new to group- intro

[Guest guest]

Hi to the group¡XI wanted to introduce myself and situation and then

will most-likely hang back and ¡§listen¡¨.

Jan of 2006 my daughter was diagnosed with " depression " by the nurse

practitioner she has and was prescribed Zoloft (50mg)- from Jan/06-

July/06 During these months she saw a ¡§therapist¡¨ 2-3 times a month-

therapist gave her the green light to make appointments only if she

needed them in June/06). ¡V July /06 she started weaning off Zoloft

(per her/our desire- nurse practitioner said it was safe to stay on

it and might still want to continue on). She weaned off without

incident by going down to 25mg/day for 3 weeks for then 25mg every

other day for 2 weeks- I cant remember how she finished the weaning

process

..

She is involved in a lot- at school, with friends and serious

boyfriend and she is stressed often (everything she does has to be

perfect, she excels at school, worries, takes most of life too

serious for a 15yo¡K then mix all of that with a healthy dose of

procrastination), and recently went through a period of about a

month of feeling sad without reason she could label (lots of crying),

finding it hard to get to sleep, unable to concentrate, fidgety, not

much appetite. So we went back to our family clinic. She is again on

Zoloft but I kept her at 25mg (the initial starting dose that was

prescribed) instead of going up to the prescribed 50/mg until I could

get all of this straight in my mind. The prescriber is a nurse

practitioner ƒ¼ My daughter has had some stressful things in life

(example-- just recently I had to file for a restraining order on her

ex boyfriend)

She is obviously not on a significant dose of Zoloft, I am not

concerned too much about weaning off again, (I am just going to do it

the same way as before) but need to help her to learn how to cope

with every day stressors without just digging a hole.

My biggest concern started soon after starting Zoloft again, she

started getting little panic attacks. She would get real anxious

about things that have not bothered her before. This weekend,

though, we were ¡§at the mall¡¨ (last place she wants to be seen with

me, I imagine). It was very crowded with holiday shoppers. We were

going to go our separate ways for an hour and meet. All of the

sudden she got terribly anxious and didn¡¦t want to leave me. (Even

knowing that I wouldn¡¦t be able to shop for her, which was part of my

mission for that short hour I had alone)¡Xshe didn¡¦t care. If it had

not been for wanting to buy a cd for current boyfriend, she would

have left all together. She stayed right with me- stopping when I

did and keeping right at my side (weird) and said she kept saying she

felt ¡§weird¡¨. That is the only way she described any of this anxious

feeling. I had to pick up younger daughter and had already promised

to take her (younger daughter) to lunch. 15 yo was ready to just

wait in the car while we had lunch, but I insisted she come inside

with us. When we got home (close to 6pm) she laid down, wrapped up

in a quilt for the remainder of the evening. Did talk with boyfriend

on the phone. Said she felt okay, but was just tired and cold. No

fever. Woke up the next day feeling fine. I think it is the Zoloft.

She didn¡¦t take her Zoloft today (25mg) and I will call the clinic

today to let them know daughter will be weaning off.

Glad to be here- wishing you all well.

Amy in MN