RE: medicate or not

[Guest guest]

,

My son, , now age 14 has responded beautifully without medication.  He

also suffers from bad thoughts ocd and like your son, his only compulsion was

the confessing.  His also came on quickly overnight when he was age 10.  What

worked beautifully for my son was products from Native Remedies called

Mindsoothe, Jr and Purecalm, except with the Purecalm we gave him 2x the

recommended dose.  He took products 3x day for 3 months, then tapered to 2x a

day and then 1x a day and that was over a period of 7 months.  He has never

needed to go back on again.  He continues to take a good Omega 3 and B complex

vitamin as well as Calcium/magnesium and that has helped him alot. 

Our story was that we went to the psychiatrist and he prescribed Zoloft.  We

filled the prescription just in case and then ordered the Native Remedies.  He

never used the Zoloft.  For , on the first day of taking it, he did not

have thoughts again until it was time for the 2nd dose, and then his thoughts

would be good until the evening ... so it was pretty quick acting.  It has now

been 4 years and he still continues to do great.  Our psychologist felt that

was doing as well on those products that could be expected if he were on

the Zoloft.  That being said, I would not be afraid at all to medicate him if

the need arose.  I wanted to try these things first and for my son, they were

what he needed. 

Some people have had very good results with inositil powder.  I do not know

much about that but inositil is of the B vitamin family and is more of a natural

product.

I had a driving panic attack 9 years ago and I felt like I could not drive after

that.  The dr prescribed a mild tranquilizer for me and while on that, I felt

like my driving was okay.  It helped me to realize that although my problems

felt physical, they were actually psychological in nature and when the anxiety

was reduced, my driving was okay.  That short while gave me the encouragement I

needed to then go off the tranquilizer and fight through the driving ...

Did you get in with a psychologist yet and how do they feel?  What does your

son think?  In most instances, the medication does not take it all away, but it

eases the anxiety enough that it is a little easier for therapy to be

effective.  Many people choose just to do the therapy and that can be wonderful

as well.  At the time, the closest trained therapist was 4 hours away and she

would not even return my calls.  I felt like we had to do something.

Kind Regards,

Subject: medicate or not

To:

Date: Thursday, January 28, 2010, 12:13 PM

 

I wrote a couple weeks ago about my son we were asking about PANDAS, he

has bad thoughts,(violent/ sexual) was diagnosed with OCD last week then met

with the psychiatrist this week. We like the psychiatrist but he basically does

not believe in PANDAS so that is frustrating but our question is medication. He

has prescribed prozac for our son, thinks his obsessive thoughts are severe

enough to warrant it, somedays 30 or so a day. Besides confessing we haven't

noticed any compulsions and my son generally has good insight into his OCD and

we are hopeful he can do well with therapy. Anyone have thoughts on medicating?

I tend to feel that these thoughts are so time consuming they are taking over my

son's life, although he is good at school, but my husband is a little worried

about " crossing that mediaction bridge " and I am too.

I know everyone has their own opinion if anyone would like to share I'd welcome

it. Maybe if anyone could tell us their experience on prozac it would help.

On a side note our pediatrician is doing a PANDAS work up tomorrow, she is

keeping an open mind which we greatly appreciate.

in Seattle

[Guest guest]

Thank you , that is great information, I am going to look into those

products. We have the prescription but were doing the same thing waiting to fill

it. My son is seeing a mental health specialist once a week and a psychiatrist.

I am hoping to actually begin the therapy next week so far it has been all

intake. I really appreciate how you described the medication. I have gone back

and forth a hundred times since we got the prescription yesterday, " he seems ok "

" this is awful " he needs it /he doesn't..etc etc. Then this morning after his

10th confession before school he told me will you go get the medicine? It breaks

my heart. If he had more compulsions I feel like it would be more clear cut but

since it is all " in his head " it's a harder call. Anyway I think I will look

into the products you suggested at least give them a try then decide after that.

Sounds like they worked pretty quickly..?

Thank you so much, this board and your advice/experience has been so helpful!

To:

From: cward_ri@...

Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:41:22 -0800

Subject: Re: medicate or not

,

My son, , now age 14 has responded beautifully without medication. He

also suffers from bad thoughts ocd and like your son, his only compulsion was

the confessing. His also came on quickly overnight when he was age 10. What

worked beautifully for my son was products from Native Remedies called

Mindsoothe, Jr and Purecalm, except with the Purecalm we gave him 2x the

recommended dose. He took products 3x day for 3 months, then tapered to 2x a

day and then 1x a day and that was over a period of 7 months. He has never

needed to go back on again. He continues to take a good Omega 3 and B complex

vitamin as well as Calcium/magnesium and that has helped him alot.

Our story was that we went to the psychiatrist and he prescribed Zoloft. We

filled the prescription just in case and then ordered the Native Remedies. He

never used the Zoloft. For , on the first day of taking it, he did not

have thoughts again until it was time for the 2nd dose, and then his thoughts

would be good until the evening ... so it was pretty quick acting. It has now

been 4 years and he still continues to do great. Our psychologist felt that

was doing as well on those products that could be expected if he were on

the Zoloft. That being said, I would not be afraid at all to medicate him if

the need arose. I wanted to try these things first and for my son, they were

what he needed.

Some people have had very good results with inositil powder. I do not know much

about that but inositil is of the B vitamin family and is more of a natural

product.

I had a driving panic attack 9 years ago and I felt like I could not drive after

that. The dr prescribed a mild tranquilizer for me and while on that, I felt

like my driving was okay. It helped me to realize that although my problems

felt physical, they were actually psychological in nature and when the anxiety

was reduced, my driving was okay. That short while gave me the encouragement I

needed to then go off the tranquilizer and fight through the driving ...

Did you get in with a psychologist yet and how do they feel? What does your son

think? In most instances, the medication does not take it all away, but it

eases the anxiety enough that it is a little easier for therapy to be effective.

Many people choose just to do the therapy and that can be wonderful as well. At

the time, the closest trained therapist was 4 hours away and she would not even

return my calls. I felt like we had to do something.

Kind Regards,

Subject: medicate or not

To:

Date: Thursday, January 28, 2010, 12:13 PM

I wrote a couple weeks ago about my son we were asking about PANDAS, he has bad

thoughts,(violent/ sexual) was diagnosed with OCD last week then met with the

psychiatrist this week. We like the psychiatrist but he basically does not

believe in PANDAS so that is frustrating but our question is medication. He has

prescribed prozac for our son, thinks his obsessive thoughts are severe enough

to warrant it, somedays 30 or so a day. Besides confessing we haven't noticed

any compulsions and my son generally has good insight into his OCD and we are

hopeful he can do well with therapy. Anyone have thoughts on medicating? I tend

to feel that these thoughts are so time consuming they are taking over my son's

life, although he is good at school, but my husband is a little worried about

" crossing that mediaction bridge " and I am too.

I know everyone has their own opinion if anyone would like to share I'd welcome

it. Maybe if anyone could tell us their experience on prozac it would help.

On a side note our pediatrician is doing a PANDAS work up tomorrow, she is

keeping an open mind which we greatly appreciate.

in Seattle

[Guest guest]

and when I ordered their products the first , I had them overnighted!  I really

recommend a good Omega as well.  Coromega is really good and is my kids

favorite.  Google OCD and fish oil or omegas.  With or without medication, I

will never let me son stop taking this.

Subject: medicate or not

To:

Date: Thursday, January 28, 2010, 12:13 PM

I wrote a couple weeks ago about my son we were asking about PANDAS, he has bad

thoughts,(violent/ sexual) was diagnosed with OCD last week then met with the

psychiatrist this week. We like the psychiatrist but he basically does not

believe in PANDAS so that is frustrating but our question is medication. He has

prescribed prozac for our son, thinks his obsessive thoughts are severe enough

to warrant it, somedays 30 or so a day. Besides confessing we haven't noticed

any compulsions and my son generally has good insight into his OCD and we are

hopeful he can do well with therapy. Anyone have thoughts on medicating? I tend

to feel that these thoughts are so time consuming they are taking over my son's

life, although he is good at school, but my husband is a little worried about

" crossing that mediaction bridge " and I am too.

I know everyone has their own opinion if anyone would like to share I'd welcome

it. Maybe if anyone could tell us their experience on prozac it would help.

On a side note our pediatrician is doing a PANDAS work up tomorrow, she is

keeping an open mind which we greatly appreciate.

in Seattle

[Guest guest]

************

Everyone here knows of the heartache you experience when you

watch your child have to deal with all of this and I assume that is why we are

all so supportive. Even when your child gets better, we don't forget those

emotions.

************

SO very true! Well put, .

BJ

[Guest guest]

,

Oh, and our pdoc doesn't believe in PANDAS either. She's older, so I

don't think they give much credence to it. Ours is also still pretty

" Freudian " in her thinking. I would think the newer, younger pdocs

would know about PANDAS.

Dina

[Guest guest]

,

Sorry about all the grammatical errors in my post--I was trying to do 2

things at once! And I meant " him " , not " her. " :-)

Dina

>

[Guest guest]

We started our 10yo on 10mg of Prozac in October. Within a week we saw some

results. She is up to 15 mg now and doing so much better. We are using the

liquid since she refused to learn how to swallow pills. It tastes yucky, but we

give her some chocolate (tiny pb cubs or carmal turtles) and it coats her tongue

and she can take it. We like the liquid because we can micro manage her meds.

We crept up .5-1 mg at a time and she had no negative reactions. We too

struggled with the idea of meds, but since she was eating less and less and was

stuck for 8-10+ hours a day we decided that we needed to try it. She was doing

CBT before we started the meds, but the OCD was spreading faster than the CBT

could handle.

>

> I wrote a couple weeks ago about my son we were asking about PANDAS, he has

bad thoughts,(violent/sexual) was diagnosed with OCD last week then met with the

psychiatrist this week. We like the psychiatrist but he basically does not

believe in PANDAS so that is frustrating but our question is medication. He has

prescribed prozac for our son, thinks his obsessive thoughts are severe enough

to warrant it, somedays 30 or so a day. Besides confessing we haven't noticed

any compulsions and my son generally has good insight into his OCD and we are

hopeful he can do well with therapy. Anyone have thoughts on medicating? I tend

to feel that these thoughts are so time consuming they are taking over my son's

life, although he is good at school, but my husband is a little worried about

" crossing that mediaction bridge " and I am too.

> I know everyone has their own opinion if anyone would like to share I'd

welcome it. Maybe if anyone could tell us their experience on prozac it would

help.

> On a side note our pediatrician is doing a PANDAS work up tomorrow, she is

keeping an open mind which we greatly appreciate.

> in Seattle

>

[Guest guest]

My daughter mainly has only the confessions also. Sometimes the throat

clearing, or word repeating " excuse me, excuse me, to herself, and clothes

sensitivities, seams in the socks and jeans, etc . But not really any other

compulsions yet, other than the confessions. I just picked her up from

school today and they started the minute we got in the car, one after the

other. In the last 45 minutes, probably 20 or more. If you try the

medication, I hope you will post and let us know how it is working for you.

We are having to do this on our own with our pediatrician until we can get

in with someone, which will be quite a while it looks like. I know she is

starting to get distracted at school. I hear so much about Zoloft and

Prozac on here. She is starting to get so distressed about what is

happening to her, I think.

Beth

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of c ward

Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 12:44 PM

To:

Subject: RE: medicate or not

and when I ordered their products the first , I had them overnighted! I

really recommend a good Omega as well. Coromega is really good and is my

kids favorite. Google OCD and fish oil or omegas. With or without

medication, I will never let me son stop taking this.

From: EFREEM <freemans1996@... <mailto:freemans1996%40hotmail.com> >

Subject: medicate or not

To:

<mailto:%40yahoogroups.com>

Date: Thursday, January 28, 2010, 12:13 PM

I wrote a couple weeks ago about my son we were asking about PANDAS, he has

bad thoughts,(violent/ sexual) was diagnosed with OCD last week then met

with the psychiatrist this week. We like the psychiatrist but he basically

does not believe in PANDAS so that is frustrating but our question is

medication. He has prescribed prozac for our son, thinks his obsessive

thoughts are severe enough to warrant it, somedays 30 or so a day. Besides

confessing we haven't noticed any compulsions and my son generally has good

insight into his OCD and we are hopeful he can do well with therapy. Anyone

have thoughts on medicating? I tend to feel that these thoughts are so time

consuming they are taking over my son's life, although he is good at school,

but my husband is a little worried about " crossing that mediaction bridge "

and I am too.

I know everyone has their own opinion if anyone would like to share I'd

welcome it. Maybe if anyone could tell us their experience on prozac it

would help.

On a side note our pediatrician is doing a PANDAS work up tomorrow, she is

keeping an open mind which we greatly appreciate.

in Seattle

[Guest guest]

thanks for all your suggestions, I have printed out all the advice and looked

into where to get these products. I agree I feel like we do need to rule out

PANDAS becasue regardless of the psychiatrist opinion, who I respect, but it

seems like the treatment is not the same as he suggests. I think I will feel

better after the blood test tomorrow, then try the ibuprofen, then maybe go from

there. The natural remedies look promising. I will try to put my fears aside and

do what is best for my son which may very well be the Prozac but the other

things wont hurt to try first it seems. Thanks again for all the info, I

appreciate it and will use it.

>

> From: EFREEM <freemans1996@... <mailto:freemans1996%40hotmail.com> >

> Subject: medicate or not

> To:

> <mailto:%40yahoogroups.com>

> Date: Thursday, January 28, 2010, 12:13 PM

>

> I wrote a couple weeks ago about my son we were asking about PANDAS, he has

> bad thoughts,(violent/ sexual) was diagnosed with OCD last week then met

> with the psychiatrist this week. We like the psychiatrist but he basically

> does not believe in PANDAS so that is frustrating but our question is

> medication. He has prescribed prozac for our son, thinks his obsessive

> thoughts are severe enough to warrant it, somedays 30 or so a day. Besides

> confessing we haven't noticed any compulsions and my son generally has good

> insight into his OCD and we are hopeful he can do well with therapy. Anyone

> have thoughts on medicating? I tend to feel that these thoughts are so time

> consuming they are taking over my son's life, although he is good at school,

> but my husband is a little worried about " crossing that mediaction bridge "

> and I am too.

>

> I know everyone has their own opinion if anyone would like to share I'd

> welcome it. Maybe if anyone could tell us their experience on prozac it

> would help.

>

> On a side note our pediatrician is doing a PANDAS work up tomorrow, she is

> keeping an open mind which we greatly appreciate.

>

> in Seattle

>

>

[Guest guest]

> We started our 10yo on 10mg of Prozac in October. Within a week we saw some

results.

Wow, within a week is great results, fast!! So glad she's doing better. I also

like liquid meds for that reason. I do know of parents who have practically

shaved tablets too, when their child was sensitive to the med, so they started

small and built up over time.

I thought my son was the " sensitive " type to things, he seemed to be when young.

In 9th grade we started him on liquid Celexa (he still can't swallow pills) and

I meant to start LOW but misunderstood the measuring and had him up to 40mg in

about 2 weeks! He did great (so much for " sensitive " ) and luckily I found out

about my error so I didn't double that, whew!

[Guest guest]

I wonder, has anyone tried the St. 's Wort? If so did it help?

Beth

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of c ward

Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 12:35 PM

To:

Subject: RE: medicate or not

,

I know that it is such a difficult call. I would like to add that my

brother in law (husband's younger brothers) suffers from bad thoughts ocd,

with thoughts very similar to my son's ... in fact, the the thoughts they

both used to have really mimic one another.

My nephew (his son) also started presenting bad thoughts right at about age

10. This started about a year ago.

My brother in law and his son both take medication for the thoughts. Paxil

for the brother in law and zoloft for his son. They have both responded

beautifully to the medication.

With my son, I always wondered about PANDAS as well because he had one minor

incident at age 7 after he had been " down on the couch " sick for 2 weeks

with a horrible sore throat, though nothing was ever diagnosed (they said no

strep, no mono, etc. but he did not move for 2 weeks and that is completely

not like him). He asked me to take things off of his wall because he was

afraid they were going to come to life (fire engine, etc) and run him over.

That started his counseling for 2 yrs. That was the only episode he had at

that time, but he also had some other processing issues/social skills issues

that were able to be addressed during the counseling.

His second (severe) ocd episode happened at age 10 and came on so suddenly

-- really overnight. He did not have strep throat but I did -- a really bad

case -- and it was shortly after this that he presented his bad thoughts.

I did not know this at the time but St. s Wort (active ingredient in the

Mindsoothe, Jr) also acts as an anti-inflammatory and I wonder now if that

is why he responded so well to those remedies [PANDAS and inflammation to

the basil ganglia]. I think the Purecalm acts like a mild tranquilizer to

work fast and help calm the thoughts, but I now wonder if the St. 's

wort helped his brain through some inflammatory issues. I don't know ...

those are just my random thoughts.

This group is fabulous and the support is unbelievable. You may not always

agree with everyone's theories, but it sure does give you alot to think

about!

I hope you are doing okay, personally. I know I used to cry all day .. as

soon as my son left for school the tears would start and would not stop

until I pulled myself together when it was time for him to come home. My

entire goal was to make our home look happy when he came in and I remember

that was so important to me! Everyone here knows of the heartache you

experience when you watch your child have to deal with all of this and I

assume that is why we are all so supportive. Even when your child gets

better, we don't forget those emotions.

Kind Regards,

From: EFREEM <freemans1996@... <mailto:freemans1996%40hotmail.com> >

Subject: medicate or not

To:

<mailto:%40yahoogroups.com>

Date: Thursday, January 28, 2010, 12:13 PM

I wrote a couple weeks ago about my son we were asking about PANDAS, he has

bad thoughts,(violent/ sexual) was diagnosed with OCD last week then met

with the psychiatrist this week. We like the psychiatrist but he basically

does not believe in PANDAS so that is frustrating but our question is

medication. He has prescribed prozac for our son, thinks his obsessive

thoughts are severe enough to warrant it, somedays 30 or so a day. Besides

confessing we haven't noticed any compulsions and my son generally has good

insight into his OCD and we are hopeful he can do well with therapy. Anyone

have thoughts on medicating? I tend to feel that these thoughts are so time

consuming they are taking over my son's life, although he is good at school,

but my husband is a little worried about " crossing that mediaction bridge "

and I am too.

I know everyone has their own opinion if anyone would like to share I'd

welcome it. Maybe if anyone could tell us their experience on prozac it

would help.

On a side note our pediatrician is doing a PANDAS work up tomorrow, she is

keeping an open mind which we greatly appreciate.

in Seattle

[Guest guest]

Beth, we tried the St 's Wort for . Didn't work for him. However,

we also tried inositol powder for him again and it didn't work. Inositol did

help him thru middle school but when we tried it again in high school, at

different times, it didn't help, though others have seen some benefit (or not).

So - I can't say SJW won't help at all. I was hoping it might at least help his

depression due to the OCD, but didn't. Per , he didn't feel any

benefits.

>

> I wonder, has anyone tried the St. 's Wort? If so did it help?

>

>

>

> Beth

>

>

[Guest guest]

A friend of ours started having nose bleeds while using St. 's Wort. He was

trying it to help with depression. It can cause BP to increase, so always good

to watch that while using it. Just thought I would mention it.

BJ

>

> >

> > I wonder, has anyone tried the St. 's Wort? If so did it help?

> >

> >

> >

> > Beth

> >

> >

>