Raising ADHD: Real Talk For Parents & Educators

Should I Medicate My Child for ADHD?: 6 Insights to Help Parents Choose with Confidence

• Dr. Brian Bradford & Apryl Bradford • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Deciding whether to start ADHD medication can feel overwhelming. Parents often wonder: Will ADHD meds change who my child is? What are the side effects? Do stimulants cause addiction? If you’ve ever asked yourself these questions, this episode of Raising ADHD will help you find clear, research-backed answers.

In this episode, we're breaking down the truth about ADHD medication, including stimulants, non-stimulants, side effects, and how to partner with your child’s doctor without the guilt.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • ✅ ADHD medication types explained: Stimulants (Ritalin, Concerta, Adderall, Vyvanse) vs. non-stimulants (Strattera, Qelbree, guanfacine, clonidine).
  • 🧪 How ADHD medications work: Why stimulants act within 30–60 minutes and wear off daily, while non-stimulants may take weeks to show results.
  • 🧠 Common ADHD medication myths debunked:
    • “ADHD meds turn kids into zombies.”
    • “It takes weeks before stimulants work.”
    • “ADHD meds cause addiction or future substance abuse.”
  • 🍎 Real ADHD medication side effects (and how to manage them): appetite suppression, afternoon rebound, irritability, and sleep challenges.
  • 🛑 When to talk to your provider: Why emotional blunting, rebound irritability, or increased anxiety mean you may need a dose adjustment or different formulation.
  • 🧭 How to decide on ADHD medication without spiraling: Practical steps to book an “info-only” doctor visit, track before/after changes at school, and reframe guilt as love in action.

Why this matters:

ADHD is a medical condition, not a willpower problem. When treated effectively, kids with ADHD are safer, more focused, and more confident. Research shows ADHD treatment can reduce accident risk, improve school performance, and support long-term success, without increasing the risk of substance abuse.

Resources + Next Steps:

  • 📋 Create a simple ADHD medication tracker for teachers and parents.
  • 🥞 Support appetite with a high-protein breakfast, calorie-dense snacks, and an after-school mini-meal.
  • 😴 Build ADHD-friendly sleep routines: consistent bedtime, dim lights, and screen-free wind-down.
  • 💬 Questions to ask your doctor:
    1. Which ADHD medication would you recommend first, and why?
    2. What side effects should I watch for?
    3. How can I tell if the dose is too high or too low?
    4. How do we handle rebound afternoons?
    5. If we stop, can we just stop or do we need to taper?
  • Follow us on Instagram @raisingadhd_org

Subscribe & Review:

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Your support helps us reach more families who need these insights. 

Brian:

When you are trying to make this decision. Don't make the decision without knowing what's in your hand, like what your cards look like. Book an appointment with your doctor and you can tell them on the phone when you're booking the appointment. Hey, I'm not interested in medications at this point. I'm interested in learning about medications. I'm interested in learning what my options are, and I don't want to leave her with a prescription. The doctor's going to be totally fine with that, Like there's no big deal in just wanting to know what this is going to look like before you go in.

Apryl:

Welcome to Raising ADHD, the podcast for parents and teachers raising ADHD kids. If you've ever felt frustrated, overwhelmed or just unsure what to do next, you're not alone. I'm April Bradford, a former teacher and ADHD mom, and, alongside my husband, dr Brian Bradford, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, we're here to give you the clarity, strategies and support you've been looking for. Every week, we break down the misconceptions, answer your biggest questions and share real tools you can use right away at home and in the classroom. So if you're ready to feel more confident and less overwhelmed, you're in the right place.

Brian:

If you're up late, doom-scrolling ADHD threads and feeling guilty or scared about medications, then this one is for you. We've got some quick, clear answers so you can make an informed decision. Hey, I'm Dr Brian Bradford and I'm here with April Bradford.

Apryl:

Hey.

Brian:

And we have an episode here talking about medications. Just a quick disclaimer this episode is educational only. We are not giving medical advice. You need to reach out to your child's provider for all medications. In other words, yes, I am a doctor, but I am not your doctor.

Apryl:

We're going to dive in very quick with the guilt so much parent guilt behind medication.

Brian:

This is something we see all the time in clinic. Parents will come in and they'll be really nervous about medications. They're clearly like just feeling guilty of that. I'm giving medications which, from a provider standpoint, we view these medications as like a medication to treat an ailment. There's there's no reason to have like a guilt associated with it. Uh, if you had like a like a cancer drug or a diabetes drug or something else like this, you wouldn't ever feel guilty about it. So why do we feel guilty about these adhd medications? What are your thoughts? April?

Apryl:

that's a really good question. I know as a mom I went and talked to our provider first before ever putting our daughter on medication and I waited probably four months and then I was like no, she needs medication. There's still days that I feel guilty because I do feel like, oh, I'm putting my child on medication, I'm trying to make her so she's not who she is. But really when I see like you know, we got an email the other day from the teacher because we forgot the medication Then I knew the next day that she was going to school and thrive because she did have a medication. So really when we come down to it, that guilt is love in disguise, because you care about your child, you care a lot about them and so you want to make the right choice. So this podcast episode, we're going to try to give you the facts about the medication so that you can talk to your provider and make that informed choice.

Brian:

Right, and I will also say when it comes to guilt and some of our medical things things like, oh, you have a required surgery, your gallbladder needs to be taken out, things like that there's almost no guilt associated. But for some reason, when people or ourselves feel like you should be able to control this yourself, you shouldn't need a medication, then all of a sudden there's this guilt associated. But clearly, with ADHD, it's a medical diagnosis, there is a change in brain chemistry, and this is not something that you need to be just forcing yourself and powering yourself through.

Apryl:

There's no reason to feel guilty. One of the biggest things, I think, is reframing your thoughts around this. Instead of that, oh, I'm putting my child on medication. It's. Does this medication help my child function and feel better? Just like you were saying, if your child had diabetes and they needed insulin and you knew it was making them feel better, you would feel good about it. Same with this, it's a loving choice to put your child on medication. Let's dive into the medications then. There's two categories of medications stimulants versus non-stimulants. Can you tell us in simple terms what's the difference?

Brian:

Sure, for the most part, when we're talking stimulants in ADHD, we're really talking just two. We're talking methylphenidate and we're talking the amphetamines. When we look at these medications, you need to view these as the ones that work very quickly, within, I mean, 30 to 60 minutes at most, and they're lasting, I mean, at best, throughout that day, sometimes just a few hours, and there's no like a long-term buildup effect of if you take this medication this week, there's going to be no effect next week as far as helping you.

Apryl:

Okay, and these are the ones. So Ritalin and Concerta are your methylphenidate the name that you would hear and then Adderall and Vyvanse are the amphetamines.

Brian:

Yes, yeah, that's the ones that are most prescribed. That being said, I mean there's like probably more than a dozen actually for sure more than a dozen different formulations of Ritalin. There's going to be probably more than a dozen different formulations of amphetamine, so those are just the popular names Numerous, numerous names.

Apryl:

Yeah, people here. Another thing is stimulants tend to be the first line medication to ADHD.

Brian:

Absolutely yeah. So, like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the APA, like all the big organizations, put stimulants as the very first line treatment for ADHD.

Apryl:

Okay, so now tell us non-stimulants, what are those? Okay?

Brian:

so now tell us non-stimulants. What are those? So, the non-stimulants? Some of these are the ones that you've recently seen ads for the Kelbree or Stratera is another one or Clonidine, or Guanfacine, or there's also some off-label things that are sometimes used, like Welbutrin.

Apryl:

You mentioned that there's different formulations for different medications. Can you go into that a bit?

Brian:

Sure. So a lot of these stimulants, like let's just use methylfundate, for example, it only lasts a few hours, so we typically will put this in a long acting form like Concerta, and this is something that will get you through a good portion of the day, or or, in some cases, even all like the entire day, and it will also release it like different amounts, so sometimes they release a lot at the beginning and a little at the end, or it kind of releases consistently throughout the day. As far as other formulations, though, there's also like liquids, or there's chewables, or there's a patch that you can use, or there's one that you actually dose at night and it doesn't even start working until the next morning. There's just, I mean, almost innumerable ways to dose this.

Apryl:

I have a true or false question for you. Stimulants are some of the oldest medications being used in psychiatry.

Brian:

Absolutely true. So a lot of stimulants predate, like most of our antidepressants and things like this. The stimulants were being used during World War II as performance enhancing drugs for people driving tanks. This is a way for them to pay attention for long periods of time and be able to just basically stay at war for immense amounts of time.

Apryl:

That's interesting. It brings back, brings into one of our podcasts one of Brian's favorite things World War Two.

Brian:

We could have our own World War Two podcast.

Apryl:

I couldn't.

Brian:

Most middle aged males could have their own World War Two podcast.

Apryl:

You're right. So that goes into, though these medications have been around for a very long time, so do these cause long-term effects? They've been out there for so long. We do have research.

Brian:

When we talk long-term effects, most of the long-term effects are good You're less likely to get in an accident, you're less likely to get a divorce. You're less likely to get a divorce. You're less likely to lose your job. As far as medical things, so one of the things where we often worry about is the heart effects, because these can increase heart rate and they can increase blood pressure. Now, the numbers that it increases is very modest and so when we do long-term effects, there's no increased risk and long-term mortality actually decreases, mostly due to less risk of an accident. There's also an interesting growth slowing that when you very first start it, you can basically fall slightly down on your growth curve. That being said, the studies, the long-term studies that we have. So final adult height is small to minimal. At worst it's slightly under an inch, at best there's actually no change.

Apryl:

I have another true or false question for you. You didn't know you were getting a quiz today, did?

Brian:

you no, but I'm liking this.

Apryl:

Okay, true or false, using stimulants. Giving your children stimulants will, later in life, lead to substance abuse.

Brian:

That's definitely false. This is another interesting thing with stimulants. So you'd think giving somebody I mean it's a Schedule II medication they have to give you one month at a time max. There's so many complications with prescribing these.

Apryl:

It can be kind of a nightmare to try to get medication because they won't give it to you.

Brian:

Amen, Nobody's going to give you a six-month supply of this Like it, just legally can't do that. That being said so, substance use you'd think there would be an increased risk of substance use. We find that it's actually the opposite, that there is a likely decreased risk of long-term substance use in kids with ADHD who are treated with stimulants.

Apryl:

Interesting. Okay, next quiz question True or false? The use of stimulants can decrease the risk of suicidal behaviors?

Brian:

That's definitely true. There's actually an article that came out in August of 2025 showing that treatment for ADHD can decrease the risk of suicidal behaviors. That being said, we're specifically talking about the stimulants here. That being said, we're specifically talking about the stimulants here. There's another ADHD medication, the Stratera. That's a non-stimulant that actually has a black box warning for suicide risk, or at least risk of suicide behaviors.

Apryl:

That's interesting.

Brian:

So that's probably where that myth comes from, then, that, yes, there is something out there, but that's where you work with your provider and they know your child and they know what to prescribe.

Apryl:

All right, and there's numerous medications in the psychiatry world that have this suicide risk, but, yeah, not stimulants. Let's tackle some common myths that I've heard, I'm sure you've heard, I'm sure our listeners have heard, and let's conquer the true versus false. So true or false Meds turn kids into zombies.

Brian:

Kind of false, kind of true. This kind of depends. So with the medications we often talk about, like this zombie effect, that happens. What we're really trying to say is emotional blunting which, depending on your definition of what you're seeing calmness, can kind of look like the zombie effect or things like that. That being said, it's also possible to like blunt your personality and then you feel like a zombie. So the goal with medication is to never have any ideally any of this like emotional blunting, and most of the time, the vast majority of the time, you should be able to get a medication combination where it's either unnoticeable or nearly unnoticeable.

Apryl:

Okay, so it is true, if you don't have the right dosing of medication.

Brian:

Yeah, I mean it can be true. That being said, it definitely doesn't have to be true, and it doesn't have to be true in your case.

Apryl:

So then it's false. If you have the right dose of medication and if you're seeing this, talk to your provider.

Brian:

Right, yeah, go talk to your provider. If you're seeing this, if you're feeling like man, I'd rather just not take the medications, because then you feel like a zombie. Go talk to a provider because you're probably at the wrong dose.

Apryl:

Okay. So the next one that I've heard and I was shocked was that the medication won't work until around two weeks. And for us, our daughter I noticed that day she's on a stimulant, though.

Brian:

Yeah. So I mean you can almost view this like like how your coffee works. When you have your coffee that morning it's working and the next day you don't realize if you even had coffee yesterday or not. Stimulants are kind of the same way. There's there's that immediate benefit of happens 30 to 60 minutes after you take it and by the end of the day it should be completely wore off.

Apryl:

Then where is this myth coming from?

Brian:

So there are a lot of psychiatric medications, especially the depression medications, but also there's some of the non-stimulants that have some of this delayed effect. So a lot of like the side effects and the things kind of get confused between the stimulants and non-stimulants. But stimulants are very unique in that it's very quick on and it's very quick off.

Apryl:

Okay, we touched base on this one. So, listeners, this is for you, true or false? Meds cause addiction.

Brian:

No risk of future abuse by treating, even with stimulants and treating ADHD in general, leads to less likelihood of substance use and less likelihood that you're going to end up in prison, especially for substance use.

Apryl:

Perfect. Now that we've conquered some of the myths, let's talk about the real side effects and how do they manage them. So, appetite suppression we've seen. I've seen this in our daughter. I open her lunchbox and I'm like did you even eat today?

Brian:

Right. So appetite suppression is is very big with stimulants. It's the number one most common reason that the school-aged kids end up stopping the medication. This is most pronounced at midday. They have a really difficult time with lunch, and that one's the hardest one to work around. That being said, I mean by adding a breakfast or having a high-calorie snack at night. Things like this could really help. This would also be a good time to be like oh, we've got one of those. Like protein bars or like a protein drink at night or something like that, something more healthy than just in the nighttime like sugar crave, because now it's like oh you're hungry and here's something.

Brian:

Or save some extra dinner for when they're hungry late at night, so that they can just have something more healthy.

Apryl:

Okay, another one that I know a lot of people struggle with is that rebound or the afternoon crash or the afternoon medication is wore off and now we're crazy.

Brian:

Yeah, yeah, and so the rebound is. I mean, there's kind of two parts. There's. There's the hyperactivity and all the other symptoms that come in the afternoon of I've been calm all day and now I'm now the medication's off and I'm ready to spend some energy. There also can be a rebound irritability. That can happen when the medication wears off, and different doses or adding like an afternoon booster there's quite a few ways that you and your doctor can work to minimize or even completely remove this afternoon rebound.

Apryl:

Okay, another one is sleep.

Brian:

Oh man, sleep, Sleep. With ADHD, I mean, it doesn't matter if you're on a stimulant or not. You're going to have difficulty with sleep. It's just one of the main symptoms of the disorder With sleep. So melatonin can be very effective, mostly due to the people with ADHD are having difficulty with melatonin initiation, just naturally, so using melatonin. There's also other medications. There's ADHD medications that are more sedating that you can use at night for sleep. There's also some sleep hygiene tips that you could use.

Apryl:

One thing that I found interesting that you said was that, whether or not they're on medication, sleep issues are an issue for ADHD people because of what's happening in their brain.

Brian:

Right. Yeah, it's a brain chemistry issue. This is not. I mean it can be a stimulant issue also, but it's it's not necessarily just a stimulant issue. If you have ADHD, you're probably going to struggle with sleep.

Apryl:

Yeah, another effect that people are worried about is the irritability and the anxiety from medication.

Brian:

These can come from some of the stimulants. They're also dose dependent. So if you're getting irritability with your medications, go talk to your doctor. They can adjust doses, they can switch formulations, things like that that can minimize this irritability. This isn't something you have to live with. The anxiety is kind of interesting because once your life is organized, oftentimes you'll get a decrease in anxiety. So you can't just straight across the board say, if you're going to take a stimulant you're going to feel more anxious. They do increase heart rate, which obviously when your heart's racing you're feeling anxious, things like that. So I mean there's still some risk there, but it's something that can be managed and oftentimes it's something that can actually get better with just a more organized life.

Apryl:

So you're saying that your coffee can help you feel less anxious?

Brian:

Kind of. Yeah, I mean, when you wake up in the morning and you're like, man, I just can't get things done and I can't get off to work, and now I'm going to be late, shoot man. Now, a little bit of coffee would help with that. But the same thing though, like 10 cups of coffee, yeah, you're going to feel anxious.

Apryl:

Yeah, so it's kind of the dosing getting the right dose. If your kiddo's feeling more anxious on the medicine, maybe it's not the right dosing or the right formulation of it.

Brian:

This is kind of like the highlight of this whole thing. Go talk to your provider If you're feeling this, if you're getting a side effect. Don't just be like you know what. There's no way meds are for us. Go talk to your provider. There's probably an answer for this.

Apryl:

Let's talk really quick for those people who just aren't quite ready for meds. I've been there before. What actually helps.

Brian:

One thing that can help still, even if you're not ready for medications, is talking with your doctor and getting them on board with. Okay, now we've got ADHD and I'm not ready for medications, what else can I do? They can help you with some of the things with like sleep and stuff like that. Do there, uh, they can help you with some of the things with like sleep and stuff like that, and it's it's easy to forget. The doctors are there for more than just medications.

Brian:

Sleep and exercise and diet and getting a dietician referral and stuff like this can really be beneficial for adhd kids who lack sleep or adults who lack sleep. I mean, it can feel like super adhd when you get there. It's just like like adhd on steroids, and days will be completely unproductive. That being said, there's also like non-medication treatments, things like video games that have been introduced that we could talk about sometime in the future. You know one thing with ADHD treatments, though, it's also a community effort and it takes place in school and everywhere else. I mean, what? What do you think? What have you noticed at home, april that you've been able to help with? That's not medication.

Apryl:

So I've put in a lot of things in place in our home especially. I feel like the last few years have been a lot calmer in our home. We moved a few years ago and I feel like before we moved things were kind of chaos. Nighttimes were consisted of a lot of yelling. But things that I've put into place that really help in our house are the structure I am very structured with. I am very structured with bedtimes. At this time this is what we do before bed.

Apryl:

One of my favorite tools that we use is Alexa. I have reminders at eight o'clock in the morning time to get dressed. 8.20, time to go to school. That's if we're walking. If we get we're a little too late. 8.30, it says time to go to school. That means we're driving. That day.

Apryl:

Walking to school has been something that's been helpful as well. Just to get that movement before school starts. I feel like helps her. Just, you know, start school calmly. So those consistent routines we've talked about this before. We have a mini trampoline in our house that she can go jump on.

Apryl:

If our nights are crazy and I feel like she just has so much pent up energy, we'll go for a bike ride or go for a walk or things like that Another thing. So just consistent routines is super helpful. And then, you know, working with the teacher. I think school can be one of the hardest places for them, but having a good relationship with the teacher and also telling them things that are working at home like hey, I have a very consistent routine or whatever it is that you see that you've put into place in home that you could work in the school setting as well Let the teacher know, because, again, this is a partnership. If you want routines, ideas, things like that, come follow us on Instagram at Raising80HD, and it's an underscore org, because I'm sharing all the time like tips and tricks and routines and things that you can do and try. So those are things that have helped in our household. All right, to finish this up, let's have one more question. How do we decide to medicate or not, without spiraling?

Brian:

This is one of those things that I'm gonna give a tip for how to just help with anxiety. What's helped me with anxiety is when you are trying to make this decision. Don't make the decision without knowing what's in your hand, like what your cards look like. So book an appointment with your doctor and you can tell them on the phone when you're booking the appointment. Hey, I'm not interested in medications at this point. I'm interested in learning about medications. I'm interested in learning what my options are, and I don't want to leave with a prescription I mean, the doctor is going to be totally fine with that Like there's no big deal in just wanting to know what this is going to look like before you go in. So if you're nervous about medications, find out from your doctor what the medications would be, what those things would be, whatever. Whatever it is you need to know so that you can actually make an informed decision and you're not just going there with anxiety of like, oh, I have no idea what this really is going to look like.

Apryl:

Yeah, that's exactly what I did with our pediatrician is I wanted our daughter tested and I had her tested and then I wasn't ready to start medication. I wanted to see you know if we tried some things, put some things in place, which this was in kindergarten and her teacher had ADHD, so she knew too. She knew like she was great to work with Um, but the doctor was so kind and helpful. She's like yeah, you don't need to put her on medication right away. Try putting these supports in place at school and at home, see how that works. And if you at any point want to talk about this again, need more help, want to try medication, call and make an appointment at any point.

Brian:

Right, and this is also a good chance for the to work with the doctor to make sure that it is ADHD and it's not something else like anxiety or absence, seizures or some other things that could masquerade as an ACA symptom, as an ADHD symptom.

Apryl:

Another thing is partnering with your teacher, and this is you know you can test medication you do not like. If you try it, it's not a forever thing. So you can partner with the teacher and be like, hey, we're going to test medication and can we do track the changes, like before and after what you're seeing in school. How is this affecting them academically, how is this affecting them socially? And getting that feedback from the teacher, because that's going to help you make a more informed decision of should we keep them on this medication once we've got them on the medication.

Brian:

Right. Should we keep them on this medication once we've got them on the medication, right? That's, the neat thing with stimulants is you can track them hour to hour or day to day and see exactly what the benefits are and make changes in very short amounts of time. You can get an appointment and then just say I'm getting another appointment for next week, so we can discuss how this went.

Apryl:

Yeah, and that's one thing with stimulants too is when you're first starting, it's like you have to go see them every so often. I think it was like 30 days after starting that you could talk to them and see how it's going and then like you have to have frequent visits, at first to make sure that you're on the right dosing and things like that.

Brian:

Right, and they're controlled meds anyways. So you're on the right dosing and things like that. Right, and they're controlled meds anyways.

Apryl:

So you're going to be seeing your doctor often. Remember you're trying this, it's not forever, but don't stop it without talking to your prescriber either.

Brian:

Yeah, and you can even have that in the first discussion when you're talking is if I decide this isn't for me, can I just cold turkey it? There's some medications that really are no big deal to cold turkey, but there's other medications where it's like no, if you're going to stop this, it needs to be tapered.

Apryl:

Perfect. So as you go through this decision making of whether to medicate your child or not, one thing that I want you to know is this doesn't define you as a parent. It doesn't make your kid a bad kid or something's wrong with them. Their brain just works differently and I want you to know, because I've been there. I know many parents have been there. You put your child on medicine. It's a very hard decision. You might be in tears, and that's okay, but also know that you're doing what's best for your child and it shows you're doing the work to help your child thrive. So don't feel guilty and I know that's very, very much easier said than done but reframe what your thoughts of oh, I'm putting my child on medication to. I am making the best choice that I can to help my child in the best way that I can.

Brian:

Right. I mean it's kind of like oh, I want to be a good example for my child, to give them the best chance. Well, this is giving them the best chance at graduating high school. I'm giving the best chance at not ending up in jail. I'm giving them the best chance at graduating high school. I'm giving the best chance at not ending up in jail. I'm giving them the best chance at getting whatever career they want because, academically, they're succeeding. There's so many benefits to these medications that the guilt needs to go out the window.

Apryl:

And that's part of why we're doing this podcast is to take away the stigma, crush the myths and crush the guilt and make people normalize this. It's okay and we're doing the best we can and we're working together. Join us next week where we're going to be talking about the afterschool meltdowns and I'm going to give you quick tips to use from the mom perspective and Brian will give us tips as the provider what you can talk to your provider about. So we will see you next week about those afterschool meltdowns.

Brian:

Have a great week. Thanks so much for joining us for today's conversation on raising ADHD. Remember, raising ADHD kids doesn't have to feel overwhelming. Small shifts can make a big difference. If you found this episode helpful, it would mean the world If you would hit subscribe, if you would leave a review or if you shared it with another parent or teacher who needs this support. And don't forget to join us next week for more real talk, practical tips and encouragement. Until then, you've got this and we've got your back.