Re: Son Depressed , I'm depressed-meds

[Guest guest]

dear debra-

i wanted to share with you a bit of information about meds that seems to ring

true for my 12 yo aspie daughter. someone either here or a different group

mentioned how sensitive our kids can be to meds, that there was a study

conducted revealing this to be true. the conclusion was that some of our kids

can tolerate only low doses of the meds. i found this out after my daughter

tried out 10mg paxil which resulted in 5 weeks of everything from a broken arm

to continuous illness. i remember giving her the very first dose at bedtime in

case it made her sleepy. the next morning, her footsteps were much

different...they hit the ground harder and her steps were faster. i mentioned

this to her psych and he said he never heard of this and it proably had nothing

to do with the meds. by day 4 of the meds, she jumped off a little tykes gym

and broke her arm. her anxiety was already fading but it was replaced with a

recklessness. before the meds, she would have never had an unexplained bruise

or scratch, she moved about quietly and sure footedly (is that even a word?),

but now she was clipping corners and not paying attention. she also ended up

with two bouts of the flu, sinus infection, pink eye and strep throat, all

within a 5 week period. i stopped the meds and postponed trying any others

until the summer, when she would be out of school. that is when i found out

about the medication sensitivity and aspies. so this summer she began a 1.5 mg

dose of prozac--i have the med in liquid form so can easily adjust the dose.

this small dose has reduced her anxiety and anger. i would like to increase the

dose slightly but she gets stomach cramping with any increase. so we are still

figuring this out. but wanted to share this bit of info that has been helpful

to us.

regards, melody

>

> From: Roxanna <MadIdeas@...>

> Subject: Re: ( ) Son Depressed , I'm depressed

>

> Date: Friday, September 18, 2009, 9:46 AM

>

>

>

> Hang in there Jan. When my older ds got depressed and no longer could

> go to school, I got so depressed at the same time. It was really very

> hard to get through that. The best help I did for myself was to not

> look at long term issues - just deal with short term problems, deal

> w

> ith today. That helped me. If I looked at the future, it was so bad.

> I could not see anything good happening from this. So that just

> reinforced the depression.

>

> Also, remember that what is going on now will have an end and a

> resolution. My ds ended up getting tutored. I felt so depressed that

> he was missing school and out of the loop. But really, it was the

> beginning of good things for him. He did really well in the 1-1

> tutoring vs. classroom. He got A's instead of C's, D's and F's. He

> didn't have to work so hard to compensate for his LD and the tutor went

> at the pace that suited him. He regained his self-esteem enough to

> try

> the computer classes and attend school again after two years. And he

> excelled at computers and found his " calling " in life. So out of what

> I thought was the very worst and lowest point came all the good stuff.

> You could not have convinced me it was good at the time though! I saw

> nothing but despair. But know you are not alone.

>

> Also, if his " bf " is such a wishy washy kid, maybe he shouldn't be his

> bf! When these kinds20of problems happen to my 12 yo ds (hfa), I often

> try to steer him into examining why he likes this person and if this is

> a relationship worthwhile to him. He does not always see the point.

> But maybe eventually he will. The point is, I let him know that from

> my perspective, this has not been a good friend to him anyway. It

> hurts to lose a friend (esp. when=2

> 0he has so few and now none...) but he

> should also not be friends with someone who is not being nice to him.

> So speak up and

> make the relationship better or find a new friend or

> activity. That is my usual " pep talk. " I have to be careful not to

> outright criticize the friend. Instead, I comment on what is happening

> to get him thinking (hopefully).

>

> But of course, it never looks that easy at the moment it is happening -

> the tears, the hurt...I understand how it hurts us as parents too!!

>

> As for the ipod, ugh. They are so pricey. We've gone through a number

> of them because they either stopped working or were lost or stolen. My

> older ds is into the " zune " models, also pricey but " better " than

> ipods, he says. My dd got one for her birthday and someone stole it at

> school last year. It was in her purse and then it was gone after art

> class one day. Now I buy the kids the cheaper MP3 players. For $20 to

> $50, they hold tons of music. We download music off amazon too -

> simple. I

> think the ipod music is in a different format so

> you can't

> easily transfer the music to another player. It's MP4 or something

> like that. So that really annoyed me to find that out after buying a

> bunch of music!

>

> Hang in there!!

>

> Roxanna

>

> " The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do

> nothing. " E. Burke

>

> ( ) Son Depressed , I'm depressed

>

> Oh, woe to be thee ..woe to be me....I feel so lost, so dpressed, so

> down ...and my son is feeling the

> same. He lost his BF ...to another

> boy who was being home schooled but is back now. They ride the bus

> together and my son rides the smaller bus. So they plan what they are

> going to do that day and leave him out. The other day...his BF said he

> could not come down and that the other kid wasn't home...lie. My son

> was on the phone when he heard the other boy...and his BF would not

> talk. Then my son jumped on his bike and went down there....his BF

> then made up a story that they were going to come up and surprise him.

> Yeah right...I don't believe it one bit...his BF has lied to him

> before.

>

> My son came home yesterday and sa

> id he either lost his IPOD or left it

> in his locker....I emailed the asst. principal ...have not heard from

> her yet...and my son just got home and went straight into his

> room....he was calling his BF....but got no answer. In the meantime, I

> asked him about his IPOD and he said it

> was gone. The ear phones were

> in his backpack.... I am wondering if someone went into his locker and

> stole it. I am sick over it...my husband said we could get him a new

> one for his birthday...I don't want to...he has been rude and down

> right NASTY to me and my husband. I truly beleive thing

> s are going

> wrong with friends in school.

>

> I can't function like this...he is sad and I can't fix it...and he

> doesn't want to do school work and he shouts at us and is very nasty.

>

> I feel like running away from all of this ..I just can't handle it.

>

> Help!

>

> jan

>