Crippling Anxiety

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Hi all,

Unfortunately, my 9 yo ASD kid suffered an Anaphylactic reaction on Monday. He is ok now. However, he is having some pretty acute anxiety, maybe PTSD? He was also put on a high dose of Prednisone (steroid) as part of his post-Anaphylaxis treatment. I suspect that the high dose of steroids may be contributing (as well as valid fears associated with Anaphylaxis) to his high level of anxiety right now. I have been trying to get him in to see a child psychologist/ psychiatrist, but everybody is either away, or does not take our insurance.

I feel terrible for him, but the anxiety is also making it impossible for any of us to function at all.

I doubt there is much any of you can help with. I just needed to reach out.

How awful! How long does he need to stay on the prednisone? It is probably making any natural fear he may be experiencing worse. I know I felt really jittery when I had to take it. If you don't know it is a side-effect of the medicine, I imagine you could interpret the physiological experience as anxiety.

Poor kid! Hope he feels better soon!

Thanks <3

So sorry your son is going through this. My daughter developed extreme anxiety that I believe started after a reaction to a medication (Clindamycin). I posted about it a few months ago. She was always slightly anxious, but after the med and reaction (severe vomiting and gastritis related to the med), it became so bad. I feel for you all going through this. It's hard to watch your child be so distraught and not be able to fix it. I think in her case the anxiety was always there, but maybe would have not got so bad, so fast if she didn't have the reaction to the med.

I guess it would be hard to know with your son, since he had a scary medical situation and then the steroid side effect possibility, too. Can I ask if he was given epinephrine after the allergic reaction? I have heard a side of effect of that can be severe anxiety also. Don't know how long the lingering effects of that would be though.

If the anxiety is still severe, have you checked with your pediatrician just to check in about potential side effects and what their thoughts are?

Sure hoping things are better today!

Sorry for the late reply!

Yes, yellowfinch, he was given epinephrine and Prednisone. He seems to be doing much better, I am guessing that the medication needed to get through his system. But also, we went to an allergist and figured out the trigger for the anaphylaxis, so he is not as fearful. However, he is still quite anxious (not crippling anymore). We are starting him in therapy.

Thanks so much.

Good to know that things are going better now!

From my experience with prednisone, it takes a number of days to build up. I am very sensitive to it, so much so that I had strong reactions well before my doctor thought it could be expected, but it still took a few days.

I had been prescribed it when I was in grade school, and after that a few times due to asthma, and my own allergic reactions. I remember it making me really depressed, and really tired. It is a nasty drug. My older son has had it too, and he seems totally fine on it, except he gets a puffy look, and is way more hyper. It does seem to make my 9 year old (the one who was just on it) even more anxious than he normally is. I was worried it was reaching a level where I had to take him to get an emergency psych eval at a hospital. It was REALLY bad for a few days. But, luckily, it got much more manageable since then.

It's really good to hear that he's doing much better. Runaway anxiety is brutal.

I have a love-hate relationship with prednisone.

It has, beyond doubt, literally saved my life several times.

But the side effects are truly nasty and I get them faster and harder than the MDs expect. When I get that puffed up face, I feel as if the space between my skin and my skull has been filled with some dense, burning gel, almost as if magma had been injected into my head. I find it hard to think clearly and become irrationally angry. It's terrible to be gripped by manic, incoherent rage and know that it has no external cause of justification.

But it is better than drowning in your own secretions in an asthma attack.

I'm glad your little one is feeling better.

Prednisone can really bring out the mean, manic and anxiety. My worse manias were prednisone induced, and I have anaphylaxis so I understand the need for it.

I actually give everyone a heads up when I have to start prednisone. I get cranky, grouchy, can't sleep and want to pick a fight with everyone.

Last week I was on a prednisone dose pack. The doctor had me quickly taper the Wellbutrin, while ramping up the prednisone. This was the first time years I wasn't orbiting Pluto by day three.

The anxiety makes you want to rip your skin off.

Did he anaphylaxis to a food injestion? It takes me months to get over that, especially if I was totally blend sided thinkig everything was "safe".

I become anxious and agitated on even a little steroid. So a big dose like your son is getting would put me in a really bad place. My promise to myself is that if I ever need the stuff again, I will treat myself like I'm sick the whole time I'm on it. Because I'm really not able to function while I am.

He actually, oddly, had cold induced anaphylaxis. He has always had Cold Urticaria, meaning he gets hives from being out in the cold for a long period, swimming in cold water, etc. He has never had more than hives, and they always resolved on their own. My husband also has it, and has never had any other symptom than hives. We were not concerned about it at all.

Right before the anaphylaxis, he was sitting in front of an air conditioner, and put a freezing cup of ice (he had put a cup of water in the freezer all day) to his mouth. His lips swelled, his eyes swelled, he got hives all over his face and chest. I gave him Benedryl. A few minutes later, he got a bad stomach pain, then he said that it felt like there was a coin stuck in his throat. At that point, I called 911.

We don't know why the Cold Urticaria suddenly decided to cause anaphylaxis. It could be that his "allergy bucket" was full because we were just visiting a friend in another state, and had been in the woods. He has a lot of environmental allergies, but they are not triggered as much where we live, because we are in a city. Or, it could be hormonal changes, or just that his immune system was wacky that day. I had him tested for a bunch of foods right after it happened, but they were all negative, but he tested positive to Cold Urticaria.

He is still really upset about it. He has been sleeping in our bed since it happened. But, it is slowly getting better.

I do think the Prednisone really amped up his anxiety.

Ten years ago, I (an NT) had a bad bee sting reaction. The epinephrine I got may have saved my life, but it didn't relieve the intense, wide-spread pain that persisted for days afterward. I was prescribed some Medrol, but not long after I took the first few doses, I woke around 12:30 a.m., with my heart racing and my pulse pounding so hard I could hear it in my head. I was shaking all over, my head felt like it was on fire, and the room seemed to be tilting and spinning. I couldn't figure out what was happening, and though I don't believe in the vengeful god (or the devil) that some people do, the first thing that came to mind was the stereotypical imagery of Hell itself. So I asked myself silently, "Did I die? Am I in Hell?" The walls told me, "Yes." I knew that made no sense at all, but I also thought about how if Hell exists, a rational mind probably wouldn't do a person any good there anyway, and likewise, who says walls can't talk in Hell? Who says that the devil couldn't disguise himself as whatever he wants, right? I lost a lot of trust in my own sense of reality that night.

I tried my hardest to calm myself down, as did my husband, and I decided to trust him when he suggested we go to the E.R. to see what they could do. There was still a part of me thinking that it had to be my imagination--it had to be a reaction to the Medrol. Well, the people at the E.R.--however good they may be at keeping someone alive--had no awareness whatsoever of something called steroid psychosis. It took several terrifying months to find a doctor who actually knew what was going on; he said, "Oh, yeah--I've seen it many times!" (I was relieved and furious all at once.) Even today, many physicians focus so much on the body below the neck that they disregard or don't even care what their prescriptions can do to a patient's mind.

Both the severity of adverse reactions to steroids and the symptoms that come along with them can vary greatly, but anxiety, depression, and hallucinations are among them. I started to feel better after I stopped taking the Medrol, but the effects of it lingered (I got a shaky, frightening, "trippy" sensation now and then) and I ended up struggling with mild PTSD for about a year--a condition that I think that could've been avoided if the E.R. doctors had known about the condition in the first place.

I don't take corticosteroids anymore and, when I have to fill out emergency care forms, let people know that I'm allergic to both bee stings AND anti-inflammatory steroids. I doubt your son's apparent reaction to them was as bad as mine (! !) but if I were you, I'd keep it in mind the next time you consider giving them to him.

I wish you and your family good health--truly!