difficult child's new psychiatrist

[TerryJ2]

Turned out that difficult child had a field trip yesterday until 4:30 so I went to his new psychiatric by myself.
It turned out better that way--he would have interrupted us and denied everything.
I had a ton of paperwork and history to give her and she was very interesting. Of course, she has an accent.
She is very much looking forward to the results of the testing that difficult child will have in the next cpl wks. (6 hrs worth)
In the meantime, she suggested giving him clonidine twice a day, since it does not seem to make him sleepy, as that will even out his moods a bit. husband and I decided to try it on the weekend, just in case it does make him sleepy.
She's very much into brain chemicals and it's so diff than going to a psychologist/behaviorist!
It was validating but also disheartening to hear once again that this is a lifetime issue. I can't help projecting into the future to a time when difficult child is 18 or 21 and refuses his medications. I am hoping this is more of an aspie thing because of the medication issue, too. Silly, I know. I have to live in the present.

Our next appointment--with-both difficult child and myself--is in Dec.

Oh, by the way, she said the exact thing other doctors and friends have said: "You've got your hands full."
If I had a dollar for every time someone said that ...

 

[Jena]

Hi,

I know how you feel with the "lifetime issue" thing, yet try as best you can to stay positive and hopeful that the work you do now will set the foundation for a healthy future for difficult child and also the realization that if medications are necessary it's just part of his daily routine, and maintenance. I know though, it is disheartening to say the least.

so, your trying the chlonidine this weekend coming up? My current pyschdoc for difficult child did not like chlonidine for the simple fact it is a blood pressure lowering medication, and it affects more of the medical end of it than the physological end of it. so he advised me not to ever use it again. i had difficult child on it for ummm 1 1/2 years to assist with sleep at night. otherwise she didn't go down. Now, i've been giving her kava kava tea which she hates in the a.m. to calm her for the day (minimal improvement), and i give kava kava at night mixed with melatonin for sleep. yet i'm learning that in time it will ware off because her body will grow used to it. than i'll be up the creek so to speak.

how many mg's were prescribed? my difficult child is almost 10, 95 lbs. and was given 0.5 mg at night which is minimal dosage and she passed out on it most nights.

i'm sorry i know how hard it is. yet maybe the chlonidine will work for him...

i'd be curious to know how it goes this weekend with it. id' suggest make sure during day you give it with a meal to avoid naseua

 

[gcvmom]

Oh, by the way, she said the exact thing other doctors and friends have said: "You've got your hands full."
If I had a dollar for every time someone said that ...

... you'd have your hands full of money!

The fact that he's used to medications as a kid will be a huge benefit for when he reaches the age of majority and can choose for himself. He will have had enough years of functioning well and feeling well to recognize the difference when he isn't and doesn't. At least that's what our psychiatrist asserts is the difference between someone with a mood disorder who is diagnosed as an adult and someone who begins treatment as a child.

And you're right, we all need to live in today as much as we can, prepare for the future as best we can, and hope it all works out in the end.

 

[TerryJ2]

Thanks for your support.

He's on 0.05 mg of clonidine. The psychiatric said she's been prescribing it to kids off-label since 1979, and she's only had one adverse affect, when one kid's blood pressure changed, but it wasn't a medical emergency. She said she feels it's very safe.

She also said that there is at least one medication coming out that is like a combo of clonidine and adderal, if I understood correctly, and it will be specifically designed for kids. It's along the lines of Tenex and will be called Intuition or something. It's not surprising that one specifically for kids is finally coming out, after all the yrs of experimenting on our kids with-adult medications!!! So much for clinical trials.

 

[Wiped Out]

Terry,
My difficult child takes .05mgs of Clonidine in the am and at around 4:00. He also takes .1 at night to help him sleep. It is no cure all but it sure does help him. The one day they tried to take him off it in the hospital last March they quickly put him back on because they couldn't believe the difference.

He really hasn't had any adverse reactions, he does sometimes get sleepy but I think it's more the Loxapine than the Clonidine although the Clonidine does help with his sleeping at night but it is a higher dose.

 

[susiestar]

We have never used clonidine, but I totally know how you feel about the lifetime issue part of this deal. It really stinks and hoovers. I think that by starting Wiz on medications early, and by stressing that the interaction of his medications and illegal/not-prescribed-for-him/even herbal medications could hurt him seriously, makes him willing to take the medications as prescribed and has kept him away from trying pot or any other drugs. He knows they are out there but is very afraid of them. Somewhere he got the idea that they would kill him. and he HATES my bro's behavior and has studied enough about alcohol to keep him away from that as far as we can tell. We were VERY open about alcoholism running in families, it making his medications very dangerous, AND the possiblity of him behaving the way my bro has/does (the behavior doesn't alway stop just because the alcohol does, sadly). Someone told him that drugs and his medications would kill him and he believes it.

It doesn't mean he won't ever try them, it just combined with the
aspie-ism" to make him firm on the rule that drugs/alcohol are very bad things. So, that is one of the few "good" things about having an aspie. Once they get a rule, they really have it.

I hope the chlonidine 2x a day will really help. It IS very different to see a doctor who knows about brain chemistry and what may help your child's given brain chem. FAR different than docs who just deal in behavior. I hope she is very helpful, and maybe can see you sooner if you need her?

This may be a lifetime issue, well, it IS a lifetime issue, but it can have its good times too!

 

[TerryJ2]

Thanks for the info.
Yeah, I told her that if he weren't so darn cute and adorable, I would have killed him by now, LOL! She said we'd work to increase his adorableness.