child??Please help!!!?

My son was diagnosed with ADD at 5. Had to put him on meds at about 8 yr.(He was disruptive in class etc.) Now he is 12 almost 13 and his meds are not working well. He stays very depressed, easily angry and basically on the verge of tears. We have been taking him to a psyc. for several months to treat the ADD so we can take him off the meds (all that is a side effect). She has also diagnosed him with OCD and it is moderately severe. However, he has many problems personality wise. He has never fit in and has always been picked on and called weird. He does have outbursts like saying things that doesn't make sense at all or he tries to be funny but just comes off as looking foolish. This is all the time but is not near as bad when it just his sister, dad and myself with him. He has been diagnosed as being "gifted" by the county school board in many subjects but mentally he doesn't seem as mature as other children his age. Is there something else this could be? I don't know how to help him

First concerta, then Adderall
His ped. switched to Adderall because of he side effects on him, but the other had the same results.
We have taken him off the meds for a little over a week now. But his behavior has never changed w/o it (except the depression and anger. He doesn't take meds during summers. Now that he is getting older his social life is a BIG deal, but because of these problems he has a rough time and is picked on. Hope this is enough info. & any serious advice is appreciated!

I have a son who was diagnosed ADD & Gifted (132 I.Q.) & a husband who has Bipolar disorder....so I have lots of experience in the "mental/emotional" areas. I also have a best friend whose son has ODD (not OCD) and my new husband's son has PDD (Asperger's type) and is also very gifted. All I can tell you from experience..... because EVERY child is different......is spend LOTS of time researching it yourself. First research if your son may have symptoms of a PDD. PDD is completely missed in alot of children because they fall thru the cracks with symptoms. In my opinion medication is necessary in a VERY SMALL percentage of children. My son was diagnosed at 7 and is now 15. It took me ALL these years to figure out he needed MORE stimulation than other children and also CBT therapy. He was failing school for many years also even WITH a 132 IQ. You can email me if u have specific questions.....but just remember EVERY child is far DIFFERENT from the next. God Bless.....I know it is so tough for a caring MOM!!!!

I have ADHD that I was diagnosed with in Second Grade. I was an extremely unruly child, and NEVER did anything I was asked to do. I was very extremely temperamental. I was tried on several different medicines. They finally found Ritalin LA [long acting] that worked for me. Another key element was as I was getting older and older, I needed my dose increased to match my body growth. When I was in 10th grade, I was able to back myself off the medicine and have continued to fit into society completely fine since then. It is very important that you find some medication or some sort of therapy that shows him what it's like to fit in, and monitor that he actually takes his medicine! My brother, who is now 21, is in severe problems with the law now because he skipped taking his medicine all throughout high school, and he repeatedly acted out, eventually getting himself into more trouble than he could handle.

Have you read anything about Asperger's syndrome? The lack of social skills and being gifted are what make me think it is a possibility.

My son is also 12, dx'ed at 5 with ADHD. Several years later they said no...Asperger's, OCD, mood disorder (I have bipolar disorder, so bp can not be ruled out at this point, but they don't know which mood dis. specifically). It's so hard to figure it out...he just doesn't quite fit into any diagnostic category neatly. So many of them overlap anyway.

Good luck with everything.

Be very careful about giving your children adderall or concerta. I know it is common practice in America but the rest of the world finds this practice absolutely alarming since adderell is effectively a type of amphetamine (speed, crystal meth) and doctors are prescribing these drugs by the dozen, with little regards to the long term consequences. And of course parents always want the easy fix, the quick way out - they want their children to do well at school, get the top grades possible and adderell has been known to help children in this matter - yet with continued usage it can actually reshape the physiology of the brain, making them more suspestible to depression, anxiety, and many of other symptons that are synomonous with long term drug abuse such as cannabis and speed.