medication

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What is your perspective and experience with putting your child on medication? We were doing adderall for awhile but the side effects were bad so we stopped. Our psychologist recommended a mood stabilizer but I am on the fence about it. Did putting your children on meds help?

Hi Helen, out of curiosity how old is your child and what is the complete diagnosis? Our 10 year old son is very ADHD, has Asperger's, and may have Tourette's. We haave been very concerned about the medication issue. He takes adderral, celexa, and seroquel. We have worked with his doctors to keep dosages as low as possible because we don't want him to be in a "zombie" state. The Adderral helps him focus at school and stay on task at home though we tend to skip the afternoon dose when he is at home on the weekends. Celexa is a mood enhancer and does seem to help with his rages even though he takes a low dose once a day. Seroquel has two purposes for him, it has mostly stopped his night terrors and helps him get much needed sleep and "takes the edge off" of some of his anxiety.
The use of meds must be taken on an individual basis. If they help then yes he should be allowed the meds. if there is no visible benefit or harmful results then get him off as soon as possible. As a parent it is our responcibility to help our children, this, unfortunately, can only be done by a trial and error method sometimes. Find out all you can about proposed meds, side effects etc. and make an educated decision.
It is not up to us to "change" our children but to help them cope. Encourage their strengths and help them identify and strengthen their weaknesses. It can be done, but it takes a lot of time, patience and love.
Hope this helps but in the end you must decide.

P.S. If your child is a girl please insert the appropriate pronoun.

what side effects did he experience? I'm on adderall and don't have that many side effects.

I have a 10 year old son diagnosed with Asperger's/ADHD. The side effects from the Adderall made his facial tics much more pronounced and he wasn't eating, lost weight and is already so small and he wasn't sleeping. I have definitely researched it but I am still undecided.

The Adderral does increase ticks that is why my son's dx of Tourette's is still pending, waiting for school to end, nothing else we have tried works with his ADHD.

My child has a diagnosis of OCD, GAD & SID. We are on a waitlist for an assessment for Aspergers, as I am 150% that my daughter's overall symptoms SCREAM Aspergers.

I had the absolute worst time swallowing the idea of medication. I am professionally trained in social work and have never been fond of the idea of medication.

An unwritten rule of being a mom, was supposed to be that I could kiss my child and make all her troubles, fears, upsets & pain go away. When I realised that I couldn't, we sought help. We were regularly attending Dr's visits and began CBT and sadly, all of which, without significant gains.

I felt like such a failure as a parent. I felt as if I had completely failed my baby girl and struggled quite a bit with the Dr's strong recommendations to begin an ssri. I talked it over with my family and some close online friends (that had similar diagnosis). Family hated the idea (as we all would) , while the people that suffered with the similar issues put it into perspective for us.

Reality is, I wouldn't deny my child medication for asthma, so why on earth would I hesitate to give her a medication that could be equally vital to her mental health?

As convincing as that reality was on it's own, it wasn't until I heard my daughter beg me to ask the Dr. for a medication that would take it all away, that I caved.

I am not here to suggest anyone cave to the idea of meds, but I thought I would shed some light...

We have seen a massive improvement in coping, with the meds. None of this is ever really going away, we know, but with the help of a med, we have given our child the ability to clear her mind, let go of some of the negative attachments to certain things and lessen the fears to a point that we have seen her shrug her shoulders where meltdowns used to be (not all, but alot) and the ability to voice her thoughts, without fear of rejection/lack of understanding/being judged (which was one of her more complicated symptoms) and she is better able to describe some of her struggles, with a number of things, whereas before she might have shrugged her shoulders and said "i dunno".

So, in our world, this is a HUGE step in supporting our daughters day to day functioning.


Hate to give any thanks to a prozac, but much like having to swallow that my child has special needs, I guess I am going to have to.

Just my 2 cents!

Best wishes,

Melissa

*edited to add medication...

My 10 year old takes Concerta & Clonidine. He has been on been on them both for about 3 years - but only during school time. The Concerta helps control his mood, considering it was prescribed for his ADHD. The Clonidine is give so he will sleep. If we do not give the "sleep meds" he stays up for days straight - Concerta given or not. We do not medicate on the weekends or breaks from school because we have learned how to handle him off his meds & he says that he likes himself better not on them, but he knows that if he don't take them for school, it makes a horrible day & many a meltdowns will happen. The psychologist said that there was no reason to change his medication if what he is on works - well, duh. - Like I enjoy spending more money on something that is not needed.... well, it depends on the situation - but definately not on something that is already taken care of!

my 15 year old has taken many different combos of meds over the years, starting at age 11.
at 11 he started on a very low dose of Paxil....stayed on that for 2 years....then came the year of the switches ! i can't even recall all the specific combos, but i remember the different meds were: Paxil, Prozac, Depakote, Seroquel, and Wellbutrin.
he is currently on Prozac, Wellbutrin and Seroquel.
my daughter who is currently dx-ed as ADHD is on no meds at this time, partly because i don't agree with the cause of her symptoms~psych says that her excessive talking, lack of social skills, and clumsiness are due to ADHD....i truly think she's an aspie....I don't necessarily feel that meds will help her figure out what is socially appropriate~ i had one person tell me that meds would help her slow down so that she could process social situations better...don't really believe that .
the primary reason in our household for medicating has been overwhelming anxiety and sleep disorders...daughter is not having either of these problems now, and so we've decided to not medicate for now.

Helen36, does your son have trouble falling asleep at night. If so what have your solutions been? Also, see pm

I am 41 and recently diagnosed with Aspergers. Prior to the Aspergers diagnosis, I was diagnosed with ADHD and began taking Ritalin twice a day. It DOES make a tremendous difference in helping me slow down to think through social situations before jumping to the wrong conclusions and saying/doing something inappropriate! If your daughter doesn't have any mood or anxiety disorders, I would say give the Ritalin a try! I DO believe it helps us slow down and take more in, and therefore LEARN! I realize stimulants aren't suitable for everyone, but she/you will know within 15 minutes of her taking the first pill whether or not it'll work for her! I would really recommend a try! If I'd had Ritalin as a child, I know I would have improved much, much quicker, both socially and academically.

maybe when she's a bit older i'll consider meds...right now, at 8 years old,i'm concerned about the effects on her at such a young age

I think putting children on drugs to alter their behavior is absolutely stupid, doctors always thake it as the first step of action instead of last (which it should be). Other things work much better then drugs and drugs should only be used in EXTREME situations

our doc is actually pushing to have the school work on behavioral interventions before even considering meds.......the school system doesn't exactly like that, but oh well !

corsarzs, He doesn't have trouble falling asleep but does wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Sometimes if he gets up around 4:30 am - 6:00am he does have trouble going back to sleep then and will just stay awake. Did you ever recieve my pm?

Helen received one pm. Would love to chat about our boys and compare notes. I normally am not on line for long Mon- Fri but look for me on Sat and Sun mornings.

you can im me through my profile here and I'll get you on my buddy list later. got to run, school and work .

Ster, gird up your loins. take up the gauntlet and wade into that fight swinging for all you are worth. If your schools are anything like ours they don't seem to want to help until you kick and scream like an Aspy out of control. Once they understand and get moving though they can be a great support. We fought for Z since he waas iin pre-school and even went to the School Board . Be sure to hammer the "No Child Left Behind' policy. Good Luck and have fun!