he's been

[klmno]

He just went up to his room- thank goodness- I've really had a long day and didn't get much sleep last night. He spent 20 mins showing me stuff from school that he was excited about before he went upstairs. Of course I'm glad and wanted to show my interest in it, which I did, but I was sitting here thinking "how can he not see that at 10:00 on Fri night after I just learned that you are cutting yourself, this is not the biggest thing on my mind".

Anyway, I'm a little worried because I took him off that AD- if the court finds out that psychiatrist scripted it and I took him off (never mind that I took him off because he was scripted other potential mania-triggers from the pediatrician), the judge will have one fit on me.

Well- he's not in bed- I hear him up there walking around. Earlier, I put my coat on to go outside and have a cigarette and noticed my keys weren't in my pocket. I called out to him and asked if he had my keys. He said yes and he was in the bathroom. I knew he couldn't have had my keys for more than a few mins because I was near my coat until then. Now why would he get my keys and take them to the bathroom with him? I have a lot of keys on the ring, but I looked and don't notice any important ones missing.

 

[smallworld]

Have you touched base with the psychiatrist since you took him off the AD? You really should. I was thinking the AD started the mood dysregulation, and it has continued despite taking him off of it.

 

[klmno]

He sees psychiatrist on Monday. I don't mind trying the AD again- I just felt like it was too much with the other medications- liike albuterol. Plus, psychiatrist had said if things got too different and told difficult child if he started "feeling wierd" on it, then stop using it. Well, difficult child didn't notice anything but difficult child got aggressive- remember the swinging hammer?

I'm not concerned about psychiatrist thinking I did wrong- it's just some people at the courts don't understand that this is the way this works between parents and psychiatrists.

I hope someone over there remembers my testimony from Jan- I specificaly brought up an example where a parent had to make really tough calls about medications for their kid when there was no definitive answer.

 

[Jena]

Im glad he was excited over something, poor thing he's all mixed up right now. I totally can see you being spent and done at this time of the day, i hope your sleeping right now.

I know this is far easier said than done right now, yet you really can't spend and waste what energy you have left on worry about the "what if's" right now. You are doing your best to handle a situation in which right now you need some help with, and going with your "mom gut" and support from others with whom have been there is ok.

Yet what I would do is once you do talk to the doctor tmrw is inform him of what you learned tongiht and also regarding the other medication you pulled so he is up to speed and can back you up if needed. As far as the courts are concerned, and i dont' know the entire situation, yet if the docs up to speed on it, and remember you are doing this out of caring for your son. Maybe the doctor can shed some light as to the other medication and maybe that's why this sudden anger and cutting as well.

Sometimes in life i have learned, and yes for me it's like the brick over the head affect lol, is necessary that the way we'd like to handle something just doens't work, and we have to go with the flow of it. I guess what i'm saying is if after speaking to the doctor about what's been happening that you learned he may want you to move forward with a different plan and maybe thats ok, it's just a different way of achieving the same goal.

I'm a control freak when it comes to difficult child's treatment, iv'e told off many a dr. switched when they do something that upsets me, yet now i've learned to breath a little. yet i know you have so much more on your plate than i in regards to the behaviors your seeing. i think you have handled it really well, and still maintained your job to boot you should be proud of yourself.

it'll all be ok, just take sometime for you inbetween all this to keep you ok thru it, he's going to need you when whatever treatment or placement begins.

sleep good.

 

[klmno]

I was thinking the AD started the mood dysregulation, and it has continued despite taking him off of it.

That could be it, but the way psychiatrist will look at this is that if difficult child were stable before, the AD wouldn't have been added, and an anti-anxiety medication tried before that. difficult child was symptommatic , that's why other things were being tried.

 

[smallworld]

That may be true, but it could be that the AD stirred things up instead of settling them down. That has happened a few times with my kids.

 

[klmno]

That's a possibility too- it does worry me that difficult child might really have a bigger issue with depression but between the Ad's and allergy medications used, mood cycling starts. That definitely seems like a possibility. Dr S. (the evaluation'ing psychiatrist from last year) recommended an AD be added because she thought the bigger issue was depression and that the MS's would keep any resulting cycling (mania) under control. That still might be a possibility, but I need to dicsuss it with regular psychiatrist. I don't want it turning into a situation where we have the never-ending cycle of adding more MS's then AD's over and over. difficult child takes 6 pills a day on the original regiment. This last one put him on 8 pills a day, not including the others for allergies/physical illness. There's only so far I'm willing to go with this- there has to be a better answer.

I can almost see a scenario where difficult child gets into the study and everything seems stable- but, he wouldn't be on allergy medications while there and wouldn't be around allergens. I reall y wish they would study the scenario where antihistamines, albuterol and steroids were intermixed and see what happens.

 

[smallworld]

My son, who has never been on steroids or antihistamines, has serious mood issues. My theory is that he has a chemical imbalance that is exacerbated by certain medications like SSRIs, which throw his brain chemicals out of whack even further. Perhaps your difficult child's chemical imbalance is exacerbated by both SSRIs and allergy medications. But I wouldn't hold out hope that everything's going to stabilize if your difficult child is not on allergy medications and not exposed to allergens (by the way, we have allergens here in Maryland).

My sense about Depakote, from observing two children who have taken it in the past, is that it controls mania so well that it pushes the patient down into depression. That could be happening with your difficult child, and it's time to switch mood stabilizers around. I know your difficult child trialed Lamictal before, but do you feel it was a long enough trial to really know it wasn't going to work?

I know I asked this before as well, but are you sure your difficult child's thyroid levels are fine? Hypothyroidism is very common with Lithium use.

Seroquel might be a good medication to target mood instability and depresssion. My son actually smiles and jokes now that he takes Seroquel.

Don't know what else to suggest . . .

 

[Wiped Out]

Klmno,
I don't have any experience with cutting (although I just found out a few nights ago that my mom is cutting) but wanted to add my support and let you know I'm saying some prayers. Hugs.

 

[CrazyinVA]

My Youngest cut during high school. I don't want to downplay it, because as someone said there is the danger of cutting too deep, but as you said it is so common these days that I'm not sure it's enough to get admitted. Her therapist at the time told me kids cut for different reasons.. that there are even websites devoted to cutting. They cut to feel pain, they cut to punish themselves, they cut because their friends are cutting. Each case is different.

I would keep a close eye on him this weekend, and bring it up with both docs on Monday. If your son will talk to you about it, ask him why he's cutting. Don't be judgmental, just encourage him to vent his feelings a different way.

My youngest was finally put on Lamictal, which seemed to help with the depression as well as the mood swings. Don't know if that is an option, or what your son is on now. I do know that whenever they tried to add an AD on top of the mood stabilizer, things got dicey .. she was more anxious.

What finally stopped my youngest from cutting was, ironically, a hospital stay in which she saw another girl who was a cutter.. and she had cut everywhere, including her breasts. It freaked Youngest out so badly, she stopped.

Hope that helps some. PM me if you need to... I'm closeby...

 

[klmno]

Good morning!

I just got up and drank a cup of coffee (yep- I slept very late!). I checked my online phone records and found that the drug cutting boy and difficult child were calling each other all night, off and on. Well, difficult child was making calls until about 1:00 am. The calls are lasting about 1 min. Anyway, this boy has been calling all morning. He won't leave a message. He calls, if the answering machine comes on he hangs up then calls back about a min later. This is to solicit difficult child to get on the phone, call him back, or leave to meet him. This is how difficult child was put on house arrest and the PO told me I caouls call police about it. Actually, I had brought that up because I told difficult child in front of the PO that if he would ignore those calls and not go around the guy, I could have the cops make him stop due to harassment (I've told him not to call here and that difficult child can't hang out with him). The PO said I could call the cops and make it stop anyway.

I don't know- they could arrange to meet somewhere thru other means that way and I'd be less clueless. Anyway, difficult child is in bed asleep right now. I want to read everyone's responses more carefully and think about them. I really want that kid to go away first. difficult child said himself last mo that he knew that boy didn't care about difficult child - that he was using him and didn't care if he got in trouble or not. I supported difficult child turning him in to school twice- the kid obviously needs serious intervention.

Any ideas?

PS- I don't know if this actually answers anyone's questions re. difficult child's medications but he currently takes 1200 mg of lithobid/day and 500 mg of depakote er per day. The lithobid takes care of the more major sympmtoms (supposedly)- the depakote was started about 2-3 mos after lthium type medication because difficult child was exhibiting what I thought was hypomania but I often wonder if the hypomania was really a reaction to the lithium

Anyway- last mo psychiatrist ordered a blood draw and checked other things along with thyroid just to be on the safe side- glucose and something else. Then, the last time we saw psychiatrist he said everything was in normal range. He said difficult child had a little bit of room to go up on lithobid if need be but he'd rather "save" that in case it became more necessary later. We've tried switching out lithobid before- the depakote or whatever was tried just doesn't address the more extreme stuff like lithium- mainly- agression. We proceed cautiosly with depakote because when it was first started and we were ttitrating up, normal dose was too much for difficult child and he did react in a way that made me think he was about to become Cho. So, I went back down on that one immediately.

Edited to add: I just unplugged the phone. That boy had been calling every 1 to 20 mins since 8:20 this morning. You remember that knife I found a few weeks ago- difficult child won't admit it but I think that's who he got it from. And, I think he's gotten something else from him but I will have to do a thorough search to find what. I can't do that while difficult child is here. I will be straightening house though- I might be calling cops for something this weekend.

WO/Sharon- your Mother is cutting? I have never heard of an adult getting into that. I would think that would be a more serious threat. I'm so sorry- is there any way you can intervene somehow? I wouldn't know where to begin. It seems the stress and worry never ends sometimes, doesn't it?