anxiety medications?

Jena

New Member
hi,

Has anyone had experience with any anxiety/depression medications for difficult child's that weren't ssri's? I was told tricyclic, yet i've looked into that a bit. Id' like to know if anyone has had any luck with others?

thanks,
Jen :)
 

totoro

Mom? What's a difficult child?
No, sorry! But for us, with K, when she is "stable" or more stable, when the medication she is on is helping her, it usually decreases her anxiety.
For us that has been AP's and MS's. If they are not working or stop working etc, then we see an increase in her anxiety.
I think the severity and co-morbidity/diagnosis etc. need to be looked at to really figure out what medication can help.
Some BiPolar (BP) kids do not need anxiety medications if they can remain stable.
For me and K we have far less anxiety when we are stable, which also includes besides medications: sleep, exercise and good eating habits.
I hope you find something to help soon.
 

Jena

New Member
hi,

been a while, sounds like she's doing well that's great! ok, long day i'm sorry what is an ap and ms???

with mine, her anxiety/hyperactivity at times/sleeplessness seems to be key issues, along with emotional neediness, unsure of herself, distractibility........

this doctor was approaching it by thelet's get the anxiety down/get her sleeping avenue which is fine i can see that. yet the prozac wans't the right one, lexapro made her fly as well. i'm not sure where to go from here. i wanted to call him monday with ideas. i want to exhaust everything before i say ok BiPolar (BP). he said said some many things at one time hard to know what to handle first. i'm sure in time we will figure it out i feel as though we are getting closer now and that is a good thing. :)
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Tricyclic antidepressants gave me an even worse reaction than the SSRIs so be careful. They have bad side effects as well. I tried two and they both made me hallucinate AND my throat swelled up--it was a very dangerous reaction. I couldn't swallow. If it were my child, I'd stay away from antidepressants.
 
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klmno

Active Member
Jen, it sounds like he's trying to rule-out BiPolar (BP), or it least seeing if he can get her stable on the least amount of medications before diagnosis'ing BiPolar (BP) and/or putting her on MS (mood stabilizers) or AP (anti-psychotics - which can be usedd for mood stabilization too). I think that is good and I'd try to make that work if it were me. (Not to imply that you aren't trying- just sometimes I know we want to hurry up and find something that works- I think he's trying to concentrate on being thorough).

Anyway, if this is what he's doing, you might want to look at some strategies that are used to help a kid with sleeping, anxiety, etc issues- whatever issues your daughter is struggling with. Have you looked on the BPkids website? They have a list under the "therapeutic parenting" portion that might help you. As with all lists of things, some will be more applicable than others, depending on your specific situation. Also, has there been any discussion with psychiatrist or therapist about whether or not the anxiety seems to be a symptom of something else going on (like poor coping skills or struggling at school) or is anxiety the problem itself? Has she expressed anything to you that helps determine that? I'm thinking if you can get an idea of what is causing anxiety, maybe you can work on that with her. But, some people (my mother for instance), even when she thinks something is causing her anxiety, anxiety is her problem (its the cause, not the effect).

Just my 2 cents!
 

Jena

New Member
midwest mom thank u for your input with-that particular type of ssri's i appreciate that alot. scary side effects def......ugh


hi, yes you are correct i believe that he is also trying to rule it out, makes sense to me the process of elimination which is fine with-me. i was just trying to get bk up information so that when i go in on monday i'm not lost when he begins talkign about other classifications of drugs...i'm only familiar with the antiphyscotics and the ssri's some of them.

i have been on that website, thank you read what you spoke of i also called them not so long ago and they sent me free literature and information. i also made contact with- a dr. out in pa. who was on channel 13 the medicated child to get his take on it all. she does have an extreme anxiety disorder, her neuropysch testing shows no learning disabilities at all. yet it did show possible short term memory, issues with-executive functioning skills, all the stuff that BiPolar (BP) kids show areas of struggling. it shows that she externalizes and internalizes stuff, major depressive traits, they diagnosis with major depressive disorder yet she was on a down around that time, so obvious.......

anyhow i've read alot of books and have checked out that website taken alot of different appraoches in how i handle her, it's a learning process yet it is what it is she yells at times, hearing a no is a huge issue for her, she's difficult emotionally needy, unsure of herself, doesn't sleep just overall unstable right now.

yet she def has pockets of great behavior, and where she enjoys herself it's just not enough at this point. if she could be tied to me 24/7 she would be happily....also funny thing, not funny but her internal clock is so different than most. her perfect schedule would be going to bed between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. and waking up anywhere between 6:30 a.m. and 9: a.m. most days. unfortunately the real world can't handle her schedule lol. also any type of activiites outtings she gets so geared up its' insane. most of time i try not to tell her before hand yet having two children as i'm sure you know ti's difficult to always hide plans. yesterday i bought her a lunchable for today to eat before grandma's house i usually don't buy them because they have candy etc. in them she was so geared up about it she went to bed her usual around 2:30 a.m. and woke up at 8 a.m. just Occupational Therapist (OT) eat the thing lol.

ok i'm rambled i'm sorry lack of sleep.......... :)
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Executive function problems are a big issue also with all sorts of autism, including Aspergers and Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)-not otherwise specified. It's not just bipolar. I have bipolar and struggle with executive functions, but so does my Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) son.
I have extremely high anxiety. Anxiety is one symptom that actually can respond to therapy. For a bright kid, I think cognitive behavioral therapy is really good...it helped ME mega, and I once had such bad panic attacks I could barely leave the house. I also had one phobia after another. It wasn't fun. For me, the only thing that really helps my panic attacks are benzodiazepans, and I would try to stay away from them in a child. They are very awesome as far as blocking panic--I can do what everyone else does now--but they can cause dependency. However, so can (and do) all types of anti-depressants. I'm not sure you can get away from the dependence issue. I do wish your kiddie good luck. You may want to buy "Feeling Good" by Dr. David Burns. He explains cognitive therapy. I"m sure they could scale it down a bit so a child could understand it. For me...I still use the skills I was taught during that one year in that sort of therapy. I don't think any other sort of therapy helped me at all. Take care. Don't give up, there is help :)
 
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