Mum,
I think I responded like you when my son was first diagnosed with asthma. I remember that morning well, it was all foggy and he woke us up on Easter morning telling us he saw the Easter bunny (he was 4), it was only 4am. lol Well that night he had a stuffy nose, so I have him some meds to help him breath and sleep. Well when he woke us up, he was so excited and was breathing so hard. I told him to go back to bed and not wake us up till there was at least daylight. But then I got to thinking, and felt something was not right. (that gut instinct), well I counted how fast he was breathing and it was like almost 200 per minute. I called his ped. and when I told her that, she told me to take him to the emergency room. They were backed up and they had a nurse going around kinda assessing who needed help first, he took one look at my son and he got in right away, I guess his rib cage was heaving too high. Then came all the allbuteral stuff and steroids stuff I am sure you are familiar with. He was in the hospital for 2 nights and during that time I educated myself on it, and realized I had some of the same signs! But I remember when my son was in the hosptial, I think it is normal to go into almost a survivor mode, like you get this sense of energy for your kids. But a week later, I crashed and was depressed that my son had this. My daughter had a heart defect that was diagnosed when she was 7, and the same kind of stuff happened with me. I think when we are feeling danger, whether with us or our kids, we go into this survivor mode of caring for them. But when the danger has passed, our emotions come out then, because at the time of crisis, there are other things that need to come first. I too laugh and joke when I am in the flight or fight, I think it is another way of coping.
For me Strattera has helped my attention span when I am in the fright or flight stage of PTSD. They had brain studies recently done and the brain activitiy of a PTSD person is almost identical to one of ADHD. There is very little on the on the net for the use of Strattera to treat PTSD, I had to actually inform my doctor, he thought it made sense to him how it would help, so he prescribed it. IT has been about a month now and I have been better with my memory stuff when it comes to my classes at school. All year I have been struggling to get C's on my exam and would have to go through unrealistic ways to study and remember stuff on the easiest of classes. I was an A student the year before that. After taking Strattera for almost 2 weeks, I noticed a huge difference in the amount i could remember and got an Bplus on my midterm a few weeks ago. (and this was a very hard class too)
I am glad t have met you on here, it helps to know I am not the only one feeling this way.
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