difficult child 1 got another diagnosis tacked on today.

[gcvmom]

We had our usual psychiatrist appointment today and most of the time was spent focused on difficult child 1 and all the issues that have plagued him this year. Problems with impulse control, sexual compulsion/obsession, mood swings, irritability, aggression, poor motivation, horrible IBS, poor memory... probably forgot a few more things, but those are the main ones.

Rather than a major medication overhaul, we're starting small first and cutting his Celexa in half, since it's the easiest thing to do, and then observe for two weeks. psychiatrist wants to see if this improves some of the problems we've been seeing. If it does, then he'll probably drop that medication altogether.

There's also the possibility that we will add Lamictal somewhere down the road if he continues to struggle with depression. psychiatrist said it would not be a good standalone medication for difficult child 1, but that in conjuction with the Tegretol it could help some of the mood problems he's had.

There's also a possibility that we will try Intuniv for him over the summer instead of the Daytrana, since it has had such good results for difficult child 2's memory issues.

So now he's got Mood Disorder-not otherwise specified tacked onto the ADHD instead of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). I think it's closer to the truth for him. Time and medication response will tell.

 

[susiestar]

Given the things you have posted here, it sounds like a logical change in diagnosis. Hopefully the medication changes will make him easier to live with and help him control his impulses and behaviors. You may find that when he is on the right medication combo that he likes it because he likes the way it makes him feel.

Wiz tends to be rather anti-medicine in that he will put off taking advil, sinus medicine, even imitrex sometimes.. He wants to let his body work it out. When it comes to his daily medications there has never been serious medication refusal. I once asked why he had never refused medications. He told us that he liked the way he felt and acted when he took them, he was able to behave in ways that did not embarrass himself at all and did not embarrass us much. Hopefully when the new medication changes are stable your difficult child will be able to feel this way too.

 

[gcvmom]

Thanks, Susie. I sure hope so. He's articulated not liking how he feels when he's out of control, which is huge to me. So maybe this will be a good summer for him. We'll get his head and his gut problem sorted out and maybe next school year won't be so dang dramatic. I could get used to THAT!