RE: Medication - PLEASE HELP!

[Guest guest]

This is where services completely suck, abandoning the parents to accept

and spin in the wind.

The book is not closed on your son, he develops and continues to

develop. Neurodevelopment is almost always an unstoppable train, our

children just aren't on the same tracks.

Here is my advice: get help. Hit up your church, your neighbors, your

family, your friends, etc. The school system should be doing something

for you even if it's just babysitting. Insist that training you is also

important to your child's development at an IEP meeting. Do whatever

you can to develop a feeling of competence regarding your child. The

same is true for your child's other caregivers.

See a shrink. All the feelings that you're having are legitimate, real,

and things can be done to make them tolerable. You have a

responsibility to take care of yourself so that you can take care of

your child, so if you haven't gotten some help, do so. Also regarding

medication, a list of four meds does not mean you've tried everything,

particularly regarding SSRIs. I can think of ten off the top of my head

and I'm not a shrink. Just because one doesn't work does not mean none

of them will work, nor that related ones will have identical side

effects. It doesn't matter if your shrink sucks if you come with some

knowledge yourself. So hit the books or failing that, ask the shrink or

doctor to come up with something else and try that. They should be able

to refer you to a real specialist if they are at the end of their knowledge.

Get your life in order as much as possible. Which means: declutter,

simplify and organize. This is probably where most people would feel

comfortable helping you. For me personally, nothing says, " my life is

under control " like a clean kitchen. Find what you need to happen for

you to be able to say that, and get help making it happen.

Behaviorism is the only thing that has any scientific evidence that it

makes any long term impact on the condition of our children. Once you

get a diagnosis you need to become a behaviorist. Helplessness is the

worst! You need to educate yourself so you are occasionally mystified

(that's what these lists are for), not helpless.

So if you want help from this list, let's start breaking it down into

discrete bits. I'm sure EVERYONE on this list has dealt with bolters.

If you want advice with that, lay out the scenarios and let's see what

works. Sleep problems are trickier, but worst case you should be able

to condition your child to stay in bed overnight, even if they don't sleep.

Arnold

[Guest guest]

Tina,

Geodon helps my son get to sleep at night.

FWIW, he didn't start speaking until age 7 when I switched him from a

traditional ABA program to VB.

s

persistentC@...

President and Executive Director

The Mariposa School

for Children with Autism

203 Gregson Drive

Cary, NC 27511

919-461-0600

www.MariposaSchool.org <http://www.mariposaschool.org/>

_____

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of

tinarichard1970

Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 11:43 AM

Subject: [ ] Medication - PLEASE HELP!

I am a single mother with a 7 year old autistic son.

My son is not very verbal and very echoic. I am having so many

problems with him running away from me in public places or getting

out of the house at night. I have made my home a fortress. Key locks

only on every entry door in my house. I guess I'm writing this

because I feel so alone. I cried myself to sleep last night because

I worry if I will be able to raise him and keep him safe. I also

have a 2 year old daughter with congenital heart problems and it has

been a trying last couple of years.

I have tried Adderoll, Risperadol, Ritalin ( only gave him one dose

it was horrible.)and Straterra. All of these medications had some

sort of weird side effect so I didn't want to continue any of them.

I am not someone who believes in medicine period but it's reached

the point where the hyperactivity issues and some of the destructive

behavior are making it hard on my daycare and my parents and

everyone else.

It's causing alot of turmoil within our family.

I will never put him anywhere, he is my baby but I was just

wondering if there were counselors or anyone out there who knows

where to go for my entire family to get therapy in dealing with it.

My son can't help it, I realize that so therefore I think there

needs to be some sort of realization of acceptance on my part and

learning how to cope with alot of this.

I can't seem to find a specialist who can put him on the right meds.

I am up all night with him, he doesn't sleep and sometimes I'm

afraid to take a bath or turn away from him for a second... It's

very stressful.

I just wish I knew someone out there who was going through this and

how they dealt with it. I feel so alone in this. His father is not

around and it's ALL ME.

Please, if you know of any medications other than what I've

discussed or any info that would be beneficial... Please email me...

Thank you,

Tina

List moderators: Jenn - ABAqueen1@...

Steph - Stephhulshof@...

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