I would try a different medicine ASAP.  My daughter had a horrible emotional/physical reaction when Adderall wore off. Clearly your daughter is not “herself” or in control of her behavior when she is acting this way.  Please consider another medication and see if that helps these episodes go away. (My daughter takes Focalin XR now, and it is wonderful for her.)

perhaps it is pent up anger or rage and she has no other method to ‘vent’ or calm down ?

the randomness makes it a challenge to “head it off at the pass” but you do have to find a way to help her channel the energy and learn methods to ‘become’ calm and tranquil

Good luck

Any chance she has an additional co-morbid condition such as Bipolar Disorder? Manic episodes are a symptom associated with it.

I agree with JS regarding the bipolar possiblity. There are a number of children initially diagnosed with ADHD who eventually end up with an actual bipolar diagnosis (or both). A stimulant is one of the worse medications to give to someone with bipolar. It can trigger mania. I know, bc that is how my daughter’s bipolar was triggered. Here is a brief article on it: http://www.livestrong.com/article/68067-adderall-treatment-bipolar-disorder/, but there are many more you can find. I would highly recommend having your daughter evaluated by a qualified pediatric psychiatrist who understands early onset childhood bipolar.If it is bipolar, you want to stop the manic phases. Best of luck.

My son was like that at times. In his case it was a phase that he got over. I would not jump to conclusions about comorbidities yet and start with the simple things.

First. With stimulants eating becomes a big issue. A high protean breakfast is recomended. If she does not eat lunch or does not get the right nutritian she needs that could lead to a meltdown. Have you seen the snickers commercials? That’s not for ADDers just anyone short of the nutritian needed to keep the brain working right.

You can monitor this by keeping careful records of meds and food and supliments or just find a good protean bar or snack that she likes and see if it helps.
The therapist is probably right, maybe what she needs is nutrients, maybe not, but you can’t go wrong trying the right food.

With my son it was sibiling rivalry as my daughter was demanding extra attention and we were able to work that out.

If that does not work there are different meds to try for the afternoon dose that may produce different results.

Good luck
Augie
http://addsherpa.com

My seven year old daughter went through the very same thing you are describing (including peeing on the floor).  I found my daughter standing on top of our car in our driveway barefoot.  It scared us to death.  She was destructive and out of control. We felt we could not let her out of our sight.  I believe I even posted a question durong this time about her behavior.  This behavior began when her pediatric psychiatrist put her on prozac for anxiety.  She was also on daytrana.  This bahavior lasted for almost six weeks while the prozac cleared out of her system.  Her psychiatrist labeled it medication induced hypomania. 

If this behavior is new and only has happened since she began the medicone, I would recommend seeing a qualified pediatric psychiatrist for eval.

I.know how scary and overwhelming it was for us to see her behavior so random and out of control.  God bless you as you search for answers!

I am sorry your little girl is having so much trouble. It can be scary when your child exhibits troubling behavior for which you have no control or explanation.

There are a lot of questions to be asked in this situation. First, has she been taking the Adderal a long time say at least three months without incident? If so, I wouldn’t suspect it to be a reaction to the medication.

Secondly, have you tried asking her how she feels, not in the middle of the episode, but after she has calmed herself down? Have you brought her troubling behavior to her attention by saying something like, “Honey, we love you very much,  but it scares us when you laugh and scream and use the bathroom on the floor. Can you help us understand what is going on with you?” Notice I am only sharing my feelings and describing the behaviors that concern me, I am not judging the child. This will work if your child is verbal enough to explain herself. If not, you might want to speak to her in her therapist’s office. The therapist should be able to help you with strategies that can help your child communicate her feelings effectively.

My final questions is this. What activity or event preceded these incidents? Was it a situation your daughter found particularly stressful? Was she required to “hold-it-together” for a longer than usual time? If this is the case, she may be revealed that the incident is over and just blowing off steam following the incident. In that case, it is up to you her parent to find more acceptable ways for your daughter to relax following a stressful incident.

I hope you found these suggestions helpful.
Susan

Does she exhibit this behaviour when she’s completely off meds? (This is exactly why I don’t try meds with my son - I hear too many of these stories). Some kids do really well on meds but others don’t.

My son has never been manic - but he does get over stimulated and really really silly. When he does, I just cup his face in my hands, look him in the eyes, use a strong and calm voice and say “That’s enough. No more sillies.”  ...and then he stops. He just listens.

I know you are dealing with much, much worse, but I can’t help but wonder if the reason my son is still reachable is because his neuro-biology has not been chemically tampered with.

Meds help so many kids, but I think that as soon as you have extreme behaviour, this is a HUGE red flag to stop. 

Best of luck… I know it’s not easy…

SueH - are you certain the Adderal couldn’t cause a reaction even after it’s been used without incident for awhile? Kids grow and change (hence the need for dosage changes). Is it possible that a tolerance to a medication can change as well as a dosage requirement?

@OopsForgotAgain-Yes, meds can cause a different reaction even after being used for awhile.  My son did great on Focalin for years, then he hit a growth spurt and it made him very emotional, lethargic and killed his appetite.  I know it was the meds, as he doesn’t take it on the weekends and he perked right back up.  We switched meds and he’s (almost) as good as new.

My son did the same thing. I couldn’t figure out what was going on and it was random. Some days he would have a period where he was violently out of control and some days not. It got to the point where I couldn’t let him be around his friends or his pets. I finally took one of his pills and I went from having only one thought in my head while the med was active. When it wore off, I literally all of a sudden had a hundred thoughts just randomly in my head. It’s no wonder he would get out of control. When kids have ADHD, their brain wiring and chemistry has not developed to allow them to handle all the sensory stimulation (sounds, sights, smells, etc) that is around them and weed out the unimportant. The meds help them do that. So I think my son was going from having his meds help him focus and ignore extra sensory info and then when it wore off, he becomes overwhelmed with the sensory info. Interestingly, he has always had a sensitivity to sound (loud sounds bother him) and during this period the sound sensitivity increased. We played around with meds until we found one and the dose that worked best and caused the fewest side effects.
Hope this helps

Hello - thank you so much for all of your responses and support.  It is good to bounce ideas off those who understand.  We are definitely evaluating the meds.  Her doctor thought lowering the dosage might help to make the let down not so great when the medicine wears off.  We will keep trying the meds and see if that helps and maybe too it will pass.  Again thanks for the ideas and support!!