Hanging-On
New Member
Our new Psychiatrist took difficult child off of everything but the following:
7.5mg Abilify - AM
7.5mg Abilify - PM
.05mg Clonidine - PM
The psychiatric didn't like difficult child on depakote and lithium due to the possible damage it can cause. He thought the trazadone (50% in the am, and 50% at night was weird). So with the possitive results of the abilify in the last month, he wants to see if we can just be on the abilify and clonidine.
My question: difficult child was the BEST on the mixture of depakote, lithium, abilify, clonidine, trazadone. His attention was greatly improved, his attitude on school and "wanting" to learn was greatly improved, all around behavior was greatly improved, his compliance and his initiation of things was greatly improved, etc.
Now that we have been on only Abilify and Clonidine, all of the above has been reduced. Not done to zero, but reduced. He's argumentive to me and his tutor. He doesn't want to do school work as readily, and his nanny now has to be in the room and help coax him into it. He now having meltdowns at home, etc.
As some of you might remember I was very wary of putting difficult child on medications, and I'm still questioning this as to how much is too much. With this in mind, I know that kids can be kids and they can be bratty at different levels. My question is this:: is the above situation acceptable due to the dr wanting difficult child on less harmful drugs although he's not at his best; or do I demand that difficult child be put back onto the old mixture? When do you give a difficult child the "being a brat" concession and NOT OVERLY drug him, and when do you say enough is enough and put him on more drugs to "CONTROL" his behavior? I need your thoughts, please. I asked the dr about putting him back on the Lithium (at least), he said to see how this weekend goes and we'll talk. Well one example of how this weekend has been is that difficult child damaged the kitchen cabinets today, by throwing the kitchen stool when he had a meltdown. I say abilify alone isn't doing it. What do you think?
7.5mg Abilify - AM
7.5mg Abilify - PM
.05mg Clonidine - PM
The psychiatric didn't like difficult child on depakote and lithium due to the possible damage it can cause. He thought the trazadone (50% in the am, and 50% at night was weird). So with the possitive results of the abilify in the last month, he wants to see if we can just be on the abilify and clonidine.
My question: difficult child was the BEST on the mixture of depakote, lithium, abilify, clonidine, trazadone. His attention was greatly improved, his attitude on school and "wanting" to learn was greatly improved, all around behavior was greatly improved, his compliance and his initiation of things was greatly improved, etc.
Now that we have been on only Abilify and Clonidine, all of the above has been reduced. Not done to zero, but reduced. He's argumentive to me and his tutor. He doesn't want to do school work as readily, and his nanny now has to be in the room and help coax him into it. He now having meltdowns at home, etc.
As some of you might remember I was very wary of putting difficult child on medications, and I'm still questioning this as to how much is too much. With this in mind, I know that kids can be kids and they can be bratty at different levels. My question is this:: is the above situation acceptable due to the dr wanting difficult child on less harmful drugs although he's not at his best; or do I demand that difficult child be put back onto the old mixture? When do you give a difficult child the "being a brat" concession and NOT OVERLY drug him, and when do you say enough is enough and put him on more drugs to "CONTROL" his behavior? I need your thoughts, please. I asked the dr about putting him back on the Lithium (at least), he said to see how this weekend goes and we'll talk. Well one example of how this weekend has been is that difficult child damaged the kitchen cabinets today, by throwing the kitchen stool when he had a meltdown. I say abilify alone isn't doing it. What do you think?