Psychiatric Medications, Stigma, and Rebecca Riley
My son Charlie takes two psychiatric medications, Risperdal (since the spring of 2004) and Zoloft (since the spring of 2003). As I wrote a few months ago, our decision to give Charlie these medications was “to be a starting point—-the pediatric neurologist emphasized that Charlie’s education was the most important thing that would help him.” At that time, Charlie was not in the right kind of school placement for him: He was struggling to learn and we received almost daily reports of him “exhibiting problem behaviors,” from aggression to head-banging. Starting in the spring of 2004, we began to search for a new school for him.
In the meantime, Charlie remained at his current placement. We began to have a number of difficult, and frustrating, meetings with school district personnel and the outside consultant, who instituted a cut-and-dry behavior modification program in which Charlie was praised for “keeping his head up.” The medication would, we hoped, help Charlie get through his schooldays and, on looking back—-and shuddering at the memory of how familiar I became talking to the school nurse, who called to say “He hit his head X times this morning, I applied ice, and he went back to his classroom”—I think it did. The side-effects (such as an increased appetite) were not easy to deal with (and it would have helped me to have read the descriptions on this post from autistic persons who have taken these medications).
And then I became aware of the stigma about giving one’s child—one’s autistic child who has limited language—psychiatric medications. New York Times columnist Judith Warner describes this stigma in a February 22nd post, Why Rebecca Died.
It’s such a scary thing, this business of medicating children. Especially when the medications are being prescribed for off-label use, or are being given to very young children, or are being taken as part of a multidrug “cocktail,” as is the trend among kids with multiple behavioral and emotional ills. It was the case with Rebecca, who according to state police reports was taking 750 milligrams a day of the antiseizure drug Depakote, 200 milligrams a day of the antipsychotic Seroquel, and .35 milligrams a day of clonidine, a blood pressure drug that is also used as a sedative. She went on her medications at age 2.
It’s so easy, if you’re a parent of a child who takes psychiatric medications, to feel vaguely like a criminal, or like you’re lazy or irresponsible, a dupe of the drug companies, or a standard-bearer for a sick society, as a mother in California put it to me this week, as she discussed her inner struggles over the decision to medicate her son for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. “It’s like ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’” she said.
Warner is writing about Rebecca Riley, the 4-year-old Massachusetts girl who was found dead on December 13 with her lungs fill of fluid. According to police, Rebecca, who was diagnosed with ADHD and bipolar disorder, had been taking “a potent cocktail of psychiatric drugs since age 2.” Prosecutors have charged her parents, Michael and Carolyn Riley, with “deliberately poisoning their daughter Rebecca by giving her overdoses of prescription drugs to sedate her” according to the February 15th New York Times. Noting that ’”[i]t’s easy to read Rebecca’s death as a cautionary tale for all parents who might even consider medicating their kids,” Warner reviews the sad and terrible details of Rebecca’s short life—both of her parents had been previously accused of abuse and neglect—and notes that “Rebecca’s world was a nonstop horror show.” Warner concludes:
Rebecca Riley was not killed by biological psychiatry or AstraZeneca or the Massachusetts Department of Social Services or parents like you or me who may or may not be medicating our children but are, indisputably, part of a culture in which doing so is now the norm.
“Abuse, neglect and abandonment” killed Rebecca and, as Warner writes, we cannot extrapolate from her case to condemn parents, and the doctors too, who treat children with psychiatric drugs.
Through a lot of trial and, too, error, Jim and I, in careful consultation with Charlie’s pediatric neurologist, have tried to figure out just what medications and in what amounts to give Charlie. While Charlie does not yet have the language to tell us how his head or stomach might feel, he does communicate what is going on inside him in his actions, so that careful observation is necessary. I have definitely encountered the “condemnation” of parents who treat their children with psychiatric medications that Warner describes. “We didn’t have to go that far” and “we have not had to try that route” have been said to me. It is perhaps my reaction to these sorts of statements that has led me to proclaim, hyperbolically, that the medications were a “last resort” and that “we had no choice.” I now see our decision to use medications as yet another of the treatment options that we have had to consider for Charlie.
For autistic children, use of psychiatric medications has been criticized due to potential harmful side-effects. In particular, I have noted such criticisms from parents and practitioners who favor biomedical treatments. This 2005 letter by Dr. Bernard Rimland was written in defense of the use of chelation therapy for autistic children, after the death of Abubakar Tariq Nadama in August of 2005 while receiving chelation therapy in Pennsylvania:
I am not arguing that there is never a place for psychiatric drugs. In some cases, when all else fails, psychotropic drugs may be necessary evils—particularly when autistic children exhibit life-threatening aggression or self-injury. I certainly do not fault parents who turn to these drugs after all other avenues have been exhausted. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, psychiatric drugs do far more harm than good. They never correct the innate problems of autistic children. They never “cure.” They only suppress symptoms, while causing a host of horrific and sometimes lethal side effects.
In contrast, chelation and the other therapies advocated by DAN! doctors do treat the underlying causes of autism. These treatments are very safe, and highly effective. They make our children healthier, not sicker. And they can lead to dramatic improvement and even to recovery—to see proof, go to www.Autism-RecoveredChildren.com
Dr. Rimland describes psychiatric drugs as a “necessary evil,” only to be used “after all other avenues have been exhausted.” As I have been reflecting on our decision to try some biomedical treatments for Charlie when he was younger, and the reasons why we decide no longer to pursue these, I have been wondering about the effects of this kind of hyperbolic statement on the thoughts of the parent of an autistic child. Such a statement suggests that a parent (by no “fault” of his or her own) is giving a child medications that will only have surface, temporary effects—versus those who choose truly to address the “innate problems of autistic children” (via biomedical protocols such as DAN!. What is the effect of such language—an accusatory rhetoric that acknowledges how desperate a parent can feel, only to point out that this parent is not really addressing an autistic child’s real problems—on a parent who already faces, as Warner notes, anxiety and condemnation for giving a child psychiatric medications?
“It’s hard to say out loud that I give medication to my young child,” my friend Mom-NOS wrote back in November in Anxiety medication and medication anxiety. It is hard; as Mom-NOS writes, a parent ends up with a lot of anxiety of her and his own as a result; as Warner notes, a parents feels “vaguely like a criminal, or like you’re lazy or irresponsible.” And if anyone thinks, or even suggests, that we parents have made these decisions without serious anxiety and serious discernment, it should be known that parents like Mom-NOS and me are “stranded with a whole lot of [our] own” anxiety—-but not because, in my case, because my son is autistic.
Indeed, when I see my son with his peaceful easy-feeling demeanour, my anxiety fades away, as do any thoughts that he needs to be “recovered” from autism.
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POSTED IN: Crime, Health, Medicine, Psychiatry, Rhetoric, Treatment
30 opinions for Psychiatric Medications, Stigma, and Rebecca Riley
mcewen
Feb 23, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Fear and ignorance made me steer well clear, but more and more of my pals took that road as their children grew older, but the stumper for me was reading Temple Grandin saying approximately, that she was only sorry that she didn’t take them sooner and that her life was enhanced by their use.
Best wishes
Daisy
Feb 23, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Certain doses of medication can enable the child to feel self-control and focus their thoughts and emotions in a way impossible without the meds. It’s a difficult decision, but to me, it’s not a “last resort” or a “Lazy, irresponsible” decision.
zilari
Feb 23, 2007 at 7:36 pm
There are different kinds of medications, though. SSRIs like Zoloft are definitely less dangerous for most people than neuroleptics like Risperdal and Seroquel. I am not anti-medication but I think that neuroleptics especially are improperly marketed and overprescribed by people with little awareness of the magnitude of what they can do to a person. Pointing out the dangers of neuroleptics *specifically* is not the same thing as attaching stigma to medication or to parents. My concerns about neuroleptics have to do with the specific properties of that specific class of drugs.
Jez Rourke
Feb 23, 2007 at 7:45 pm
If I’m not mistaken, chelation brings with it a lot of risks, like one really scary one, the possibility of bone marrow suppression….. correct me if I’m wrong. It was a road I was ready to go down with my daughter. She sees a nutritionist and was taking a gazillion supplements, I will say this. The first day she went off dairy products was the first day she made eye contact. It was clear, obvious, and striking that suddenly this child made eye contact when she didn’t for the first two years of her life. (She also had NO ABA therapy prior to this day…..it was the first step I took after her diagnosis).
The rest of the supplementation, I really can’t say whether it did anything at all. The nutritionist was pushing to go with chelation right at the very same time she started a really good ABA school. When we discussed her diet etc., the very experienced ABA practitioner at this school said I am begging you, do not chelate this child. So I didn’t go ahead with it which I’m very happy about now. I was afraid of the risks prior to the conversation. So I’m not sure how chelation is actually considered to be “safe.” How safe is safe?
As far as the use of drugs goes, I haven’t had to use any with my daughter, but I’ve had problems with anxiety since the day I was born. I went on Paxil about four years ago on a super low dose 10 mg. and I will say from the perspective of an adult (a very small adult 90 pounds under 5 feet tall), that initially the side effects were almost intolerable. But then I noticed that my thinking changed. It actually changed my thought processes. I used to think in a circle, logically, but always right back where I started and unproductive. One day I realized that I no longer thought in a circle. I thought in a linear way: thought to conclusion. Prior to paxil it was thought to endless thought to more questions.
So given my so-called neurotypical experience, I don’t think I would hesitate to try an SSRI on an autistic child. I’ve seen what it can do. I’m a lot less obsessive my thinking is clearer. My doctor has mentioned to me that though he knows little about autism he would guess that with the rituals etc. there would be a lot of OCD as a co-factor. If that is true, it could make a good case for the use of an SSRI. It’s always scary to use drugs with children. However, at a low dosage suitable for a child it’s not something I’d rule out without trying it if it would help my daughter to learn.
The place that I’ve come to with autism is that I have one goal for my child and that is that she learns. I don’t need her not to be autistic. I’d like for her to catch up and keep up as much as possible in the learning of new skills and necessary skills for her comfort and enjoyment of her life. She’s very bright and craves learning. So whatever can facilitate keeping her attention so that she can do that at this cruicial time in her development needs to be explored.
It wouldn’t thrill me to have a four year child on medication, but I wouldn’t rule it out either. Think about it, if our children had medical problems that the first line of treatment was a drug we wouldn’t hesitate to use them. If a child is diabetic, we use insulin.
So as always with so little facts about autism parents need to essentially leave no stone unturned when looking at useful treatment options.
Ballastexistenz
Feb 23, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Temple Grandin is talking about an anti-depressant. She dislikes the use of neuroleptics on autistic children. And, what Zilari said, exactly. People shouldn’t be accused of stigmatizing people for bringing up legitimate points.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Feb 24, 2007 at 2:20 am
We’ll continue to reaccess what is the right thing to do for Charlie regarding medication—this discussion is more than helpful.
Kassiane
Feb 24, 2007 at 2:55 am
I’ve been on waaay too many head-meds, I think that I’m approaching 30 now (seizures/what they call bipolar, not sure for sure if it IS/migraines). And I have idiosyncratic reactions to most of them.
So, I would be extraordinarily cautious in giving one that I reacted well with to a child with differing neurology (which is most kids), or neurology different from typical, since I know the ‘theoretical’ of all of them. Like, my 2 main seizure meds, one makes most people stupid but makes me more with it, the other makes me happy and is the quickest manic comedown for most people. Go figure. And tricyclic antidepressants (which work for Temple Grandin’s anxiety) make me anxious as all get out, at 1/4 the smallest dose, if not outright manic-some antimanic type antipsychotics also do this, even Seroquel-but a tiny dose of Prozac killed my migraines dead. Weird stuff.
And ugh…idiosyncratic deadly stuff. Anticonvulsant hypersensitivity syndrome. Stephens-Johnson Rash. INTERNAL. I know what the lining of my sinus looks like *shudder*. I’m sure many autistic & otherwise differently brained people are more susceptable to this, and tardive dyskinesia from antipsychotics (got this one too, won’t let them near me with antipuke meds since most are antipsychotics) than the mostly-typical-ish population.
Scariest part: Most of the people subjected to the dangerous cocktails cant complain aboout it, or can’t complain and be believed/understood.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Feb 24, 2007 at 3:10 am
I am thinking that, when autistic children are prescribed with these medications, they should receive the information posted here.
Ballastexistenz
Feb 24, 2007 at 11:14 am
Yeah — exactly what Kassi said, that’s why I won’t even recommend (or disclose) the meds I take for various things most of the time. Because I’ve seen parents take that and run with it when they see other autistic people endorse something.
Lisa/Jedi
Feb 24, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I could not believe it when I read that they were giving that poor child (Rebecca) 200 mg. seroquel per day- that’s like elephant tranquilisers for such a young child. There is so much ignorance about medications in our supposedly sophisticated society… that goes for antibiotics (drug-resistant bacteria, anyone?) as well as just about everything else. My husband is a physician & is very careful to make sure his patients know what they’re taking & why, but human nature makes this task very difficult. Recently he was taking a questionnaire from a local HMO & one question asked, “Do you know all of the drugs your patients are taking?, to which he could not answer yes, since he can only know which drugs he’s prescribing & whatever others prescribed by other doctors that his patients choose to disclose to him… there is a great deal of non-disclosure that can potentially hurt people. So what happens when these folks are responsible for monitoring the medications for their children?
We have been on both sides of this issue. Brendan’s pediatric neurologist wanted to begin anti-depressants when he was first diagnosed with ASD at age 6, which we declined since we didn’t see a need for them. I was very much opposed to anti-depressants at the time because I had tried them for moderate depression when he was a baby & had great difficulty with side-effects at first, & then serotonin syndrome (reaction to too much serotonin in my system) which made me have to discontinue them. I manage my depression quite well with St. John’s Wort, most likely because I resond well to very minute amounts of most drugs. When Brendan developed OCD at age 8 everything changed, including my feeling about using drugs with him. His functioning became so seriously impaired & he did not tolerate suffucient doses of anti-depressants to give much relief, so we tried seroquel at the sugestion of his pediatric psychiatrist. The weight-gain side effect was not fun, but he got his life back. We have since found that he tolerates zoloft well enough to make a difference & are in a long-drawn-out process of withdrawing him from the seroquel (he’s presently taking 75 mg/day, down from his highest dose of 125 mg/day).
I have definitely felt the anti-meds reaction deeply, but know that we are not being thoughtless or “lazy” in using them. Along with some of the other respondants, I believe that using known quantities- medicines that have been studied & are regulated for use in humans- are much safer than many of the “bio-med” remedies that promise “cures”. I think that the cumulative benefits of using medication are obvious to us, but the occasional dead-ends (drugs that didn’t work or gave intolerable side-effects) have been demoralising, too. It’s a hard road, but my kid is worth the time & thought we’ve put into this process, & I feel that the end result will be that we’ve given him the best chance he could have at a satisfying life.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Feb 24, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Your noting that you give Brendan low doses stands out to me—-it’s the main thing I remember from reading Temple Grandin’s chapter on medication in Thinking with Pictures. The pediatric neurologist has often pointed out to us that we could give Charlie higher doses; we try to keep them as low as possible, and to address anxiety also through teaching a lot about coping mechanisms.
Justamom
Feb 27, 2007 at 1:40 am
I have children with ADHD and Bipolar/ADHD comorbid, the child with bipolar also has some ASD tendencies. Early on, I was pretty avidly anti-medication but as time goes on and you research and watch your child struggle to function properly things change. The insinuation that thoughtful parents are “lazy” in deciding to medicate their children is wrong on so many levels.
I was shocked at the dosing that poor dear Rebecca was receiving, my 12 year old has been taking 750 mg of Trileptal, 150 mg of Seroquel and 80 mg of Strattera since the age of 10 - but that is not 4 and she weighed about 85 pounds when she started.
I am so saddened by this story, and I also fear that if it really gets legs and goes national - more stigma will be attached to families that decide to aquit themselves to medication. The “outside world” seems to fail to understand how impaired many of children are - they just judge.
Autism Vox » The Age of What Diagnosis Does Your Child Have
Mar 3, 2007 at 3:52 am
[…] This question was indeed the topic of a book to be entitled “We’ve Got Issues: Childhood in the Age of Anxiety,” that New York Times columnist Judith Warner has been working on for the past three years—and that, as she writes in a March 1st column, Second Thoughts, that was not getting written. Warner’s Second Thoughtsis a sort of mea culpa about her last week’s column on the death of Rebecca Riley. The four-year-old had been given large doses of psychiatric medications by her parents, who both had troubled histories of abuse and neglect. Warner notes that she had written that column with a particular “straw man” in mind, namely someone who “……would generalize from [Rebecca’s] story to say that it was emblematic of what was happening in a sick society where kids are being medicated to shut them up” […]
Heather
Mar 5, 2007 at 11:58 pm
First of all I suffer from bi-ploar and I’m suffering with aahd and as a childit was worse!! and now as a parent ofa 4yr old there is no way in HELL to tell if the baby is bi-polar or adhd!! not until the age of 6-8 and at the age of two I was perscribed ritalen 1ml… but the medication that that poor child was on is no excuse1!! especailly from a well known hospital (BCH) who ever thought that would happen come on giving a small child clopin and depakote? the doctor should have known better i call it LAZY if you can’t control children (which is normal if they don’t sleep) I’m going throughit right now!!! its sad !!! and giving a small child like that all that it sickens me tothe point to where I want to put a bullet inthe heads ofthe people that did this!!!! not to mention the amount of cough syuryp that was found in her just because she wouldn’t sleep!!!! my daughter is presious, but she has her moments!!! but that doesn’t mean I’m goingto overdose her the PARENTS are going to try to plea insanity WE CAN’T LETTHAT HAPPEN now that on the news tonight monday march 5 2007 it was noted that it was a money scandle? please!!!! B-S!!!
Rosie
Mar 11, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Seems to me that those who post judge as well as those who don’t post.
I am raising 3 children with bipolar. Onsets were 3,11 and 14. It is exhausting and catastrophically sad everyday. We have lost every sense of normalcy.
It was never a question to medicate. Would I medicate their seizures, their diabetes, their asthma? Of course. Did I take a risk medicating since most meds are not trialed in pediatrics? You betcha.
If you can spend one week with an unmedicated bipolar child, watch them suffer and struggle and act in unsafe and dangerous ways, and still decide not to consider medications nor educate yourself, then Rebecca has died in vain. Her whole family is suffering…….
Beth
Mar 23, 2007 at 11:35 pm
OK, so maybe she was bipolar and needed the meds. It does not excuse her parents from being responsible adults and overseeing her dosing. That dad sounds like a REAL winner…getting ready to go on trial for sexually abusing a stepdaughter and now this? What next? They didn’t want to be bothered with another special needs child, and they thought they could stop before it was too late. All that sick little girl wanted that last night was her mommy, and she was too chicken to stand up to her husband and say, “hey, let me take a minute.” Freaking losers. I hope they rot. I am sure that dr. prescribed all meds within reason, proper doses…those parents were the ones upping it when Rebecca’s tolerance grew. Her teachers failed her, the druggists failed her, and (seems like, as always) DSS failed her. What a shame for a beautiful little girl…she deserved a better chance at life.
Sheree
Mar 24, 2007 at 12:51 am
Clonodine was not the culprit for the child’s death, abuse of the drug by her parents (to keep her quiet) was. The parents may not have intended to kill their child, but the level of reckless disregard they demonstrated in giving her such high doses of a powerful drug is criminal. Few articles have so enraged me. However, the validity of using Clonodine in treating specific symptoms in children shouldn’t be confused with the criminal actions of that particular child’ parents.
Clonodine is prescription drug and because it has powerful effects on the body must be used with extreme caution. Although it was designed as a blood pressure drug, it has long been used to treat the symptoms of ADHD, bipolar, autism and other disorders. I have used this drug for two children on the autism spectrum for almost 10 years. We have tried many other drugs over that time, but Clonodine has been the only one that has consistently performed the purpose for which it was prescribed. We were cautioned early on about the risks of overuse and carefully use it as directed–in very low doses (.1 mg). The article only reminded me of the need to follow exact dosage instructions, keep the medication securely stored and not to confuse which child got what dose.
Kassiane
Mar 24, 2007 at 11:21 am
Something we all need to face, even parents of early onset bipolar kids:
EVERYONE JUDGES. Either you are judging and saying “I agree with clonodine high dose as parenting aid” or judging and saying “what the hell were these people thinking and where was the supervision????”. Either is a JUDGEMENT. Being all pissy that other people disagree with YOUR call is ALSO judgement.
Now that we’ve got dictionary stuff sorted out:
many, if not most, of the parents I knot of kids with EOBP, epilepsy, complicated mixes of stuff, know more about neuropharmacology than their doctors. I know more about neuropharmacology than MY doctor. He flat out said so (lithium-pilocarpine model, gets them every time…). No one is saying STAY UNDEDUCATEd.
They are saying drugging a 4 year old into a sedate zombie is unnatural and that you cannot tell if a TWO YEAR OLD has bipolar and ADHD. It’s called terrible twos for a reason, ya know. And docs RX on parental pressure for a quick fix, exaggerate, etc all the time. It’s just the way some parentes ARE.
Daddy sure had a sucky track record with kids….
Kristina Chew, PhD
Mar 24, 2007 at 11:39 am
The use of drugs and, in the case of Brandon Williams, over the counter medication to (as I’m taking it) keep the children in control really troubles me. My son’s doctor always reminds us (as he is writing a prescription), education, education, education.
Beth
Mar 24, 2007 at 3:23 pm
That is why it is so frustrating to see this case. “Ignorance of the law (or dosages, or whatever) is no excuse.” This girl died, and their lawyer is saying it was due to them not knowing any better. What a crock. You HAVE to know how to handle, how to parent these special needs kids–not just medicate them and see what happens. I live it every day. My son has been on meds since he was 3 and it was the single most hardest decision I have ever had to make with regards to his health…and by God, it hasn’t “fixed” him or made him particularly tolerable, either! ;) He is not a danger or a blazing fireball any more, but you have to learn behavioral and other interventions; I think the bottom line with this family is: these parents were lazy, probably overwhelmed if they had three special needs kids, and took it upon themselves to medicate Rebecca into oblivion. Literally. And it leaves the rest of us responsible parents using the “horrible” drugs for our kids to handle the fallout. We shouldn’t have to explain our decisions or our children’s inborn differences to the nosy public, but cases like this bring us all to the forefront. BOTTOM LINE FOR THE REST OF US: IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD, AND IT IS GOING TO TAKE A HECK OF A LOT MORE, AND A WHOLE LOT EARLIER, TO RAISE A SPECIAL NEEDS CHILD. If the public and the government would understand we need the Waivers while our kids are young instead of the disability when they are older and beyond change, the world would be a better place.
Kassiane
Mar 24, 2007 at 10:28 pm
It’s not easy to BE a special needs child, either.
There needs to be a lot less destigmatizing, a lot MORE education, and more people willing to speak up when cases like Rebecca Riley’s come about–BEFORE tragedy happens. It’s not like she died of a random, swift drug allergy…
The whole thing is really sad, because it makes life much more difficult for the next 20000 parents who have a kid who really IS bipolar & ADHD in that part of the world…and of course people will keep shutting up for the ONE next Rebecca because it makes her easier for them to handle *shakes head*
Kristina Chew, PhD
Mar 24, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Beth said: “it leaves the rest of us responsible parents using the “horrible” drugs for our kids to handle the fallout.”
People expect too much of drugs, as if they are a “magic pill.” My father is a pharmacist and I grew up with him constantly saying, it’s just one thing and there’s so much else involved with all of these medicines.
He also used always (still does) say to me, that he knew a lot and just enough to get scared.
Tiffany
May 4, 2007 at 2:27 pm
First hearing of this story made my heart sink! then I hear that the parents ordered hundreds of extra pills and gave them to other siblings.That is inexcuseable and certainly deserves the highest prosecution. I am a mother of a child who is on clonidine, depakote , abilify and Focalin my child is 8. If I had a quarter for every outsider who wispered there isnt anything wrong with him or he is so well behaved then Id be rich. All I can say Is he has wonderfull Dr’s who I trust. I cant tell you how many nights I dont sleep until 3 am becasue I make sure my son is still breathing - it is very scary the side effects of thease meds. However I am presented with the other side of the coin my child is not chemically balanced For me to refuse the meds. Do you take the risk of an 8 yr old cutting his throat because he had an impulseive thought?
or yet stabbing his siblings? yrs ago the bad kids were just bad and put away in Juvenile for aggression and violence and setting fires. Now there is research showing that the children who are filling our correctional facilities had issues that were never addressed. Or worse the Virginia Tech tragedy — Do you give a child a fair shot of living in society by making a responsible and UNselfish decision to treat and medicate and ask for help when you see odd behaviors? Even if it means the meds may kill him just by side effects alone? Or do you ignore the problem and bury the other sibling he lashed out against or worse beg the judge not to throw away the key because no one understood him and only you loved him all of his life while everyone else walked away? My heart sank because I feel for the parents who HAVE trusted Dr’s to give us hope for our children - The angry parents who say you just arn’t a good parent obviously you have no idea what it is like to go to sleep wondering if it is your last night with your child or go to sleep and wonder did I put up all my candles because he might wake up and decide he wants to make the family breakfast at 4 am ? Or do I not know how to be a mom because I didnt put a gate infront of his door or lock him in there so he cant get out ?
Instead of concentrating on negative results from side effects I have chosen to teach him daily about love acceptance and consequenses. Hopefully along side the proper medicines he has been prescribed this will be a good outcome in the yrs to come. If the lord decides it is his turn to go to heaven I will know in my heart I at least gave him a chance to be a kid and laugh and play.
For the parents who daily patch holes in there walls - or re attatch doors or clean up the urine or dont put the shoe laces exactly right when tying there shoes my heart goes out I am one of you. To the parents who need a break so bad becasue you havent had time to bathe or put on a stitch of make up I am one of you . to the parent who has lost there second job because of so many Dr appointments I am you. to the parents who are begging the government to help with financial burden I am you .To the parents who pray for normalcy I cry with you even though you dont think anyone else exsists.
To the parents of the little girl that died I cannot understand how you could be that selfish to over medicate for a moment of peace however I cant say as If I have not had the thought. The diffrence between you and I is you thought you had a majic pill - THERE is NONE now you have a lifetime to think of the broken doors and screeming fits. I hope they eco in your brain .
God Bless the children and give the parents strength that are walking in our shoes. It is so hard eather way you have decided to deal with the disability of a child who is afflicted with chemical imbalanced children . The diagnoses and symptoms are mostly the same —– just spelled diffrently for those that need a diffrent explanation if you think about it.
Beth
May 4, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Tiffany–God bless. We are all battling demons. Our children are people, as are we, and it is hard to get that through at times. You said it so well, with things that happen every day. Let’s talk!
Beth
Kristina Chew, PhD
May 4, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Tiffany, thanks for your powerful words—–
Tiffany
May 4, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Im glad there are real people out there too any time Im on all night as I dont sleep much heheh - let me know how to reach ya if anyone wants to chat and exchange war stories or even just have someone to vent to
Autism Vox » Antipsychotic Drugs, the Drug Indrusty, and Children
May 10, 2007 at 2:03 pm
[…] a parent whose child takes psychatric medications—-Risperdal and Zoloft—-my sense of righteous indignation came quickly to the fore on […]
Sam
May 18, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Tiffany,
Thank you for the most comforting words I’ve heard since my child was born. Thank you!!
james Freeman, MD
May 31, 2007 at 6:26 pm
There is far too little stigma at times with youths being on psychiatric medications. It should be a difficult decision. I’m a child psychiatrist, and am amazed at the level of anger I recieve from some families when I suggest that their chil’d problems may not be a lack of medications or due to a “chemical” problem. It seems much easier for families to see these as the cause of problems rather than social or family issues.
Tiffany
Jun 1, 2007 at 12:50 am
HEy guys I was up late again and I am glad my experiences gave some hope that there are real people out there who have doubts and even high hopes that they have all the right answers.
I’ll be honest school is finally out so I dont have to deal with the screaming fits at 6 am. however I so fear the summer to be honest . I fear for the safety and sanity of the other household members. GOd answered a prayer though HE has been invited to stay for a week with the Bible school teacher. This gives the rest of the family piece of mind that we can regroup and prepair for the next blowup or incident.I wish there was a majical remedy for the symtoms and the rage that comes from thease little children. I will be honest though even though so many parents have seen improvements with diffrent meds and trials one thing I have noticed. The changes and positive things slowly sease about the 3rd week of any new meds or adjustments . why is this ?????
Hey Im just a parent not a Dr. id love to have a support ring for parents with same issues anyone know of any good ones online ? or anyone just drop there emails let me know thanks !!- Tiffany
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