The Why We Medicate or Do Not Medicate Thread

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As far as I know, there is no medication for AS. There is nothing I can take that would make me "get" the things I don't "get". Nothing to make me tactful and less blunt when I don't feel like putting on the tactful and patient show. Nothing to make me more able to tolerate some sensory things. However, there is a med for my depression. There is one for anxiety when I get panicky. There is one to help me sleep when I'm obsessing over something unimportant that's bothering me. I'll sure take them. It doesn't change who I am, it only helps me deal with ordinary, everyday life, just like everybody else.

I don't have ADHD but my two boys do/did. The oldest grew out of it, but we tried ritalin on him when he was little. It helped a lot but the side effects weren't worth it. The younger one is helped a lot by vyvanse. He's 17 and it's up to him if he wants to take it or not, but he does. He says it helps him a whole lot. It doesn't change who he is, it helps him like my antidepressant helps me. To deal with ordinary things that he would have a harder time dealing with if he didn't have the meds.

I come from a medical family and have a medical background, so my take on meds may be very different than someone else's. I feel that if someone has a problem and there is a medicine that will fix it, why not take it? I'm not talking about taking it to extremes, being out of it all the time rather than learn how to deal with some discomfort, but if there is something that is viable, and it will work, I don't think there is one single thing wrong with taking a medicine. After all, we don't tell people in pain that they should learn other ways to deal with pain rather than take a Tylenol or what have you.

Some people say medicine, especialy meds that help with behavior, is a crutch. Well, so? What is a crutch? It's something that we use to help us when we have a weak or broken limb. The crutch enables us to function normally when we would otherwise be stuck on the couch. I have yet to see someone tell a guy with a broken leg that using a crutch is wrong. Sure, once he gets the cast off he has to learn to walk without it again, and he does. Some people can't walk without a crutch or a cane at all, and we don't put them down because of it and say they are relying on something they don't need. It's something that helps.

I have never been in the position where I had to decide to give my kids a strong medicine to help their behavior, other than the ADHD stuff, so I don't know what it's like to make that decision. I'm not judging anyone's choices in any way. I haven't been there, so I can't say what I would or wouldn't do. The closest I've been to making a choice to give a strong medicine for behavior modification was when my girls had chicken pox a few years ago and wouldn't quit scratching. The doctor gave me phenergan syrup and lortab to give them so they would just sleep through it and not scratch. So I did. However, that was temporary. It wasn't an ongoing thing.

My hat is off to all you parents who deal with those types of choices every day. I don't know what I'd do. I do know that if there is something that helps me, I'm sure gonna take it.

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My son as some may know is completely non-verbal and low functioning, but we don't medicate him with anything as we haven't needed to for any reason yet (bar Asthma medication). He's pretty chilled out most of the time, and when he's not we can usually work out why.

But if we ever need to medicate for a solid reason, we will have no problem in doing it if its whats best for my son.

We have a 16 year old who was diagnosed with PDD-NOS at five years. He was never a melt-down type much, except maybe as a four year old in preschool, and even then, only slightly.

He has inattentive ADD problems more than anything else. We tried some stimulants in the fourth or fifth grade -- they helped, for a while. Every single time DS tried some new med, he would read the FDA suggested limit for dosage, and it would stop working. We must have gone through 8 or so medications over the span of four or five years. He couldn't pay attention in class. and even though he was smart, school was somewhat hard. Socializing was also somewhat hard.

When the first stimulants were given to DS, they were provided by our general practitioner, who was a great guy, but not versed in autism. We then tried a psychologist for a year, but she wasn't any better than the GP. I was getting desperate and wondering if we should pull DS out of school, because he was spending 7 hours in school, and then another 7 hours on homework (and we were helping for most of that 7 hours). It just seemed like cyber school might be more efficient for him -- but I was nervous about that because then he wouldn't get the socialization factor of school.

I had read about a local ADD specialist online, but had never pursued going to him because I wasn't sure that we could afford him. THEN, I had about three or four friends from church who were sending their kids to this ADD specialist. Right around then, my parents passed away and I received an inheritance -- this sad event also made it so that I could now afford this doctor if our insurance wouldn't cover the costs. We began, and the doctor worked in a much more logical fashion than any other previous doctor had. There was testing for heart rate, testing for cognition, testing for all the sensible stuff. Even with this, it took over a year to get the meds right, and many, many times I was ready to pull the plug on the whole thing. I couldn't stand watching my normally happy son go through depression because of very high stimulant doses.

This year -- his sophmore year -- has been the best year ever. I finally have my son back, with his normal happy attitude, and his ability showing up at school. He just got all A's except for one B this quarter. He's socializing. He's happy. Is everything perfect? No. He still has HFA/Asperger's. But this combination of stimulants/non-stimulants/anti-anxiety/and anti-tic medication is right for him. It may not last -- but so far, so good. I have been on the non-medication side of the fence, and I can definitely see the intelligence in that. But the medication side, at least right now, with how happy my son is, is working.