Sleep troubles/Marcie

[Guest guest]

Wow, Marcie...this sounds too familiar. My 13 year old son who has

TS/OCD/ODD/anxiety has had this issue for at least a year and a half now.

He is terrified that someone is going to come in & kill him during the night

...he hears every little sound in the house. I have been sitting/sleeping in

a chair beside his bed for months now...he cannot fall asleep without me

there..and almost always wakes up & comes in my bed every night...this has

been going on for many months & I am exhausted.

I have tried dozens of things ...books...lights... " white " noise...bribing...

and most recently his pedi psy gave us some samples of Lunesta...I cannot

say that I saw much of a difference.

Every night before he goes to bed, he checks under his Bed, the closet,

hallway, bathroom & shower. Some night he Is up until 11 or 12, and I am an

early bird & if I doze off in the chair he will wake me up dozens of times..

he cannot fall asleep if I am asleep...I need to be awake!

It is so frustrating & exhausting to say the least.

Last month at the pedi psy, he told me that it sounded like mommy-itis...I

totally disagree, I think it is his anxiety. I think I am going to have to

insist on an ocd/anxiety med, as much as I do not want to....he is already

on geodon & depakote.

I look forward to others comments on this subject as well.

Trish in CT

-- Sleep troubles

I'm having a hard time getting my son to go to bed on his own.

He will stay in his bed for about 10 minutes but then needs

someone to sit in the hall outside his room until he falls asleep.

If he wakes up in the middle of the night, he usually does his

Bathroom ritual, then needs someone to take him back to bed

and stay with him until he falls asleep. He's been diagnosed

with OCD and is on 50 mg of Luvox. He's convinced that there's

" something " in his room that will try and kill him. He sometimes

even thinks he sees things and hears things. I have tried

different strategies with him, but it ends up being a knock down,

drag out, endless battle. Leaving everyone in the house

exhausted. Does anybody have any ideas?

Thanks for listening,

Marcie