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Brilliance/Mania/medications/Dulling
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<blockquote data-quote="klmno" data-source="post: 186533" data-attributes="member: 3699"><p>I'm going to throw out the unpopular option, sorry- no offense meant to anyone. Our plan is to try taking my son off medications after going through therapy <u><strong>IF</strong></u> has been stable for at least one year (no mood cycling and no legal or school problems). We might never reach that point, but here is the reasoning behind it:</p><p></p><p>We don't know for sure that my son is truly bipolar (although he definitely has mood cycling now) and there is some thought that he still might be primarily suffering from depression and he needs therapy to deal with some issues. He also needs therapy to learn preventative techniques and coping skills. However, the cycling might have been started from the prozac, and if so, his brain never had time to heal before being put on mood stabilizers. We didn't have a lot of choice about this- with all the legal problems it was just too risky. Anyway, the psychiatrist felt like there is a good chance in difficult child's situation (not speaking for everyone) that his mood cycling might stop at some point in time and he might not need to stay on mood stabilizers. Also, my thought is, if we doon't go through this process, difficult child will stop taking his medications as soon as he's old enough and moves out of the house, and it's unlikely he'll do it under a psychiatrist's care. I would much prefer to give things a chance without medications while he's a teenager, living at home, where I can make sure he comes off them very gradually, under psychiatrist's care, and with me around to "jump in" and get things turned back around if the need arises. I figure that process will let us both know, for sure, whether or not he has to have medications to function permanently (ie- that he is truly BiPolar (BP)).</p><p></p><p>I understand exactly what you are concerned about, Steely. My son's qualities are different than your son's, but he has abilities that I've seen swept under a rug, so to speak, since being put on these medications. Not to mention the side effects and long-term risks. And, I swear, I have a nagging feeling that these medications are making something worse. Everyone tells me that can't happen, but then I've also heard that the brain gets dependent upon them so the slightest change in balance after a person is used to taking them can make them more symptommatic then they would have been if they'd never taken them. All this worries me a great deal.</p><p></p><p>So, I would suggest thinking a lot about how sure you are that he is BiPolar (BP), how risky is it to give this a try (how unbalanced did he get before?), how bad does he want to try it, would he come off extremely slow and be willing to go back on if things weren't working out well, does he notice and will he tell someone if he starts getting depressed or manic?</p><p></p><p>You have more experience than I do with this- I'm just throwing out what I think needs to be considered. I'll be interested in hearing what you decide and seeing how it goes!!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="klmno, post: 186533, member: 3699"] I'm going to throw out the unpopular option, sorry- no offense meant to anyone. Our plan is to try taking my son off medications after going through therapy [U][B]IF[/B][/U] has been stable for at least one year (no mood cycling and no legal or school problems). We might never reach that point, but here is the reasoning behind it: We don't know for sure that my son is truly bipolar (although he definitely has mood cycling now) and there is some thought that he still might be primarily suffering from depression and he needs therapy to deal with some issues. He also needs therapy to learn preventative techniques and coping skills. However, the cycling might have been started from the prozac, and if so, his brain never had time to heal before being put on mood stabilizers. We didn't have a lot of choice about this- with all the legal problems it was just too risky. Anyway, the psychiatrist felt like there is a good chance in difficult child's situation (not speaking for everyone) that his mood cycling might stop at some point in time and he might not need to stay on mood stabilizers. Also, my thought is, if we doon't go through this process, difficult child will stop taking his medications as soon as he's old enough and moves out of the house, and it's unlikely he'll do it under a psychiatrist's care. I would much prefer to give things a chance without medications while he's a teenager, living at home, where I can make sure he comes off them very gradually, under psychiatrist's care, and with me around to "jump in" and get things turned back around if the need arises. I figure that process will let us both know, for sure, whether or not he has to have medications to function permanently (ie- that he is truly BiPolar (BP)). I understand exactly what you are concerned about, Steely. My son's qualities are different than your son's, but he has abilities that I've seen swept under a rug, so to speak, since being put on these medications. Not to mention the side effects and long-term risks. And, I swear, I have a nagging feeling that these medications are making something worse. Everyone tells me that can't happen, but then I've also heard that the brain gets dependent upon them so the slightest change in balance after a person is used to taking them can make them more symptommatic then they would have been if they'd never taken them. All this worries me a great deal. So, I would suggest thinking a lot about how sure you are that he is BiPolar (BP), how risky is it to give this a try (how unbalanced did he get before?), how bad does he want to try it, would he come off extremely slow and be willing to go back on if things weren't working out well, does he notice and will he tell someone if he starts getting depressed or manic? You have more experience than I do with this- I'm just throwing out what I think needs to be considered. I'll be interested in hearing what you decide and seeing how it goes!! [/QUOTE]
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