generalparenting

My son is twelve years old, not quite a teen but close enough. He has been suffering from anxiety for several years now with a small amount of depression. When he was in public school the anxiety and depression were both a lot worse but I believe that to be because he was set up to loose from the beginning in public school and now that he is homeschooled and growing his depression is lessening. That isn’t why I’m here today though all though homeschooling, I must say, is incredible.

My concern for this topic is medication. He has not yet puberty which I learned is usually the time when mental illness shows it’s ugly head. So he has been showing symptoms ahead of time and that worries me. I can’t help but wonder if things are going to get worse for him and what course of action I can take.

I went through this when he was diagnosed with ADHD as well. I was unsure about the whole medication thing. There are definitly different view points on kids with medication. Some people think it is a wonderful tool others seem to think it is something wicked that should not be used. Now I am somewhere in the middle. I have never put my son on medication for ADHD. I was afraid of the long term side effects. Now I’m looking at medication options for a whole other thing and I’m sitting on the fence again.

On many nights my son will come to me with tears in his eyes telling me “it’s happening again.” When he says that I know it’s going to be a long night. He has panic attacks and they seem to be like mine. They are extremely hard to work through. Sometimes a shower helps and certain movies can keep him kind of distracted from his rushing thoughts but even that doesn’t work most of the time.

Is medication an option? I have toyed with this and am still not sure. It’s been about four years that he has had anxiety issues and the last year has gotten worse. I don’t want him on any medication that is going to make him all dopey and I don’t want him on anything that is going to change the way he acts not to mention the fear of side effects. The doctor tried him on a Bipolar med for a SHORT time but I didn’t like the way they made him feel, act, and even look so I took him off of them. He went a while without anything but I couldn’t take the look in his eyes any longer when I would hold him telling him that there was nothing else I could do.

I took him to the doctor again and had a long talk with her. See I have been in his shoes and I understand how terribly scary it can be to have these attacks and I know how they can control your life all the way down to when you go to sleep. I also have a prejudice against medications even though I am on meds that have me stable, because it took two long miserable years to get me on the right medications. Two years I spent in hospitals, depressed, crying, manic, and in a constant state of panic. I don’t want that for my son and the fear of having to search for the right medication scares me.

The doctor talked about just giving him something for anxiety. The first medication she gave him did NOTHING. He was having one of his worse attacks and he took a pill and did his normal coping things like the shower, the music, drawing ect. There was no relief in site. We went back to the doctor and she prescribed a mild blood pressure medication at half the lowest dose possible. I was hopeful because I am on the same thing for anxiety and it works wonders for me. Well my son has had a good couple of weeks and hasn’t needed the medication often but so far when he has taken it in combination with his other methods to deal he has gotten some relief. I am still anxious about letting him on medication but right now that’s the only choice I feel we have.

So what happens when he hits puberty and his hormones start going crazy? I asked the doctor the same thing. She is hoping, as am I, that this medication will have his panic under control by then and that he will only need a dosage change but said not to worry she will only ease him into other medications if they become necessary. I guess I will have to wait to see how things pan out once he hits puberty full force but it will be another battle of should I or shouldn’t I and until then the worry and wondering will continue.