Does medicine help w/behavior issues?

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-30-2003
Does medicine help w/behavior issues?
7
Sat, 09-02-2006 - 4:11pm

My DS is starting the 2nd grade and he has behavior issues at school and out in public. He's much easier to deal with when we are at home. Sometimes all heck breaks loose in public settings and when he's like that you would think he is classic autistic.

This happened just now at the grocery store. He lost it about 1/4 of the way through the store. I had to buy groceries. It turned into an ugly scene of me trying to get him to keep it together in the store. His eyes rolled back into the top of his head and he was making strange "bop, bop" noises. He went limp noodle with his upper body. I had to either hold him as we walked to the store or hold his hands on the shopping cart. In the meat section, he broke free of me....ran away 8 ft., began spinning around, and making "na-na-na" noises.

He was not connecting with me at all, until I got him back out to the car and got him in the car seat. I asked him what went wrong in the store and he said it was because I would not buy him 2 halloween things. He obsesses about collecting items. It's not materialistic collecting. It's obsessive collecting. I was holding off on meds, but this behavior is too much some times.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 09-02-2006 - 10:47pm

It may, I really didn't see the benefit outweighing the consequences however for my crew. The side effects were always more than I was willing to live with or they didn't help at all.

If it truly is obsession then maybe something for that will help or supps for it. Often social stories, behavior plans and such I find helpful with stores. If they are a consistent problem and it is a consistent set of things that are the problem you can work on it. Sometimes of course, the unforseen happens so you can't always be prepared but you can for most situations.

For Mike it is often a case of sensory overstimulation. There is no med to counter that so instead we modify our lives for it. Limited store trips, try to either make his trips to stores 1:1 or with both DH and I so one can be just with Mike. If it isn't a really busy time I can take them all together if I keep it short, have a list and give him a job, keep a sense of humor, and cut the trip short as soon as I see him start to escalate.

Your right, we all have to grocery shop. However, there is always the option of waiting until DH comes home and go then or go when son is in school. It isn't evil or going to kill them to go one day without milk if you have to leave and wait for a better opportunity.

There are meds for behavior issues, etc. HOwever, the one thing to remember is all meds have side effects and with ASD no med is going to "fix" it all. So while it may help take the edge off or make him less anxious/impulsive or obsessive, there will still the autism issues and social issues present which often can cause behavior problems. It is a matter of figuring out if they make a big enough difference to justify the side effects.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-03-2004
Sat, 09-02-2006 - 11:39pm

Yes, I agree with Renee.

The difficulty with ASD kids is that medication is such a crap shoot. Difficult behaviors often come from confusion and sensory issues, neither of which can exactly be answered by medication. We have used a short-acting anxiety lowering med called Clonozapem for participation in sporting events for ds, where we know in advance there will be anxiety. It does help him, but doesn't mean there might not still be issues if ds gets overwhelmed or confused. Now we have started him on an anti-depressant, with interesting results. We still see that he can get overwhelmed and even have trouble with behavior, although I would say in general anxiety is MUCH lower now, therefore less trouble. I also observe that when ds gets very upset, he is easier to reach and more able to use reason in order to recover quicker. For these reasons, we will continue the Zoloft for awhile longer. We also see much more ability to see the big picture, which also could be part of maturing (ds is 9) BUT we saw a big leap in this immediately after starting the Zoloft.

However, we also know lots of other ASD kids. Some have been able to lower social anxiety, deal with behavioral issues better while on medications, other have really gotten worse or even gone completely out of control. And many have struggled with side effects, in some cases huge weight gains, other issues. And there is also the issue of withdrawal from these drugs if they don't work out, that can be VERY hard physically and emotionally and sometimes takes a long, long time to get off them. There is no way of telling in advance of trying the drugs whether they will work or not, which has always made me very nervous.

Malcolm doesn't have side effects on the Zoloft, so that is good. And Clonozapem is out of the system completely in 4 - 5 hours. We are lucky, but his ability to behave is only assisted by the drugs, the real key is in his learning, growth and self-regulation and in addressing anxiety and his environment.

Sara
ilovemalcolm

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-09-2005
Sun, 09-03-2006 - 9:05am

Hey I am the drug queen these days!


Liam has been on trileptal, abilify, lithium, geodon and now risperdal.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-30-2003
Sun, 09-03-2006 - 10:34am
I'm a single mom. There isn't another adult to help me through stores.
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-03-2006
Sun, 09-03-2006 - 11:01am
So am I. I do shopping while son visits dad. If son comes, I let him "price check" items.Last week we met my aunt in the supermarket-while he chatted with her I ran up and down the aisles. Is there a service in your area that you can shop online and groceries are delivered to your door? I used that service a few times then it went out of business.Somehow we single parents do manage to get it all done because no one else is going to do it.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 09-03-2006 - 8:09pm

I apologize, I loose track of everyones situation. Pretty ADD myself.

There is always online shopping with either in store pick up or home delivery. Or you can schedule regular shorter trips, make a list with him so he knows exactly what is on the list and make a contract with him, written. For instance, first shopping then I will make your favorite dinner. You can even list some simple rules for the store, put them on a card so he has the visual. There are these great things called "power cards" that are great for this.

But I would keep them really short and structured and then extend as you are able and do the shopping other times if possible or online or do many small trips.

1:1 Mike can usually do well with a couple stores as long as I make modifications for what works for him.

All I know is that he was on behavior meds and this one was thing the meds never helped because it was the overstimulation, lack of understanding of what was happening and a lack of understanding what to expect.

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-30-2003
Sun, 09-03-2006 - 8:32pm

I took him shopping today without any problems at all (two different stores). A friend of mine saw me in one store and marvelled at how well behaved DS was. It's so frustrating. The behaviors come out of no where. You just never know what you're going to get.

I suspect it would be the same thing with meds. Unexpected outcomes.