New psych appointment went well

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
New psych appointment went well
13
Sat, 06-24-2006 - 12:38am

Mike really worked hard to hold it together. I like this new lady. I wrote her a little letter explaining how anxious Mike can get and that I would appreciate if we could go easy on him and she was AWESOME. She offered for me to call anytime with questions or concerns we couldn't discuss today. I maybe will on Monday.

She is also my kind of gal. She pushed NO meds. She told me about some supplements she wanted to try with Mike to address the same types of issues that meds would and why some of the meds didn't work for him. She gave me some research to do too and we go back in 3 weeks.

Basically we start him on 5HTP and GABA, add back in the digestive enzymes and acidopholus (I was going back to baseline). Then I am to research amino acid therapy.

Amino acids I guess affect the seratonin levels and help boost them. This is what many of your meds like luvox do. Luvox worked for Mike for a while then stopped, then backfired. I had heard so often that this happens sometimes. She was able to tell me that (I may be a bit confused here but this was my understanding) that eventually either the brain becomes adjusted and teh med doesn't affect the seratonin anymore or it goes to the other extreme and too much seratonin and somehow surpresses the dopamine or the dopamine is already surpressed. Plus he needs an increase in the GABA in the brain (another neurotransmitter). The amino acid therapy she is recomending would require urinalysis, etc. And they adjust the acids so that you get the right balance of seratonin, dopamine and GABA (I think, have more research to do).

She also recomended neurofeedback in the future after we do the other stuff and possibly even flirted with the idea of cheleation. Don't know if I am ready to go there yet. I did buy the 5HTP, the GABA and started that again. I may see in the future if she will take Cait and Dave too and regulate what they need.

It is so nice to have an idea and a plan and not do this on my own research. A psychiatrist that understands medicine AND natural alternatives.

BTW, she said she started to get interested in natural alternatives because of kids like Mike that just did not respond to meds or when meds backfired.

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 06-24-2006 - 10:37am

WOW! Sounds like it went great! I hope this doctor is exactly what Mike (and you) need.....sounds like it. She suggested neurofeedback - do you have any info on that? I have heard it mentioned on another board - couldn't find a website on it.....just curious.

Again, congrats! Sounds real promising.

Christie

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Registered: 04-08-2003
Sat, 06-24-2006 - 12:01pm

Renee,
I am glad you found someone to help Mike. I hope this natural approach helps him. DId you go through you insurance. Here in N.Cal, most of them who do the natural approach are all out of network.

take care,
Anandhi

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Registered: 03-25-2003
Sat, 06-24-2006 - 6:27pm

Renee, this sounds GREAT for Mike and for you!

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Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 06-24-2006 - 8:00pm

I started when Mike broke his thumb. I have a standard basic one I use for your general type doctors. It is brief (Only a paragraph) and gives a very brief description that Mike is autistic, he tends to be very anxious around new doctors. It helps if they explain everything clearly and concretely before they start anything. He does not understand sarcasm and joking with new people makes him nervous. And how much I appreciate thier patience in this matter.

Not only have doctors been really good about my requests, I have found they also tend to take Mike in quicker rather than having us wait which can be a disaster. They also will try ot minimize how many new people he has to meet and if I say something isn't going to work, they are fine with that.

I don't think they have time to read a long letter, but a brief note that I don't have to say infront of Mike, because that makes him nervous too, helps. He is much more at ease since I started doing this. When he asked I said it was a medical letter just letting them know about the autism and how to make it so it isn't scary for him. He seemed ok with that.

Renee

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Registered: 08-26-2005
Sat, 06-24-2006 - 9:36pm
Renee,
I'm glad you found someone on the same page as you. There are so many people out there that have no idea what they are doing when it comes to dealing with our kids it's scary. Having the right therapist makes all the difference.
Teresa
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Registered: 02-20-2001
Sat, 06-24-2006 - 11:20pm
Out of curiosity what made you start taking the kids to a psych? and what do they do for the kids?

 


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Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 06-25-2006 - 12:27am

Do you mean psychologist or psychiatrist? One is for counselling and one is for medication. Most psychiatrists are for meds. That is what they are trained in. This one uses natural methods but understands how they affect the chemicals in the brain.

Our psychologist specializes in ASD kids and actually does play therapy and social skills therapy with the kids. The kids went to a regular counselor for school on the guise of social skills and it was lame. I wouldn't recomend a counselor unless it was specifically one who specializes in ASD's and is working on social or play skills.

Dr. Sarah actually will work on objectives. She spent along time with mike teaching him how to play games appropriately without getting angry if things didn't go his way. She works on conversational skills. Hygiene, etc. She will use a white board to make a visual to teach kids conversational rules. She has worked on appropriate greetings, etc. She even got Cait to understand the importance of deordorant, lol. Currently she works with Mike with a friend to work on social play skills. Cait doesn't go usually. On rare occasions if something comes up but Cait really needs a social group and Sarah doesn't have anyone appropriate. But she will have Cait in on occasion to work on certain things or just because Cait LOVES her and it is a special treat.

I took Mike to a psychiatrist because of his big monster rage at the music therapy screening and the fact that he still is having a horrible problem with anxiety, transitions and doing new things. Despite the diet and the therapy, he still is having significant problems so I wanted to see a medical person who could deal with meds or brain chemistry and give me ideas in that direction. The psychologist recomended this one because Dr. Sarah is more inclined to alternative methods as well and she knew how important it was to me. She knew this psychiatrist and referred me to her.

As far as regular psychologists to help the kids talk through things. Nope. That never helped, lol. Regular mental health type treatments don't typically work for our kids. Haven't for mine anyway.

Renee

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Registered: 10-03-2004
Sun, 06-25-2006 - 9:23am

And yet our psychologist does a combination of play therapy and psychotherapy that IS about building that therapeutic talk-through-things relationship. And she does specialize in ASD kids. Malcolm tells her things he doesn't tell me, esp. about deep fears and things that bother him. DH and I try to meet with her once a month as well. And she is also in touch with his school psychologist.

He goes 2 xs a week. I know they play board games, imaginary games with dollhouses and stuffed anumals, draw, write stories. Malcolm is still in long-term process of discovering any differences between him and other kids. He is 9, smart, verbal, gets upset but so do other kids, is in a small setting school with super bright kids who have issues so are not THAT different from him, really.

We know a number of strongly-verbal ASD kids who go to psychotherapy. This is NOT really about their differences, but instead the same therapeutic process that NT people get, working through how he is feeling about everything in his life and processing things. Yes, looking for solutions, discussing possibilities. Malcolm has been in this therapy for over 2 years and this has been immensely helpful in his emotional and even can I say spiritual development. I am so happy he has a trusted emotional base person, so he doesn't have to just count on Mom and Dad for backup and support, as we also have to be disciplinarians, etc.

Malcolm has had a few school psychs who were great and even effective (and more who were pretty wussy), but the school setting and the fact that who that is changes every year has made it clear to us he can't really count on just that for his needs.

Plus I get great hope from meeting the many teen-aged ASD kids who have been working with Dr. Nancy for many years in the waiting room... They are so cool!

Sara
ilovemalcolm

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Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 06-25-2006 - 10:02am

Just putting in my two pennies......Vaughn has been seeing a behavior therapist (psychologist) for almost 1.5 yrs. She (as does the entire group practice) specialize in ASD kids. Vaughn's therapy is almost exactly what Sara described. We noticed a HUGE difference.....especially over last summer when he went almost every week. He still needs lots of help in these areas (primarily social skills and self-regulation) so we will continue to see her. Vaughn adores her and she has been a huge help to me during his IEP meetings......she is great with suggesting new modifications and accommodations for my son.

HTH Tina!

Thanks Renee.....I never really knew the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist.......now I am even more impressed with Mike's new doc - sounds like a rare find.

Christie

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Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 06-25-2006 - 10:44am

I guess I should explain better.

Sarah does talk through things with the kids as well and uses cognitive type approaches but it is not the same as the other "talk" therapists the kids have seen. She even does the talk therapy with an ASD point of view, kwim? She does lots of anger management with Mike. She doesn't really talk to him about his differences and his feelings about that because he is not ready to do that. He knows about the autism but doesn't realize yet that he is different from other kids. When anything like that comes up he doesn't understand it, shuts down, blames the world, and becomes very very upset. She is working on with Cait self realization and getting me to work on it with Cait too.

I have had really bad experiences with other clinical psychs with the kids. Cait was doing a group with one and literally came out thinking she should blame her brother for everything because that is what Dr. whateverhisnamewas said. Took me over a week to get her to stop that. It was her taking literally and misunderstanding something he said. Problem is this kind of stuff happened all the time. And after 2 years in that social skills group through school. she learned NOT ONE skill.

One with Mike at school never even saw him because she couldn't figure out how to get him to her room. He HATES change. But she used regular mental health type approaches and words that went way over his head. Actually when she would come into the class he would just shut down and not even hear her. Someone experienced in ASD would have realized that he needed visuals and a transition plan and a schedule. She never could be bothered to warn him in advance or come at the same time every week.

The other one with Mike at school read some book about not blowing your top on monday. All mike got from this book was he could never get mad. That was a fun couple weeks too. He would get a little mad, then be upset because he wasn't allowed to be mad, would yell that he wasn't mad, then he would blow his top, lol. BTW, this guy was the same one where Cait thought she should blame everything on Mike. A really sweet soft spoken guy but he had no clue when it came to AS kids.

Renee

Renee

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