So, Friday was her first day on her new meds, and it was also the first day of Cub World. Cub World is a cub scout extravaganza, a three-day adventure in the woods, and my son’s first extended sleepout. Although parental participation is NOT required, it turns out that our son was the only kid in his group that didn’t have a parent already signed up.
My wife made it quite clear that she wanted me to step up and go on this campout. And this was quite possibly the last thing in the world I wanted to do. Don’t misunderstand me, I love camping, I love the outdoors, I love my son, but I have a deep dislike of sleeping with strangers and of other people’s children.
As time went on, the wife was suggesting more and more pointedly that I needed to accept this responsibility and get my act together, and I became more and more adamant that I did not want anything to do with it. Eventually, the wife bowed to the inevitable and signed up for the campout, but there is an unspoken understanding, a nonverbal guarantee that exists between us, that I owe her big time, and she will at some future point ask of me a favor that I will be unable to refuse.
Which is all a way of explaining that I was alone with the girl on Friday night, when her stomach started hurting and she started vomiting. This was one of the expected and fairly common side effects of her ADHD medication, and we could expect it to get better in a couple of days. However, the sobbing, shaking, and near-hysteria was not.
The stupidest thing someone who is taking an SSRI can do is to quit cold turkey. It messes with your system something fierce. The wife skipped a couple days of hers once, due to poor planning and a long holiday weekend during which the pharmacy was closed. I’ve never seen anything like it. She was freaking out until she could borrow a pill or two from a friend with the same prescription.
So I suspect the girl was going into SSRI withdrawal. She had already cut down to half doses, but it was nevertheless dramatic.
After laying in bed for a while, with her whole body racked with sobs, she asked if we could watch TV, or play video games, or anything to distract her. So, we watched some of Harry Potter IV, and then we both played ‘Castle Wolfenstein’ cooperatively on the Xbox. Yes, to calm my daughter down, we shot Nazis together.
Psychoactive drug withdrawal. Violent video games. Yeah, I’m pretty much shooting for Father of the Year.
She finally went back to bed at around 11:30, but didn’t get to sleep for another hour or so. I didn’t get to sleep until 1:30 am.
Today, she was good. Her stomach pain is much less, and there has been no sign of the hysteria of last night. We’ll just have to see how it goes.
My little sister was on every kind of medication imaginable to control her. My parents took her to doctors all up and down California. The thing that finally made her “normal” was changing her diet. She was violently allergic to many things but #1 was red food coloring. Please have your daughter checked for food allergies. You may find out that she may not need drugs at all–but just need changing what she eats.
Peace
Yoga’s got a point, and it’s probably worth checking out. Run the gamut of doctors, because you have good insurance. I think.
Besides the shrinks, get thee to a Neurologist and Allergist. With referrals from the primary doctor, you might get lots of other ideas. The Shiglet had an MRI of his head done “just to make sure” this was not biological. And the allergist did the whole series of scratch tests and also determined he was slightly asthmatic as well.
And besides, what better way is there to show your daughter you really want her to get BETTER than to schlep her to lots of doctors. Maybe there’s a message in there.
I admit I have not read all the events all the way through but I can tell you that the comments do make lots of sense. I had a friend who’s son was a “major pain”, could not sit still, would not listen or behave, got up one night, opened the refrigerator and proceeded to throw egss around, He was still quite young then, maybe 5 or 6). Another time he got sent to his room and started screaming and carrying on, and had opened his windows as well. A while later, someone from HRS came to the door and demanded that my friend get her son and disrobe him to examine him for bruises, cuts etc. and she was mortified as she had not done anything but gave him a smack on the butt as she often had to do. You get the drift I am sure. Finally, she had to take matters up herself- got him off sugar, food additives, and most other foods with chemicals and he calmed down enough to be tolerated at school once more.I do not recall if the doctors then were consulted but I am sure someone suggested that to her. Now, approx. 25 years later, he has a PhD and is doing some kind of scientific research for a univerity in Colorado, and has been married for a few years. There is hope but it takes a lot of time, ingenuity and patience as well sometimes. Good luck.