/medications

[Guest guest]

<<But, this Wednesday he's supposed to be in a class play. At the beginning

of the year, he couldn't even handle being in the auditorium, he always

stayed in

back by the door. But for the past month he's been going to the

rehearsals without any problems except for the issues last week. I

think he'll need something to help him through this. I just don't

know if the Lexapro will take effect in such a short time. >>

Hi, Everyone..........how did the Dr. say to bring on the Lexapro?

With Gareth changing SSRI's so often, we just decrease the one half a dosage and

add half a dosage of the new one for several days and then, switch over to

the new med. Since they are both SSRI drugs, you don't have to wean him off

of the one completely before starting the Lexapro.

FWIW......I am not saying that ALL autistic kids need medication, but so

many children with autism have anxiety issues, OCD, etc. If a normal

individual

has these issues in their lives, and they can't *function* in the normal

world, they usually seek professional help/medication to get them through life.

Our kids should not be treated any differently. I lived with the guilt of

Gareth being on meds for years until the psychiatrist asked me " what's my

problem? " He's the one who told me that if Gareth had diabetes, I would put

him

on insulin with no questions asked. There is no difference when our kids are

having severe OCD, anxiety issues, or severe behavioral issues. The meds

allow you to connect with your child in order to make the beneficial behavioral

changes. Take care, Everyone.

Margaret

[Guest guest]

<<.how did the Dr. say to bring on the Lexapro?>>

I was wondering about this too. I've been on all these meds myself having had

severe clinical depression since childhood. There's not a drop of seratonin to

be found on either side of our family trees for generations LOL. The only

difference with anything that came after prozac (ie paxil, luvox, celexa,

lexapro whatever) is that prozac stays active in your system for a long

time.....like a week whereas the newer ones are only 24 hour effective. Skipping

a dose of prozac usually won't cause a problem but skipping one of the new ones

will cause symptoms right away. Sometimes (reaching back here) they recommend

staying off Prozac for a week before even beginning the next one. With the newer

ones, as you say, you can just lower the old and increase the new, or even in

some cases just make the switch. This is something I'd try to get really clear

with the doctor as it may influence your decision on what the new med is doing

if there is still Prozac bubbling around in there. I'm serious about missing a

dose or even being late with the dose of the newer ones as you can really feel

it and have a reaction. Gotta stay on schedule.

Lexapro is considered the " cleanest " of the SSRIs right now....meaning least

side effects etc. Of course this is supposed to be true for " normal " depressed

people and we all know our kids react differently to everything. I'm on Lexapro

now and it's had the least sides of any of these suckers. Paxil was the devil to

get off of. I thought I was going to die. For me most all of them have caused

headaches in the " getting aquainted period " as my doctor likes to call it. But

building up slowly has worked for me. I never take the recommended dose as I am

a noncompliant pain in the butt patient. I take 1/2 of what is rxed then wait

and see if I die; if not I take the full dose a few days later after being on

the half dose. With I am even a bigger coward. I give her 1/4 dose and see

what happens. I'd rather wait it out than risk a bad reaction but that's just me

and my paranoia.

Sherry

[Guest guest]

" Hi, Everyone..........how did the Dr. say to bring on the Lexapro? "

We were told to stop the Prozac last Monday and we will start the Lexapro this

Monday.

Last night, we got a reminder of what life wothout meds is like. We had a

Special Olympics awards dinner at the community center. Most of the people

there where people that Isaiah knows, so we figured he'd be fine. As soon as we

got thewre, Isaiah was already starting to pull away. He didn't want to go in.

He was hungry and we told him there would be food, so he went in. We got him to

the table and he got mad. There was nothing on the plate that he liked except

for a breadstick. He ended up eating our breadsticks and seemed okay. Until

the organist for the AZ diamondbacks started playing. From that point on Isaiah

was pretty much miserable. He had his portable DVD player with him, but the

music was still too loud. He kept asking to leave, but the award presentaion

wasn't until the end. About 2 hours later and after eating some Bugles (we

found a vending machine), he was a bit more calm. He went up a received his

award.

When we got home, he asked what we were doing the following day. I told him,

church. He got upset, lied down on his bed and started crying and saying, " no

church " . He looked so sad. I felt so bad because I forgot to call the doctor

and ask him to call in the new meds.

Luckily today has been a better day. Looks like it may be a Happy Mother's

Day after all.

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