ssri's

[Guest guest]

Hi All:

Just to refresh memory, I am the Mom of a 13-year old girl

diagnosed with Autism. After my daughter started the

protocol at age 7, I began to share this protocol with my

therapist. He was open to try and help me. He changed

my SSRI a few times. With Zoloft, I almost fell asleep at

the wheel. With Effexor I took this drug successfully for

almost 6 months and then experienced terrible migraines.

I had some wacky experiences with SSRI's. Sometimes

I can take them for several months and then side effects

creep in, other times I know immediately if the SSRI agrees.

All I can say is don't make the mistake of discontinuing any

drug cold-turkey. WEAN yourself off.

Michele

PS- Celexa works best for us !

[Guest guest]

Okay, everyone, we are at that time. Dr. G has finally gotten us on

an ssri and I'm pretty nervous about it. I need to hear some

positive things about this to settle my nerves! This is the part of

the protocol where I just can't seem to get 100% comfortable. It's

not that I feel it's the wrong thing, it's just the stigma that's

attached that's killing me. The idea of putting a 3 yo on zoloft is

just hard to wrap my head around. And then you hear all the stories

of how anti-depressants make kids suicidal and I'm back to worrying

like mad. I'm doing it but I need some encouragement! The pharmacy

was closed today so I have to get it tomorrow so now I have one more

day of feeling a bunch of anxiety. I think I'll feel better once I

start but until then I just keep dreading it. Help!

Cheryl

[Guest guest]

Hi Cheryl -

I experienced the suicidal effect from starting Paxil

in my mid-20s before the connection was acknowledged.

I started at the dose generally recommended, and Dr G

told me (years later when I brought up the experience)

that starting at a 1/4 of the dose I had been given

and moving slowly up would likely have prevented that.

Also, he tends to start kids on SSRIs later in the

protocol (although if no protocol is available he

still recommends starting them if a local provider

will do so) because I guess it gives a head start

using other meds to cool some of the inflammation in

the brain before you start using an SSRI to get more

blood flow going.

Likely the suicidal thing is a result of forcing too

much blood flow too soon in highly inflamed areas of

the brain and the child/teen reacts severely, not to

mention that the inflammation is still already there

so who knows if in these kids, it's backing up into

the basal ganglia areas etc and highly activating

those areas, and then obsessive negative and intrusive

thoughts emerge in teens that can't recognize from

experience that these aren't appropriate brain

patterns and thoughts. Just my personal hypothesis

from having experienced that as well as being very

experienced w/PANDAS/OCD.

The other wonderful potential behind SSRIs... subtle

immune modulation - tons of abstracts in the files

showing how serotonin affects the immune system and

vice versa. Tons of info on neuro-protective

benefits. Before and after NeuroSPECTS on the effects

of SSRI treatment... Serotonin in the gut, and on and

on. There's so many reasons to support it's use under

the neuroimmune paradigm. But it can be a very rough

experience. For us, we hit it great early on with

Paxil, tried a few others and got a gist of the

negatives other people have experienced, went back to

Paxil, tweaked it with Tenex, and saw very little

negative and really felt like there were some

positives. It's not aweful for everyone, but it is

the most likely med to bring on some chaos lol.

BTW, SSRIs have a taboo attached, but my son's new

neurologist apparently uses them in several

neurological disorders including tics and such ...

don't know his point of view yet, but most of his

patients on SSRIs were sent there by their

pediatricians because the ped wants a specialist to be

the one to rx it. But yea, it's thought of as

negatively as ritalin, but there is such a huge

difference. I understand feeling embarrassed about

it, and I tended to keep it to myself for the most

part, but eventually I stopped feeling the need to be

discreet about it.

I had to put a 2 yr old and almost 4 yr old on it lol.

I fretted for over 2 years (prior to and during the

protocol) about them, and when it arrived, it was

basically such a non-event (except celexa - that

sucked) that I wish I had not wasted so much energy

thinking about it. Of course, those who had bad

experiences would feel quite different than that. But

we just can't anticipate what hasn't happened yet.

How have the other things helped so far? I would

choose to use that as my guide for expectations. Just

my suggestions to try to help you feel better.

HTH-

--- Cheryl Lowrance <c.lowrance@...> wrote:

> Okay, everyone, we are at that time. Dr. G has

> finally gotten us on

> an ssri and I'm pretty nervous about it. I need to

> hear some

> positive things about this to settle my nerves!

> This is the part of

> the protocol where I just can't seem to get 100%

> comfortable. It's

> not that I feel it's the wrong thing, it's just the

> stigma that's

> attached that's killing me. The idea of putting a 3

> yo on zoloft is

> just hard to wrap my head around. And then you hear

> all the stories

> of how anti-depressants make kids suicidal and I'm

> back to worrying

> like mad. I'm doing it but I need some

> encouragement! The pharmacy

> was closed today so I have to get it tomorrow so now

> I have one more

> day of feeling a bunch of anxiety. I think I'll feel

> better once I

> start but until then I just keep dreading it. Help!

>

> Cheryl

>

>

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