Guest guest Posted December 15, 2008 Report Share Posted December 15, 2008 Hello, My 12yos has been diagnosed for 1 year and 4 months. He has never been under good control. He is rheumatoid factor positive polyarticular. His sister also has jra and is doing great. My problem is that he is acting depressed lately. He has always had such a positive attitude, now he is crying excessively. He is also easily angered, but not really volitile. He doesn't want to be around people. He doesn't want to do things that he used to enjoy. No activities, no field trips, no parties. We homeschool, but it has been a challenge. He never feels like doing his work. We have to physically restrain him to give him his Enbrel injection. He weighs 170 and that is not very easy to do. I have reported this to Rheumy. He is an hour away. He started him on amnitriptylline 20 mg at night. We will have labs drawn in the morning. My question is how long do you watch this behavior? I can understand that he is reacting to pain and the realization of a chronic illness. I just don't want it to get worse. If this has happened to any of you please advise me on what to do. Thanks, Audra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 17, 2008 Report Share Posted December 17, 2008 Hi Audra. Could his problems be some sort of reaction to the meds in anyway? A side effect? If you are fairly certain it is not, I would recommend your son see a therapist. Some of the kids on the list, including my son, have and it does seem to help. It is a safe place to vent, learn coping mechanisms, etc. With my son, it was just a short course over a few months, and it helped him to learn ways to express his anger over having the disease. It really helped. We discussed his using an anti - depressant, but I really did not want him to (as he was already on so many meds) and he was able to learn how to deal with things. If he had no success with that course of action, then anti depressants would have been used. Even a short course of therapy may help your son, or using the meds. Some of his problems could be due to his age (boys have hormonal issues too as they become teens), some from meds, some from anger over having jra. A good therapist will be able to help him sort out his situation. It did for my son. Good luck, Michele ( 21, spondy) ________________________________ From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of hopeinhonduras Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2008 11:57 PM Subject: depression? need advice Hello, My 12yos has been diagnosed for 1 year and 4 months. He has never been under good control. He is rheumatoid factor positive polyarticular. His sister also has jra and is doing great. My problem is that he is acting depressed lately. He has always had such a positive attitude, now he is crying excessively. He is also easily angered, but not really volitile. He doesn't want to be around people. He doesn't want to do things that he used to enjoy. No activities, no field trips, no parties. We homeschool, but it has been a challenge. He never feels like doing his work. We have to physically restrain him to give him his Enbrel injection. He weighs 170 and that is not very easy to do. I have reported this to Rheumy. He is an hour away. He started him on amnitriptylline 20 mg at night. We will have labs drawn in the morning. My question is how long do you watch this behavior? I can understand that he is reacting to pain and the realization of a chronic illness. I just don't want it to get worse. If this has happened to any of you please advise me on what to do. Thanks, Audra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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