keista
New Member
First, I want to thank everyone who chimed in with their experience, perspectives, insights and urgings to my first thread. You all helped me get through the most difficult time (so far) that I've had as a parent.
So 'creepy' has not been around in over two weeks - knock on wood. Those episodes seemed to be replaced by a constant, incessant, extreme case of boredom. I'm not sure who it was harder on, her or me. psychiatrist had agreed to get her off the Paxil, so as we lowered the dose, while the boredom was still there, it seemed just a little less intense each day. This past Monday we dropped her down to 5mg and again, the boredom seemed to be getting more manageable. Unfortunately, by the end of the day she was so frustrated by it that she would actually start to cry. Wednesday evening this culminated in her Angry&Upset state that wanted to run away.........again. (I remembered to grab my cell phone as I followed her out the door.) Fortunately it was only to the neighbor's house, and the girl that babysits for me was there, so I just let it be. She finally came home in tears apologising for her behavior during the episode, but got frustrated and upset again that she was still having "episodes" and just wanted them to stop and go away. Yeah, baby, me too.
She told me that she was able to "pull herself together" and be 'normal' at the neighbor's but she still didn't feel like herself. Once she finally did, she came home. So, since weaning her off the Paxil did not seem to be bringing on any withdrawal symptoms, we discussed accelerating the process by a few days (psychiatrists recommendations gave me some leeway, I had originally chosen the longer path) So she got one more dose of Paxil on Thursday and none yesterday or today. Last night after going off to bed she came and complained of nausea (a listed withdrawal symptom) - I'll take it! Had it in waves today, and again at bed time, and, her boredom seems to be tapering down to "normal" kid levels for the summer. yay! (not too loud so as not to anger the gods, tempt the hands of Fate, or bring good old Murphy into the mix.)
I feel like I can finally breathe. I am NOT letting my guard down, but I finally feel like I can function, like I can actually do things and be a parent, and say NO when it's warranted without fear of an "episode"
I HOPE and PRAY that Abilify is right for her, at least through the summer. It does seem to be working on those facets of anxiety that Paxil wasn't able to reach, and hopefully once the Paxil is gone those "episodes" will be as well.
I did start reading the BiPolar Child. She still doesn't fit the diagnosis fully. Even going by the "proposed" criteria for a child, she doesn't fit. She does have some unmistakable markers - bed wetting, carb cravings, intense separation anxiety up to 6 months when it was replaced with stranger anxiety, and now she's had bad reactions to two SSRIs - but behavior/symptom wise, it becomes a real stretch of the terms to make her fit. So maybe that's why she has the diagnosis of Mood Disorder not otherwise specified, and is possibly flirting on the edge of BiPolar (BP) but not quite there. Maybe in the future she'll hit BiPolar (BP), or maybe forever stay just on the edge. Either way, we'll be OK because I found all of you.
So thanks again to everyone.:Grouphug:
So 'creepy' has not been around in over two weeks - knock on wood. Those episodes seemed to be replaced by a constant, incessant, extreme case of boredom. I'm not sure who it was harder on, her or me. psychiatrist had agreed to get her off the Paxil, so as we lowered the dose, while the boredom was still there, it seemed just a little less intense each day. This past Monday we dropped her down to 5mg and again, the boredom seemed to be getting more manageable. Unfortunately, by the end of the day she was so frustrated by it that she would actually start to cry. Wednesday evening this culminated in her Angry&Upset state that wanted to run away.........again. (I remembered to grab my cell phone as I followed her out the door.) Fortunately it was only to the neighbor's house, and the girl that babysits for me was there, so I just let it be. She finally came home in tears apologising for her behavior during the episode, but got frustrated and upset again that she was still having "episodes" and just wanted them to stop and go away. Yeah, baby, me too.
She told me that she was able to "pull herself together" and be 'normal' at the neighbor's but she still didn't feel like herself. Once she finally did, she came home. So, since weaning her off the Paxil did not seem to be bringing on any withdrawal symptoms, we discussed accelerating the process by a few days (psychiatrists recommendations gave me some leeway, I had originally chosen the longer path) So she got one more dose of Paxil on Thursday and none yesterday or today. Last night after going off to bed she came and complained of nausea (a listed withdrawal symptom) - I'll take it! Had it in waves today, and again at bed time, and, her boredom seems to be tapering down to "normal" kid levels for the summer. yay! (not too loud so as not to anger the gods, tempt the hands of Fate, or bring good old Murphy into the mix.)
I feel like I can finally breathe. I am NOT letting my guard down, but I finally feel like I can function, like I can actually do things and be a parent, and say NO when it's warranted without fear of an "episode"
I HOPE and PRAY that Abilify is right for her, at least through the summer. It does seem to be working on those facets of anxiety that Paxil wasn't able to reach, and hopefully once the Paxil is gone those "episodes" will be as well.
I did start reading the BiPolar Child. She still doesn't fit the diagnosis fully. Even going by the "proposed" criteria for a child, she doesn't fit. She does have some unmistakable markers - bed wetting, carb cravings, intense separation anxiety up to 6 months when it was replaced with stranger anxiety, and now she's had bad reactions to two SSRIs - but behavior/symptom wise, it becomes a real stretch of the terms to make her fit. So maybe that's why she has the diagnosis of Mood Disorder not otherwise specified, and is possibly flirting on the edge of BiPolar (BP) but not quite there. Maybe in the future she'll hit BiPolar (BP), or maybe forever stay just on the edge. Either way, we'll be OK because I found all of you.
So thanks again to everyone.:Grouphug:
