Posted by DanielJ on July 9, 2004, at 9:28:51
In reply to Re: end of rope » platinumbride, posted by SLS on July 9, 2004, at 8:02:41
I think everyone could help more if we knew your initial diagnosis. I'll give an example of what not to do first. At 15yrs old his P Dr suspected my son was ADD and ADHD.(we had already described symptoms of schizophrenia to him also) He put my son on Abilify and Lexapro. On these 2 not only did he not sleep much, now he didn't sleep at all. He left home and wandered the neighborhood at night several times causing us to have to go find him at 3:00 am etc. The next visit both my son and us nixed the Abilify and Lexapro so he started my son on Zyprexa. Lo and behold he could sleep again and things improved a bit. He still was edgy and frustrated though and his anger and frustration seethed beneath the surface, and his Dr started him on klonopin to ease that condition. Relief was only temporary though and he ended up in a crisis center where they replaced his Klonopin with Zoloft and gradually increased his Zyprexa to 20mg from 10mg. When he came home in 2 weeks he was better but still wrapped a little tight. A month later the Dr upped his Zoloft from 50 mg to 100 mg. In a couple of days he was doing goofy stuff like lying down in the front yard and acting almost drunk for about 3 weeks until I chopped the end off 1 of his 100mg Zolofts making it about 75mg.
from then on things improved and in 2 months he was back in the larger high school he once swore he would never go to. He has gained weight but seems stable and happy now.
It took my wifes and my own unflinching determination to get him where he is now. Sometimes going with our own ideas above the Dr.'s and telling the Dr. what was really going on. Disagreeing with him when we thought he was wrong too! But.. we still have the same Dr. and we are not going to give him the boot either.
You have to formulate a plan and go from there. If you need to change Dr's, do it and get a fresh diagnosis. About the meds, remember the drugs themselves don't usually cause the weight gain, they increase the appetite and also can cause a ho hum attitude toward excercise and activity. Start with a daily walk to get you going on an activity program. A mile will do for starters. Do something fun too. Evaluate yourself one day at a time to monitor your progress. Improvements sometimes come slowly, but they do come. Good Luck and God Bless!
poster:DanielJ
thread:364276
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040704/msgs/364338.html