Posted by Solstice on March 1, 2012, at 21:17:43
In reply to Re: Moon sent home from school today - sigh.., posted by papillon2 on March 1, 2012, at 20:36:39
Thanks Papi.. you had so many good things to say.. very helpful>
> The difficulty with taking her out of school, is the need to balance the stress of going to school and not coping/learning well, with the stress about not going to school and falling even further behind. This is significant because your daughter places a premium on her education and academic abilities, so either way her self esteem and confidence is likely to take a battering.I know.. it is such a dilemma. I'm just so worried that keeping her in that pressure cooker right now is going to threaten her ability to recover.. and could cause her mental health to get worse.. impacting her future.
>
> I speak from personal experience, having only done half of my final year at school, with the other half spent in hospital. Thankfully I had completed enough of the school year for my teachers to alter the weightings of assessments, so a test counting for say 25% of my total marks was changed to 40%. Perhaps this would be an option for Moon if her previous marks have been good enough?Her difficulties have been going on pretty much since the beginning of the year. But.. this is an interesting approach! She has no trouble with AP English.. it's like breathing for her. As I think back about it, she was doing real well with Advanced Algebra and AP Chemistry too. Her counselor did say that one option would be to let her take her classes through the online thing they have that some kids will use to take classes during the summer - accelerate graduation - etc. I'm somewhat worried about that because her social life is central to her functioning well. Being isolated from her friends would be a problem, I think. Of course, maybe she could be at school for electives, and take the other courses online, which would allow accommodation for times when she is not functioning.. but I don't know what the rules are (whether she could do both). And of course, another option is for her to just delay graduation. But that, of course, creates other issues.
>
> Another idea is homeschooling. Moon could get her work from her current school, do it in her own time rather than having to stick with the school timetable, and send it back for marking. Perhaps she could get a tutor to help where needed.Taking classes online would be similar to homeschooling.. but again, being isolated from her classmates would be pretty detrimental.
>
> To me, the cognitive slowing smacks of depression and/or a response to medication. But you're right, anxiety can also cause one to shut down. So what do I know about anxiety? Well, when you first posted about Moon's outbursts and irrational arguments, the first thing I thought about was that she might be incredibly anxious. Anxiety is at the root of a lot of anger even for people without a mental illness.
>
> I personally become angry when my level of anxiety is ridiculously high and something happens that pushes me over the edge. I know others who do the same. Sometimes I will insist upon a particular thing being correct or incorrect, when I know it really isn't. I'll continue with my argument because the truth is too scary for me to openly acknowledge. I'm not saying this is necessarily the case for Moon, but it's a possibility.
>
> Then there is displaced anger: Moon may be angry/anxious at one thing, but show anger towards another. And she has a lot about which to be rightfully angry in my opinion, her illness and its treatment for starters. But anyway, I have gone completely off topic...Papi - thank you SO much for your amazing descriptions of this. This is incredibly helpful.
>
> I wish you all the best with tomorrow's appointment. If the removal of Lithium was partly to blame, Moon might be able to tolerate Lithium at a lower dose without any adverse effects. Side effects with Lithium are largely dose dependent. It would have to be combined with other medication, however.Yeah.. I don't know how the lithium factors in right now. It's probably not completely out of her system yet, so if it's playing a role, it's hard to know whether it's because it's not out of her system, or because she needs a little more than what's left. I'm going to talk to her psychiatrist about whether we should try 300mg, but Moon hated the lithium the entire time. I think she had hand tremors even on 300mg, and she did not feel the lithium made any difference.. but she may have been so irritated with the side effects that she was unwilling to give it a chance.
Anyway, thank you so much for all your great input.
Solstice
poster:Solstice
thread:1012142
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120221/msgs/1012164.html