Hi there. First off, you CAN have that severe a reaction to one pill. My son flipped out on one Prozac and I never gave it to him again. EVER. He is on the autism spectrum--Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) kids tend to be sensitive to medication. I tossed the Prozac in the trash. He didn't end up in the hospital, but he was NOT himself and was scaring his teacher by acting "crazy" (her word). That was the first and only time I've ever gotten a call from school because of my son's behavior and the teacher was freaked out...lol. I take an antidepressant, which Straterra is, and have taken many--sometimes with them ultimately causing hallucinations, but it was always after I'd taken them for a while. They were quite scary hallucinations. I saw and heard things that were not there and didn't know what was real and what wasn't real. Most kids don't freak out over little stuff like your six year old. He has tons of anxiety, like I did (I also had early onset bipolar, they believe). None of my five kids had phobias like that, but I did. I slept with the light on until I was a teenager. I wasn't afraid of bugs, but had other fears, more to do with health issues, but they were very obessessive. Has your child ever seen a psychiatrist (with the MD) or a neuropsychologist? I wouldn't trust a psycologist, in my opinion, to diagnose, especially an "ADHD" Psycologist. I'm really personally NOT fond of professionals who decide they have a disorder specialty. In our experience, those professionals tend to see THAT disorder in every child, and they could be wrong. I would definitely want him to see a Child Psychiatrist, and, if it were my kid, I'd refrain from any antidepressants at all, and I wouldn't rush to stimulants either. It is hard to correctly diagnose a young child--the medications are often hit or miss--just a guess, and you don't know what will happen. I'd get more than one opinion and also see a neuropsychologist. They do extensive testing and come as close as possible to making a scientific diagnosis on disorders that have no blood tests for confirmation. Anxiety is usually a part of another disorder--such as my anxiety disorder with bipolar. My real diagnostic mix is bipolar II, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, mild Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). This is common, to have more than one thing triggering another. I hope you get other opinions, and good luck with your little one.
