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Meds to take edge off Depression & Anxiety in a Teen

Mhairi

Hoping for some advice from anyone with experience of this. Our 13 yr old has suffered with significant anxiety over past 5 years and 2 bouts of significant depression last months all impacting on his quality of life and on both occasions feeling life is not worth living.

We are hoping meds will take the edge of his high levels of anxiety until he is in a place where he can help himself, find strategies and address the areas that are affecting him so he can enjoy some quality of life. Hopefully they will be a temporary measure.

Any advice on people's experience of meds would be very much appreciated particularly those around in their teens. He cannot swallow tablets but can incorporate a powder/open capsule into food.

We understand it will be trial and error and they may not work for him at all, plus the 2 month settling in period but feel for his sake we have to try this.

Thank you

Parents

  • Hi Mhairi,

    Although he appears to cope with his additional needs school pretty well its only because he has coping strategies to get him through. Unfortunately we are the safety valve at home. So anything that upsets him at school tends to get stored up and up until he is ready to explode. If he gets off the school transport with a face as black as thunder we know we are in for it because he will vent as soon as he gets in. Following getting told off by teachers or merely if a child says something he doesn't like has led to a serious level of violence and damage around the house. We have had a large pot of paint hurled down the stairs....it hit the stairwell, the lid flew off and we had paint on ceilings, walls, carpets, furniture etc. Thousands of pounds worth of damage. In 2011 he came home upset and attacked me, I had a slipped disc at the time from previous attacks. I twisted away to avoid another kick and ended up with cauda equina syndrome. Couldn't move my legs the next morning and all bodily functions below the waist gone...needed emergency surgery to resolve and I was lucky to not end up in a wheelchair.

    That is not to say that these things don't arise from issues at home sometimes as well...they do frequently. If he wants something and he can't have it straight away he will lash out very quickly.

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  • Hi Mhairi,

    Although he appears to cope with his additional needs school pretty well its only because he has coping strategies to get him through. Unfortunately we are the safety valve at home. So anything that upsets him at school tends to get stored up and up until he is ready to explode. If he gets off the school transport with a face as black as thunder we know we are in for it because he will vent as soon as he gets in. Following getting told off by teachers or merely if a child says something he doesn't like has led to a serious level of violence and damage around the house. We have had a large pot of paint hurled down the stairs....it hit the stairwell, the lid flew off and we had paint on ceilings, walls, carpets, furniture etc. Thousands of pounds worth of damage. In 2011 he came home upset and attacked me, I had a slipped disc at the time from previous attacks. I twisted away to avoid another kick and ended up with cauda equina syndrome. Couldn't move my legs the next morning and all bodily functions below the waist gone...needed emergency surgery to resolve and I was lucky to not end up in a wheelchair.

    That is not to say that these things don't arise from issues at home sometimes as well...they do frequently. If he wants something and he can't have it straight away he will lash out very quickly.

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