Ask Dr. Chansky - REPLY to (Medication/responsibility and managing)

January 1, 2012

Dear ,

I'm sorry for your family's struggles, but it sounds like there have been

important triumphs as well.

In terms of the medication-- it sounds like the intermediary steps towards you

have taken are good ones, where there is only a limited amount of medication,

but your son is responsible for it. If this is working, that's a good plan.

If not, then need to back it up.

I know you said that you are living in the country, I wonder about an intensive

program for your son which might facilitate his progress-- working on multiple

things at once, but in a setting that could support that round the clock.

You may already be aware of such programs as 's Memorial Hospital in

Occonomowoc, WI. They have great

success in working with very complex OCD cases. May be worth discussing and

investigating with your therapist if

you haven't already.

Wishing you all the best.

Tamar Chansky

>

> I have a question about medication. My son has OCD, Anxiety, Depression, ADD.

My son was responsible for his medication when he was 15. Then he had a

breakdown 6 mo. later with suicidal thoughts. B/C of the suicidal thoughts, we

were told to lock up the med. and I took over the med. dispensing. He is now 17

and at some point I need to have him take over the responsibility again. Does

anyone have experience with this and not feeling like I need to always ask that

he took his medication. It is now in the bathroom cabinet, in a weekly pill

dispenser, with the original bottles in a locked safe. Another question is

regarding type of medication. He is on Prozac 40 mg., Adderall XR 30 mg., Busbar

2x/day. We added in the Busbar in the past month and haven't seen a decrease in

the OCD. His psychiatrist said if Bus. doesn't work, he would increase the

Prozac to max. dose. He also wants to introduce booster Adderall late aft. to

help with his studying. He is exhausted and has trouble doing homework. So

wondering for teens and adults living with OCD, does it come to a point where he

has to accept that he will always have this going on all day, even with the med.

and therapy. I don't know how much patience he has left to keep trying all of

these medications with little success. He has been doing the therapy for 9

years.

>

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