Support Thread for Mamas of Kids with Anxiety - Page 3

[Smithie]

Hey, did you know that Zoloft can decrease your inhibitions? 

My DS has been on 25 mg of Zoloft for 2 weeks now. It certainly makes a difference. He is certainly suffering much less. He got along very well with the characters at Disney World because they were just as high on life as he was, LOL. 

It remains to be seen if this drug regimen will make school, sports teams etc. possible and enjoyable. I think he will continue to be a handful, but since he's now willing to TALK to teachers and classmates, negotiations for acceptable behavior can commence. So I'm calling it a success so far and we'll see what the doctor says at the 8-week checkup. 

[chrissy]

subbing.  I have a 9yo ds with a severe anxiety disorder. 

[Smithie]

Bumping to see how other mamas are doing, and to report that the Zoloft experiment was a failure. DS started acting like an extra in Hair. I have never seen somebody on Ecstasy, but I am told that the resemblance was strong. 

We tried Lexapro, which eliminated the anxiety just as the Zoloft had done, only now the poor kid had intensified aggressive impulses combined with decreased inhibitions. You can guess how well that worked out socially. 

So the dev ped says no more SSRIs, and as of yesterday we're trying Tenex. I really, really hope that the Tenex works out. Having seen DS freed from the terrible fear, I can't imagine allowing him to experience it again. Once he's leveled out with the Tenex, we'll have some options for polypharmacy if the fear does return. 

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

My 11 year old is on tenex (only the time release form) for impulse control and behavior that was getting violent. I also think he has a good amount of anxiety. It's been absolutely amazing!! He was a bit tired in the beginning, but quickly adjusted and I can't tell you how much it has helped. He's so much more in control and he is so much happier with himself. I hope that it works as well for your son.

[FreeRangeMama]

I have a nearly 10 year old with ASD and severe anxiety issues.  He has struggled with anxiety since birth probably, but we really noticed the extent of it when he developed a fear of gravity as explained in a kid's science book (what goes up must come down) when he was 2.5yo.  We couldn't even leave the house most days, he was terrified that the ceiling fans, lights, or other hanging fixtures in stores would come crashing down at any moment.  From there he developed a fear of strangers (thanks Berenstein Bears) and would shriek if anyone even looked at him in public.  After that he gained a fear of digestion and refused to eat for 6 months and became malnourished.  We learned to hide any and all books that were written for people over the age of 2. 

We are waiting on a funding change that will allow us to add more therapists to our team.  We deal with a speech pathologist and a behavioural therapist (as well as a developmental aide) but hope to add in someone who deals more with anxiety as well as an OT for sensory help.  We are hoping to get some more suggestions on teaching him how to manage the anxiety day-to-day.  Our goal is not to eliminate the anxiety (impossible for him), but to learn to manage it.  I am not comfortable medicating him for a variety of reasons, so long-term management is the goal. 

Right now we have implemented strategies like asking him what he thinks the worst thing that could happen would be, and then asking him to come up with ways he could handle that outcome.  We work down from there, what else might happen, what would you do, etc.  This has helped with some things, but since he has thousands of possible catastrophies in his head it isn't always feasible.  We also are working on him being able to rate how anxious he is and self-calming strategies.  He is very resistant to this, the BT feels that even talking about how anxious he is makes him anxious so this will likely be a long journey.

It can be a challenge to parent him through these things.  My biggest hope for him is that he will begin to understand that being an anxious person is okay, even great if that is who he is.  But that he will learn to manage it so it doesn't take over his life.

[beanma]

subbing.

I have a dd1 with undiagnosed anxious/panic tendencies. We took her to a psychologist for educational testing at the request of the school because they were so baffled by her behavior, but she did not get an anxiety diagnosis. She got an ADHD diagnosis which I don't agree with and a NVLD diagnosis with the caveat that she might outgrow some of the LDs. I think she has. She didn't meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder, but I know that it was anxiety that was causing her learning issues and not the other way around. She's been this way since birth, well before she was in a formal educational setting.

She doesn't carry anxiety around with her all the time like many of the PP's kids do, but in many situations that wouldn't bother other kids she will have an anxiety/panic attack. She has matured so much in the past few years, though. She had horrible, horrible separation anxiety as a preschooler (4 yr old) and in K, 1st, and some in 2nd and a little in 3rd grade. We had many many, many school refusals and huge meltdowns. She's primarily outgrown that now, though. Her anxiety affected her school work, too. She was too anxious to read. She refused to work with the teachers at all and would cry and melt down if asked to. She didn't like to work with me or DH either. Finally it clicked this year and she's doing great and reading Harry Potter 4 on her own. Any new thing that she doesn't already feel confident about makes her anxious. So she gets anxious about long division or multiplying by 2 or 3 digit numbers, but she can work through it much better now. Socially her separation anxiety is so much better. I think she would still feel anxious in an unfamiliar setting — like I would be greatly surprised if she would consent to being left alone in the IKEA kid's play area while I shopped. She'll be 10 next week.

So, for the PPs with little kids maybe we offer a little bit of hope. The separation anxiety is almost gone and I did not do what all the experts and teachers recommended, either. No yanking off the bandaid for us. She is really doing great on her own curve. It's a tightrope, though.

Anyway, I just wanted to sub. Her situation seems to be a little unusual in that she doesn't carry the anxiety around with her all the time, but she just has anxiety/panic type attacks in reaction to a situation. I really liked the psych we took her to, but dd1 just didn't fit into any of the round hole diagnoses. She's too much of a square peg. Her anxiety does definitely affect her learning and her day to day life, though. We've just found our own way so far.