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Could your gifted seven year old...

1K views 23 replies 14 participants last post by  Miss Information 
#1 ·
fake unconsciousness for 10 minutes? Even if he knew the paramedics were on their way, and people were seriously freaking out?

This is my nephew, he was just started on some ADHD drugs, not sure which ones, and he had an episode as described above at school. His social skills are seriously lacking, so concern that he is causing people difficulty probably would not really be on his radar, but still. 10 minutes?
 
#3 ·
What does it have to do with being gifted?

My kids could probably do that if they decided to. Particularly my little actress - she's a method actor
.

ETA: on second thought, 6 year old DS couldn't pretend to be unconcious for 10 minutes, but he could certainly pretend to be asleep including very dramatic snoring.
 
#4 ·
I suppose it's possible... But honestly I wouldn't jump to that conclusion too quickly, especially where a new medication is part of the mix.
 
#5 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by MusicianDad View Post
I suppose it's possible... But honestly I wouldn't jump to that conclusion too quickly, especially where a new medication is part of the mix.
Yes, this. I'd look at the meds first.
 
#6 ·
Yeah, it alarmed me too. I was thinking mini-seizure, black-out, something like that. My SIL was convinced though that he was acting.

I was thinking giftedness might have something to do with it because he's kind of your typical "gifted" kid. He has a really hard time relating to kids his own age, in his own world much of the time, impulsive, etc. I would say this has been exacerbated by some borderline abusive/neglectful parenting, so I don't know, maybe he could just withdraw for 10 minutes. It's just weird.
 
#7 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Fuamami View Post
Yeah, it alarmed me too. I was thinking mini-seizure, black-out, something like that. My SIL was convinced though that he was acting.

I was thinking giftedness might have something to do with it because he's kind of your typical "gifted" kid. He has a really hard time relating to kids his own age, in his own world much of the time, impulsive, etc. I would say this has been exacerbated by some borderline abusive/neglectful parenting, so I don't know, maybe he could just withdraw for 10 minutes. It's just weird.
Given this additional information, if it's not the meds and he was doing it intentionally, I would wonder if it's attention seeking. Poor kid.

(and I think you meant "stereotypical" not "typical" gifted kid
)
 
#8 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by joensally View Post
Given this additional information, if it's not the meds and he was doing it intentionally, I would wonder if it's attention seeking. Poor kid.

(and I think you meant "stereotypical" not "typical" gifted kid
)
No, you know, like your "typical" gifted kid.


Yes, I agree that it could be attention seeking. Or seeking something. I guess when my kids seek attention, it is just always so loud and in-your-face. I don't know a whole lot of seven year olds, but the ones I do know would never be able to do that. Which made me worry about the meds. Anyway, thanks for your input. I don't know what I can do, anyway. Other than worry.
 
#9 ·
A dx of ADHD, and the self control to fake unconciousness convincingly enough to fool an adult, don't strike me as two things that go together. I would say he is either mis-dx and not ADHD, or he really was unconcious.
 
#10 ·
My first guess would be a seizure of some sort. Not all seizures are convulsions, ect. I had an epileptic friend who took a long time to get diagnosed because he basically just "went away" for a little while. It eventually turned out that he was having several seizures a day.

I would seriously be looking into possible causes more.
 
#12 ·
Let me preface this with saying they should look long and hard at the MEDS first...either way. Most likely, he wasn't faking....

but, I used to pull this kind of thing as a kid his age. Highly gifted, dx of ADHD (as well as dyslexic, and SID, if that matters). I wasn't on any meds, because I was very tiny from a very tiny family and they were afraid of stunting my growth. I was taken out of school in an ambulance a couple times. It was a slow day. You know how you get restless when you're bored? need something to do? i get kind of anxious..all pumped on adrenalin so i need to act but dont think straight, like in an emergency....and having that drive to ACT when its the dullest slowest part of the dullest slowest day? i'd sometimes find myself doing really stupid things because i didn't know how to deal with it. that constantly being so alert you cant notice the stuff you're supposed to is what ADHD is like for me though, so it just sometimes got so intense id act out in really potentially self harming ways. i still haven't found a decent cooping method for it. it led to smoking (a lot) from the time i was about 11, and over eating when I got preg and quit smoking...possibly had something to do with my getting preg too.
lol i think it has something to do with the way the SID and ADHD effect me. anyway, though...yes it can be done. *IF* thats what happened, he definitely needs more positive support from his parents (even if he's getting plenty. it takes a nearly miraculous level of trust to go to someone for help when you feel like that)...but I'd also look right back at the meds. they may be amplifying something that was already there, or causing it outright...or have nothing to do with it...anytime something goes arye (sp?) though, i look at the foreign/unnatural influences first. they seem to be the most common culprits.
 
#13 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by incorrigible View Post
Let me preface this with saying they should look long and hard at the MEDS first...either way. Most likely, he wasn't faking....

but, I used to pull this kind of thing as a kid his age. Highly gifted, dx of ADHD (as well as dyslexic, and SID, if that matters). I wasn't on any meds, because I was very tiny from a very tiny family and they were afraid of stunting my growth. I was taken out of school in an ambulance a couple times. It was a slow day. You know how you get restless when you're bored? need something to do? i get kind of anxious..all pumped on adrenalin so i need to act but dont think straight, like in an emergency....and having that drive to ACT when its the dullest slowest part of the dullest slowest day? i'd sometimes find myself doing really stupid things because i didn't know how to deal with it. that constantly being so alert you cant notice the stuff you're supposed to is what ADHD is like for me though, so it just sometimes got so intense id act out in really potentially self harming ways. i still haven't found a decent cooping method for it. it led to smoking (a lot) from the time i was about 11, and over eating when I got preg and quit smoking...possibly had something to do with my getting preg too.
lol i think it has something to do with the way the SID and ADHD effect me. anyway, though...yes it can be done. *IF* thats what happened, he definitely needs more positive support from his parents (even if he's getting plenty. it takes a nearly miraculous level of trust to go to someone for help when you feel like that)...but I'd also look right back at the meds. they may be amplifying something that was already there, or causing it outright...or have nothing to do with it...anytime something goes arye (sp?) though, i look at the foreign/unnatural influences first. they seem to be the most common culprits.
I've always suspected he had SID, and his preschool teacher recommended OT, though they never did it. He's definitely sensory-seeking, always running into things, crashing, jumping, you know.

I don't know about ADHD. I know it's more complicated than just being nervous/distracted, etc. but he's never really struck me as a child with a problem concentrating. I do know, with quite a bit of certainty, that his relationship with his parents is mostly characterized by strife. But I did hear last night that they are running some tests on him to rule out a seizure, so I'm quite pleased about that.
 
#14 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by incorrigible View Post
Let me preface this with saying they should look long and hard at the MEDS first...either way. Most likely, he wasn't faking....

but, I used to pull this kind of thing as a kid his age. Highly gifted, dx of ADHD (as well as dyslexic, and SID, if that matters). I wasn't on any meds, because I was very tiny from a very tiny family and they were afraid of stunting my growth. I was taken out of school in an ambulance a couple times. It was a slow day. You know how you get restless when you're bored? need something to do? i get kind of anxious..all pumped on adrenalin so i need to act but dont think straight, like in an emergency....and having that drive to ACT when its the dullest slowest part of the dullest slowest day? i'd sometimes find myself doing really stupid things because i didn't know how to deal with it. that constantly being so alert you cant notice the stuff you're supposed to is what ADHD is like for me though, so it just sometimes got so intense id act out in really potentially self harming ways. i still haven't found a decent cooping method for it. it led to smoking (a lot) from the time i was about 11, and over eating when I got preg and quit smoking...possibly had something to do with my getting preg too.
lol i think it has something to do with the way the SID and ADHD effect me. anyway, though...yes it can be done. *IF* thats what happened, he definitely needs more positive support from his parents (even if he's getting plenty. it takes a nearly miraculous level of trust to go to someone for help when you feel like that)...but I'd also look right back at the meds. they may be amplifying something that was already there, or causing it outright...or have nothing to do with it...anytime something goes arye (sp?) though, i look at the foreign/unnatural influences first. they seem to be the most common culprits.
That sounds like me at that age. I could have faked unconscious for quite some time at that age. 5 minutes for sure, probably not 10. I was ADD (not ADHD) to the point where I sometimes forgot what I was doing. I still sometimes stop mid-sentence and forget what I was talking about. I was also very attention-seeking and had faked medical maladies very convincingly. Once I convinced the school nurse I had sprained my ankle. She even called my mom saying it "definitely looked swoolen", lol! I think I was just good at messing with people's heads. I was 12 at the time though, not 7.
 
#16 ·
My nephew could have done that. He managed to skip school for an entire week before getting caught when he was 6.

He was also on ADHD meds, and the school over dosed him one day. He passed out, but they didn't call the EMT's. They just let him sleep it off and then told my sister later.
 
#17 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mom2ponygirl View Post
My nephew could have done that. He managed to skip school for an entire week before getting caught when he was 6.

He was also on ADHD meds, and the school over dosed him one day. He passed out, but they didn't call the EMT's. They just let him sleep it off and then told my sister later.
Wow, I'd be furious!
 
#18 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mom2ponygirl View Post
My nephew could have done that. He managed to skip school for an entire week before getting caught when he was 6.

He was also on ADHD meds, and the school over dosed him one day. He passed out, but they didn't call the EMT's. They just let him sleep it off and then told my sister later.
Holy sh*t!

I'm pretty sure the parents are responsible for the meds at this point. That's not an area they would mess up in, either.
 
#20 ·
Either way, does it matter? It's a problem. There is no way we here on "the internets" can tell, but I suppose it is possible, but unlikely. And even if it is a fake, thats a problem in itself...

That said, on a funny side note, my 3 year old was faking sick. I had just given birth to his little brother (via c/s... bummer, but it was what it was) and DS1 kept telling his teacher "Agggghhhhh.... My stomach hurts! Right here! (points to lower pelvis where he would look at my c/s incision) Aggghhhh.... I think I need to go to the hospital and get staples and a bandage!" Then he would double over nad reach for a table or a chair for support. His teacher had to stifle giggles. But she is an absolutely AMAZING person and saw this for what it was and she did not dismiss him or suggest that this was not happening to him and she took him on her lap and comforted him as if the pain were physical and she then spent a lot of time working through this new baby stuff with him, never "admitting" that his complaints were less than true, as they were true to him in a way. She saw that. And she was able to take this time of change for him and give him some extra TLC and work through it. They created all of these beautiful writings and artworks for the baby. I will be eternally grateful to her for that. She saw my little faker for what he was
.
 
#21 ·
Two things come to mind

1) petit mal seizures: they are epileptic seizures where the person does "check out" become unresponsive for a while. One of my friends in high school got them. But...her eyes were open, she just wasn't registering anything of what I said to her. I started getting alarmed because I hadn't seen one before. But she "snapped out of it" and then told me what it was. It was brief, maybe 30-90 seconds but it felt like a lot more.

Perhaps the medication induced a seizure like that.

2) my daughter in preschool would get "flooded" and become mute. Not unconscious, but the response to stimuli did make her "freeze". One time, following a really bad meltdown at home, she had an episode that mimicked a seizure. She was so stuck in the meltdown, that her eyes rolled back a little and she checked out and became unresponsive to my words, I picked her up and had held her and rocked her and she came back out of it. That lasted about 3 minutes or so.

So, while the duration of the episode he went through speaks to more of a seizure (and most likely medication induced), there might have been a sensory flooding going on.

However, it would be possible to tell seizure activity with a sleep deprived eeg.
 
#22 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Fuamami View Post
Holy sh*t!

I'm pretty sure the parents are responsible for the meds at this point. That's not an area they would mess up in, either.
I don't know, if any of my children needed to have a dose of medications during school hours, I wasn't allowed to come in and do it, I had to leave instructions and a doctor's note for the school nurse to do it. Even the one time when it was just eye drops for pinkeye - the school nurse had to do it.
 
#23 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Miss Information View Post
I don't know, if any of my children needed to have a dose of medications during school hours, I wasn't allowed to come in and do it, I had to leave instructions and a doctor's note for the school nurse to do it. Even the one time when it was just eye drops for pinkeye - the school nurse had to do it.
There was a huge thread about this over in the Learning at School forum. A lot of schools don't have nurses and the school secretary gives medications.
 
#24 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by eepster View Post
There was a huge thread about this over in the Learning at School forum. A lot of schools don't have nurses and the school secretary gives medications.
Man, that would scare the crap out of me.

I accidentally didn't explain something well to my own mother and she gave my kids 3 times the amount of medicine once on a sleepover. Thank God it was simply guanifesin (an expectorant) and not bendryl. I was LIVID that my mom misunderstood and didn't read the dang label or call me.
 
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