Question about medication

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Question about medication
15
Wed, 11-29-2006 - 1:17pm
I was here a while ago asking how to convince a teen to try medication. We are passed that point, and now trying to figure out WHAT to medicate. I just assumed that a doctor would make the final call on that, but it turns out that it's a little more complicated than that. He was diagnosed with ADHD, and there are some professionals involved who think THAT is what we should be medicating. On the other hand, his two current counsellors think that what would should be medicating for is ANXIETY. They've gone so far as to suggest that perhaps the ADHD is a misdiagnosis. See, he's got Post Traumatic Stress Syndrowme, and suffers significant trauma issues due to many, many years of loss and abuse. The counsellors think that the stres and hypervigilance of anxiety and PTSD can mimic the symptoms of ADHD. We CAN'T get him into an actual Child Psychiatrist until at least spring- so our family doctor, who has some training in mental health and psychotropic meds in children is who we are going to be seeing in a couple weeks. HE is willing to go either way on this one, according to what I think we should be trying first. OMG - that's a heck of a burden! And I know I'm only going to get one good shot at this, because if his first experience with medication is negative, it'll be impossible to get him to try anything else. I know what my gut feeling is, but does anyone else have any thoughts or insight?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-13-2004
Thu, 11-30-2006 - 12:06am

It’s good we have several posters here who have had experience with these specific meds and/or work in this field who can give some good advice. All I can do is share what we went through.

Our oldest DS (25) is deaf from meningitis contracted at 16 months old. This also caused a frontal lobe brain injury, which severely affected his judgment and problem solving skills. So we had this boy with an IQ solidly in the genius range, who learned German in 4 weeks, aced college calculus in the 7th grade, but also thought the best solution to accidentally locking himself out of the house was to break the picture window. kwim?
Then schizophrenia manifested at age 15. He was full blown out of reality. The poor kid really got the triple whammy.

His third psychiatrist (and current one for 7 years) I credit for actually saving his life.
The science of psychotropic meds was all new to me. I was amazed at how hit and miss this field is. It took several attempts of many different meds to get results.

<<>>

We had the same concern. What we stressed with DS is the meds would either help him or have no effect on him. Of course, he felt he didn’t need any medication. (Why would you, when you’re in direct communication with Jesus Christ ?..:-)
Our situation seems a bit more severe than what you’re experiencing, but if your DS can’t buy in to this process of trying something until it works, I’d really suggest good old fashioned bribery. *Anything* to get those meds down the hatch..Good luck!
D

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-16-1999
Thu, 11-30-2006 - 6:14am

PTSD can cause a lot of ADHD type symptoms, and if you think that's where a lot of his behaviors are coming from, I'd go with that first I guess.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 11-30-2006 - 12:48pm
Thank you all so much for your advice and opinions! It really does help to hear everyone else's experiences - and to know that my very "unique" situation really isn't all that unique after all :-) I'm definitely going to go with treating the anxiety - and yes, daddioe, I will resort to bribery if I have to :-) I had an astonishing conversation with him last night...didn't touch the meds, but DID talk about the EMDR therapy. He wasn't in the usual deep denial I expected. He still claimed that he doesn't have PTSD or a severe anxiety disorder, but when I explained more about what they WERE he started to at least acknowledge it might be the case. I thought I'd just approach his trauma as the death of his mom - which of course is obvious and can't be argued with. BUT he even went far enough to list other traumas...physical abuse when he was small, being placed in a group home for a year, the two abusive step mothers. He EVEN said "I guess you'll have to work on getting (the therapist) to make me to crack on my dad?" (this is the beloved uncle who he is SO deeply loyal to...and honestly, that is the closest I've ever heard him come to admitting the man WAS part of the problem). Anyway - I'm probably running on here with too much detail since you don't all know the whole tediously long story - but I AM feeling positive. He's totally willing to give the EMDR a try - and I *did* warn him that it would involve pulling those ugly things out and re-experiencing them, but reassured him I'd support him through it. Next talk will be about the meds, but I'm not sure if I should push everything all at once.
Avatar for heartsandroses2002
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 11-30-2006 - 1:38pm
{{{M2M}}} You are a blessing in this boy's life.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Fri, 12-01-2006 - 5:36pm
oh, thank you so much for that. But really, he is a blessing in my life too! :-)

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