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Does it always come to medications?
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<blockquote data-quote="susiestar" data-source="post: 386038" data-attributes="member: 1233"><p>medications are not always a good choice. Personally I think that some more testing should be done before medications are given. years ago no one got adhd medications until an EEG was done. EEGs test for seizures and many psychiatric medicines can lower the seizure threshold, esp stimulants. One mother who isn't here much anymore tried every psychiatric drug (just about) on her son and then learned that ALL of his symptoms were due to a seizure disorder. Many of the medications made things far worse and he developed side effects that lasted a lot longer than the medications stayed in his system. She is the one who I first heard advocate for the EEG to be done before medications started. I was NOT popular with my daughter's teacher (4th grade), or with one psychiatrist and his nurse practitioner because I would NOT give my daughter any medications until the neuro gave her an EEG. The teacher (and my mother) both thought my daughter had inattentive ADHD because she never seemed to be concentrating. The neuro found that she has Absence Epilepsy - seizures that are not noticeable but her brain turns off for a few seconds at a time. She had these seizures more than once a minute before we found medicine to help her. Even then it was hard to find the right medication because the side effects are hard to handle. We are now waiting for an appointment with a new neurologist because her current medication is making her sick to her stomach. She won't stop taking it because she doesn't want to go back to what she calls "short days", meaning that before this medication she didn't realize how long each day was because she was literally missing about half of the day due to seizures.</p><p> </p><p>For a problem like this, medications are not optional. But many problems are not as clear cut as this one. Many problems may or may not be treated with medications. For most it is a lot harder to treat them with-o medications, and those treatments are ones the patient has to be able and completely willing to work VERY hard to overcome the problems. Some kids are able to do this. Some are not. Some find these treatments and ways to help themselves to be so hard for so little effort that they prefer medications. </p><p> </p><p>For MY child, who has Aspergers and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and his ADHD is a SYMPTOM of the Aspergers, medications were our ONLY option at first. He REFUSED to do ANY work on his behavior at times, and he has such a deep depression that he cannot overcome it with-o medications. He also fights deep feelings of being unworthy of anything - and I blame this directly and fully on his teachers in grades 1 and 2 - they actively and purposely destroyed his self esteem to the point that at age 7 he tried to kill himself - and his attempts would have worked if we had not stopped them. This is NOT the norm, but is what he endured. It took us over a year of homeschooling so that we could go to the Children's Hospital for various therapies 4 days a week to help him learn how to handle the depression and his Aspergers/Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)/ADHD symptoms. We homeschooled because I learned what those *itches who taught him were doing (among the NICEST thing they did was taking away his recess if he missed a typo on a letter his teacher wrote to send home. HE lost recess if he didn't correct all of HER MISTAKES!). It took medications to handle his anger - he was not able to be left alone with his little sister long enough for me to go to the bathroom - I had to take her with me or she had bruises when I came out.</p><p> </p><p>medications really helped with that. he had a LOT to work through, and he was SO YOUNG that he just couldn't do it, no matter how adult he sounded when he spoke.</p><p> </p><p>Now he is an adult, is NOT a difficult child, has graduated both high school and a machinist training program, and is in college. He is an awesome big brother and has repaired his relationship with his siblings, and is a wonderful son who has repaired his relationship with husband and I. He is still on medications, though he is old enough to make that choice for himself. It takes 3 antidepressants to deal with his problems - 2 are for other things but also help the depression.</p><p> </p><p>The medications choice depends on what the problems are, and if other solutions are available AND something the child can actually understand. One problem that cannot be addressed by medications but is common in many people with problems like our kids is sensory integration disorder. It is when the brain doesn't handle sensory input well. People with Sensory Integration Disorder (SID) seek certain types of sensory input and avoid others. The treatment for this is brushing therapy, usually combined with gentle joint compressions. It MUST be taught by an Occupational Therapist (OT) before it is tried, otherwise you can create BIG problems, but done properly it has been showed to "rewire" how the brain handles sensory input - it creates new pathways in the brain, literally! It is usually enjoyed by the child, though there are some who don't like it. I urge parents to make sure that they get an evaluation by a PRIVATE Occupational Therapist (OT) for this if their child has any problems at all. Schools have OTs, but they focus only on how education is impacted by sensory problems, not how the rest of their lives are impacted. Private OTs also get no pressure to get certain results - school OTs can be pressured if the school does not have accommodations available.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="susiestar, post: 386038, member: 1233"] medications are not always a good choice. Personally I think that some more testing should be done before medications are given. years ago no one got adhd medications until an EEG was done. EEGs test for seizures and many psychiatric medicines can lower the seizure threshold, esp stimulants. One mother who isn't here much anymore tried every psychiatric drug (just about) on her son and then learned that ALL of his symptoms were due to a seizure disorder. Many of the medications made things far worse and he developed side effects that lasted a lot longer than the medications stayed in his system. She is the one who I first heard advocate for the EEG to be done before medications started. I was NOT popular with my daughter's teacher (4th grade), or with one psychiatrist and his nurse practitioner because I would NOT give my daughter any medications until the neuro gave her an EEG. The teacher (and my mother) both thought my daughter had inattentive ADHD because she never seemed to be concentrating. The neuro found that she has Absence Epilepsy - seizures that are not noticeable but her brain turns off for a few seconds at a time. She had these seizures more than once a minute before we found medicine to help her. Even then it was hard to find the right medication because the side effects are hard to handle. We are now waiting for an appointment with a new neurologist because her current medication is making her sick to her stomach. She won't stop taking it because she doesn't want to go back to what she calls "short days", meaning that before this medication she didn't realize how long each day was because she was literally missing about half of the day due to seizures. For a problem like this, medications are not optional. But many problems are not as clear cut as this one. Many problems may or may not be treated with medications. For most it is a lot harder to treat them with-o medications, and those treatments are ones the patient has to be able and completely willing to work VERY hard to overcome the problems. Some kids are able to do this. Some are not. Some find these treatments and ways to help themselves to be so hard for so little effort that they prefer medications. For MY child, who has Aspergers and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and his ADHD is a SYMPTOM of the Aspergers, medications were our ONLY option at first. He REFUSED to do ANY work on his behavior at times, and he has such a deep depression that he cannot overcome it with-o medications. He also fights deep feelings of being unworthy of anything - and I blame this directly and fully on his teachers in grades 1 and 2 - they actively and purposely destroyed his self esteem to the point that at age 7 he tried to kill himself - and his attempts would have worked if we had not stopped them. This is NOT the norm, but is what he endured. It took us over a year of homeschooling so that we could go to the Children's Hospital for various therapies 4 days a week to help him learn how to handle the depression and his Aspergers/Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)/ADHD symptoms. We homeschooled because I learned what those *itches who taught him were doing (among the NICEST thing they did was taking away his recess if he missed a typo on a letter his teacher wrote to send home. HE lost recess if he didn't correct all of HER MISTAKES!). It took medications to handle his anger - he was not able to be left alone with his little sister long enough for me to go to the bathroom - I had to take her with me or she had bruises when I came out. medications really helped with that. he had a LOT to work through, and he was SO YOUNG that he just couldn't do it, no matter how adult he sounded when he spoke. Now he is an adult, is NOT a difficult child, has graduated both high school and a machinist training program, and is in college. He is an awesome big brother and has repaired his relationship with his siblings, and is a wonderful son who has repaired his relationship with husband and I. He is still on medications, though he is old enough to make that choice for himself. It takes 3 antidepressants to deal with his problems - 2 are for other things but also help the depression. The medications choice depends on what the problems are, and if other solutions are available AND something the child can actually understand. One problem that cannot be addressed by medications but is common in many people with problems like our kids is sensory integration disorder. It is when the brain doesn't handle sensory input well. People with Sensory Integration Disorder (SID) seek certain types of sensory input and avoid others. The treatment for this is brushing therapy, usually combined with gentle joint compressions. It MUST be taught by an Occupational Therapist (OT) before it is tried, otherwise you can create BIG problems, but done properly it has been showed to "rewire" how the brain handles sensory input - it creates new pathways in the brain, literally! It is usually enjoyed by the child, though there are some who don't like it. I urge parents to make sure that they get an evaluation by a PRIVATE Occupational Therapist (OT) for this if their child has any problems at all. Schools have OTs, but they focus only on how education is impacted by sensory problems, not how the rest of their lives are impacted. Private OTs also get no pressure to get certain results - school OTs can be pressured if the school does not have accommodations available. [/QUOTE]
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