Quitting meds

[Guest guest]

A bit of background....my 10 yr. old (almost 11) DD had a severe onset

of OCD at age 7. It was terrible trying to get her diagnosed. She

was on Celexa with minimal effect for most of this time. Her OCD

manifests itself with fears of vomiting, so she can't eat, separate

from me, go to school--it's the worst thing I've ever experienced.

She was hospitalized for a month, 10 days of that with a feeding tube.

She was wasting away. So, when her OCD was severe, it was life

threatening.

Last spring she had a terrible waxing period. Same as before except

we were quicker (I should say her pdoc) to act and she switched her to

Prozac, 30 mgs. After a terrible ramping up period--she's very

stable, happy, life is good! She's been stable since mid-June last

year. I know her OCD is still in the background, she does some quirky

things that only I see (not even my DH). After 2 1/2 yrs. of no

playdates, no vacations, and terrible stress, we are enjoying life

again--all of us! She went to New York with dad for 5 days this

summer, we went to MN for a 9 day visit, we've gone on weekend

trips....and she's fine! I can't tell you what a difference this

medication has made.

We had a 6 mos. appt. (yes--it's been 6 whole months since we've seen

her pdoc!) and she tells my DD that in June, when school is out, she

can wean off the Prozac and try some therapy. WHAT?!? I told her

(pdoc) that we'd have to talk privately in June because I had

misgivings about that). She said, Okay, we'll talk in June. So, now

I'm trying to gather information. Everything that I've read says that

you can get better with therapy, true. However, I'm not confident

that our pdoc, even though we really like her in general, can provide

the right therapy. She says things like, " Well, her brain will have

grown and matured and healed. " I just read a link on this site that

said it was CHRONIC. I also think that obsessive thoughts would be

hard to deal with in therapy because there's nothing outward we can

work on. It's just my DD battling her thoughts. And the

repercussions of therapy not going well is her health and happiness.

I guess I pictured her tackling therapy when she was older and more

mature, even though I know tons of your younger children are in

therapy. Also, she going to middle school next year--isnt' that a big

enough challenge? I know the Prozac would be out of her system right

about the time school starts--yikes!

What are your thoughts? Maybe I'm too worn out by the past 2 1/2

years of battling this daily to give therapy a chance. I also have a 7

yr. old and 3 year old twins that are a handful, so I don't have a lot

of time to devote to therapy appts. When we were going so often to

the Dr. the first year and when she was hospitalized, my parents flew

out for an extended stay and my DH took a lot of time off work. I

dont' know how we'd manage if she got that ill again, although of

course, we would. This is the same Dr. that recommended an expensive

anxiety workbook and tapes last year before she started the Prozac.

We ordered the materials and found it would take an hour a day with us

sitting with her, helping her to do the exercises. That's fine, but,

realistically, my 3 year olds are not just going to not need me for an

hour a day while I spend this time with DD. We tried doing it after

they were in bed, but DD was too tired, understandably! And her OCD

gets worse when she doesn't get enough sleep. Argh! What a dilemma.