Medications

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I hope I'm not asking too personal of a question but my son's pediatrician recently referred us to a psychiatrist to help with a treatment plan and possibly medication for my son's anxiety and attention issues. We have to wait a couple of months to get in.

The neuropsych who diagnosed my son had told me drug therapy wasn't likely to be benficial, and I've read mixed reviews about it. I know there's no magic pill to make everything better, but I was hoping that my son might find some help so he can "keep his brain on task, because sometimes it gets carried away" to use his own words.

He's getting services in school this year for the first time. His previous school didn't think he needed any sort of services related to social language because he wasn't failing.

Can anyone tell me if they've had a relief from some of the issues with drug therapy? I have very mixed feelings about this, and I'm not sure I really want to do it.

I don't have any experience with children and medication. However I take Wellbutrin myself and it has been very helpful in reducing my anxiety/depression, social phobia and staying on task. I would describe the effect as just promoting a sense of balance and well being. The little things don't get to you as much. Side effects have been minimal. I know if I had had Wellbutrin when I was in school I'm sure things would have gone much smoother socially and academically.

Are you sure your son isn't ADHD? If so Adderall or Ritalin might help.

Nexus, thanks for your reply. He is not diagnosed with ADHD, just Aspergers. He has the social issues that go along with Aspergers, although I think he's doing a little better. He seems to have a couple of buddies at school this year, which is new, and he even invited one to come over, although he forgot to ask whether it was okay if he could.

But he has extreme attentional problems, as in, he gets distracted when having a serious conversation with him and he just goes totally off topic. So it's possible that he might get the ADHD diagnosis when he sees the specialist in a couple of months. He has some executive function issues, and he's just very "flighty." The flightiness has gotten worse as he's gotten older too.

When he's anxious, he resorts to a "safe" topic of interest--dinosaurs, bugs, etc. He focuses on the safe topic. The original neuropsych told me he would outgrow this behavior, and he has to an extent.

I've just always been very leary of giving him drugs to fix him.

His symptoms sound a bit like mine, I used to resort to "safe" topics that interested me when in social situations. You can imagine the problems this can cause when kids are all gossiping and I would interject some obscure fact about airplanes.

My view on drugs is that it's not a matter of "fixing" someone. If your son has AS trust me he will always be different than others, often in a good way. However we do live in a world that expects certain behaviors from us and not developing the ability to at least understand those social norms will cause much pain and anguish. My experience is that medication can help you relate to the "normal" world by easing some of the anxiety of looking someone in the eye or making small talk.

Definitely talk with your doctors however and get several opinions.

I have found very few people who are happy taking ritalin long term. It led me to depression. I found out when I forgot my refill. I rebounded and my wife said I laghed for the first time in months.

Our son has the same flightiness and distractibility, but it's my understanding that those things can totally go with having AS. You might think about getting some nutritional testing done, specifically on how he's digesting gluten. I know a lot of people pooh-pooh the gluten-free diet, but my son wasn't digesting it so it was just sort of staying in his body. And I know a lot of people pooh-pooh this assumption as well, but the gluten that remains in his body can seriously affect his behavior (not an allergy, but rather an intolerance). So we're on a GFCF diet, and I think it's really made a difference. He seems pretty clear-headed for the most part, although some days are still pretty bad, but you'll have that. We're doing everything nutritional that we can in the hopes that we don't have to go the meds route.

My son has multiple problems coping but through the years, he's learned how to understand his aspy reactions more and more. I'm impressed with how much better he copes and he continues to cope better everyday, especially now at age 21. He's in college and loving it. I am amazed at how far he's come. He's never taken drugs. I'm wondering if he wouldn't have been able to understand his reactions and how helpful changes he makes are if he was on a daily drug. He wouldn't be getting the same feedback about his temperment.

The school had really wanted us to explore durg solutions but my son didn't want to. By the time he finished his last year in high school, they were impressed that he got through it undrugged. We had to do a lot of improvised thinking to get him through school but drugging him so that he could conform better wasn't how he wanted to do it.

He was curious about what it would be like to be calmer so he tried a Xanax but just twice. He wanted to know what to reach for in his quest for serenity.

tayana, you have every right to have mixed feelings about medicating your child. Asperger's/Autism is not something that can be "fixed" with a pill. We have had a long uphill battle with our son, Z, now almost 11. His full current dx is ADHD and Asperger's with the doctor now wanting to add Tourette's Syndrome into the mix. We have been told he is a "very complex child" and that the dx will probably not stop here.

Z is currently taking four medications, they are
1. Adderall- for ADHD to help him remain calm and focus on tasks
2. Seroquel- to relieve Night Terrors and help him sleep
3. Celexa- a mood altering drug to help him control more violent outbursts
4.- Tenex (New)- Z's recently has become agressive physically and more apt to outbursts of uncontrolled and unexplained rage, this is supposed to help with these. We have seen some improvement.

All of our children are unique individuals and the use or non-use of meds must be determined on an individual basis. For Z we have had good results. However his meds are kept as low as possible because we don't want to raise a Zombie (pun intentional).

If you and the Psychiatrist decide to try drug therapy do so on a provisional basis. Do not forget to talk to your child and see if he can tell if the meds are helping. Z has told us that the meds "help me use my brain better". If the meds are not producing the desired effects or have adverse effects , discontinue them and find an alternative solution. Sometimes a different med or even no meds combined with another type of therapy.

Our kids may view the word from a different perspective than NTs do but who is to say Nts have th only correct view?

My son is 13 and sounds a lot like your son. He's high on the spectrum. We have tried Ritalin with some success. I have grown to dislike giving it to him and have began to explore some herbal remedies. In his case I'm not convinced that he needs the Ritalin, but then again I might be wrong. I hope the herbal thing we just began gives him the focus that it says it will. Time will tell I suppose. good luck

My son is 9 and diagnosed AS. He is currently taking Focalin (for focusing) and Tenex (for his stims)
The combo of both seems to be working well for him at the moment. I rather him not be on any but
this is what works especially during the school year.

son takes wellbutrin, prozac , and seroquel.....combined, they have helped reduce his anxiety and help him sleep. by reducing his anxiety levels & increasing his sleep, he's able to be more patient & even learn some of the cosial skills he's been lacking
hubby is aspie also and takes clonazepam, mirtazipan, and prozac. in his words, they seem to take the edge off of the anxiety & help him sleep.

Thanks so much for the replies. I'm glad to see a good mix of things. I don't want to turn my son into a zombie, but at the same time, I know he has problems with anxiety and depression. At the end of school last year, about three days before the last day of class when all of his big projects had to be turned in, he fell apart. He told me how he thought he was fat. He wanted to die, and that he wished he'd never been born. All of the things he'd been keeping bottled up finally came out and it broke my heart.

I made a lot of changes, including distancing him from my parents, established more positive routines in our new home. Took the stress off about homework and grades when school started this year, and that's helped a great deal. He still has issues with anxiety, and to some degree depression. He worries a lot. He stresses about the kids at school not liking him, even though he does seem to have one good friend this year.

Unfortunately, all of the changes I've made have not helped him focus. Our appointment with the psychiatrist, who was highly recommended by my pediatrician, isn't until December. I'm really nervous about it.

Tayana --

Just wanted to give some info about what has been helpful for our son, especially since he is having a VERY positive beginning to middle school, which is historically one of the worst periods of any kid's life.

1. He has taken Ritalin for two years -- it took a while to get to the right dosage, and it worked well for a while. Toward the end of last year, the effectiveness wore off, so we are trying Strattera now.
2. The Strattera seems to be working relatively well. It is not a magic bullet by any means, but our son seems to be on task more often than not, and is handing in homework and taking notes in class. His grades are high, and more importantly, he is happy.
3. At school, he is in speech therapy with two other kids, and he LOVES this. They work on conversational skills and social skills.
4. Also run by the speech therapist, my son is involved with a social club at school. He loves this as well.

The school speech therapist can go a long way with helping your son acclimate to school and find friends. When our son was in elementary school, he would pick a friend to go have lunch with him at the speech therapist's office, where they would work on conversational and social skills. Before the lunch group was established, our son would pick a friend and go to the therapist's office to work on play skills. All of these things helped to boost his self-confidence, and they were quiet ways in which the other kids learned that our son's differences weren't all that different.

As far as the meds go -- if your child is better off on them than without them, then by all means give them a try. I don't think any parent actually WANTS their kids to be on meds. Our goal is to get off of them whenever my son is able. But for now, he knows he can concentrate just a little bit better with the Strattera. He also socializes better on the Strattera. This may only last for a year or two, and then we may have to try a different med, but I think in my son's eyes, it's worth it.

Kris

I think magnesium and vitamin B6 pills help.
very best wishes
JC
http://unlearningasperger.blogspot.com/

My son takes Adderall for his hyperactivity/impulsivity.

I take Zoloft for depression/anxiety.

Both have worked well for us . I was reluctant to try meds but they really did help.