- disinhibition (was re: Terry)

[Guest guest]

Thanks ,

I'm so glad to hear that you've had a good week! I'll keep my fingers

crossed that it continues that way!

We are noticing some disinhibition with Ben....or just low tolerance

(one and the same???), but mainly with negative feelings. He flew off

the handle this morning, screeching and slamming doors etc because I

wouldn't let him play on the computer after watching cartoons all

morning. He stormed up to his room and locked the door. I went up 15

minutes later and knocked on the door and heard a cheerful " come in! "

and he was looking at books. He was later very remorseful about his

behavior, which is the other thing I've noticed - very sad and weepy

about having blown up at us. This is just totally not like him (or is

he just the ever growing and changing kid and this is a new thing?).

He seems to temporarily " lose it " and then you can see he is working

very hard to come around and do the right behavior - but sometimes it

is like he is trying to run through deep water - it is slow and

laborious.

Anyway, you hit the nail on the head about when anxiety is high, Ben

needs to talk more too and insessantly - and yes - I can see the

distraction in his eyes as he loses his train of thought.

So, basically, the loss of tolerance could be either OCD or the meds

and only time will tell....? Since he was diagnosed early on, I don't

know how severe his OCD might have (or has) become - in other

words...if he went off the meds now, would he be ten times worse than

he was when he was diagnosed - or did we see the worst by the time he

went on meds? I don't know if I'm making sense here....

Anyway - thanks for the input...gosh, I'm pooped....we had a great

vacation, though it started rough with Ben....but I left all my OCD

books behind and decided to take a break. When we returned last

night, there were the two new books I ordered - " Teaching the Tiger "

and March and Mulle's manual. I looked through them briefly before

bed......big mistake - I barely slept a wink as it all came back to

me, with securing a therapist, school starting etc etc.....zzzzzzzz

Terry

> Dear Terry,

> It's hard to really remember what Annie was like before OCD -

it's

> been 4 1/2 years now. But I'll try -

> Before she got sick Annie had a huge and very adult

vocabulary, but

> was very shy. She would talk with people once she knew them, but

was

> generally anxious and quiet for quite a while at first. When she

got sick

> with encephalitis the first thing we noticed was the disinhibition -

in all

> areas. If she was upset, she hit. If she was happy, she was wildly

happy. If

> she was sad, she was inconsolable. And she became very very fidgety

and

> unable to sit still and listen to bedtime stories (we read novels

to her when

> she was three, but then at 4 1/2 we had to go back to picture books

for a

> while). By the time OCD was diagnosed 2 1/2 years ago she had

started to talk

> nervously and incessantly when her anxiety was high. And when the

OCD is bad

> she does lose her train of thought halfway through sentences. I

think it is a

> compulsion to feel that she has to say every thought that

intervenes, instead

> of ignoring them as they pop into her head mid-sentence. When she

started

> taking Luvox she started talking wildly, incessantly and in such a

silly,

> annoying way that even her friends couldn't take it. I mean, REALLY

> incessantly. And on the higher dose her speech was disorganized and

scared

> me. She didn't always make sense.

> Does this make sense? OCD/anxiety increased the speech, and

the train

> of thought derailed more often (you could see it in her eyes when a

competing

> thought entered her head and you could watch her try to figure out

which

> train to catch, the old one or the new one). The Luvox made her

almost crazy.

> I have to say, Provigil is AMAZING. I wouldn't recommend it

outright

> since it isn't approved for children and is quite new, and I know

the

> manufacturer found no benefits for ADHD in adults... but WOW! We

are amazed.

> Not only does Annie wake up easily and cheerfully instead of

requiring many,

> many attempts to drag her out of bed, but she is happy, calm and

not really

> that anxious. This is the best week we've had all summer!! At the

moment she

> is happily doing art in her room and hasn't babbled all morning.

Just normal

> conversation - and with her wonderful old sense of humor too.

> Wow.

>