[8yrolddad]

Hi everyone
My 8 year old has ocd/anxiety issues. It started when she was 6 and she thought she was going to choke and having panic attacks about her throat closing, stopping breathing, heart not pumping. She did not eat anything solid for 6 weeks. When it first started, getting her to drink was a challenge, but she started drinking pedisure's to keep her as health as possible. She was put on Prozac which completed turned her around, and made her lose her fear anxiety for choking, throat closing, heart stop pumping. However she lost a lot of her empathy and was very mean to her siblings.
She had another incident 8 months later that caused her anxiety for choking, throat closing and all those fun things to come up again. The Prozac limited the issue and we were back to normal again within 2 weeks with no real downfall in weight or nutrition.
After that our psychiatrist put her in a program and she was diagnosed with OCD. When she gets worried it manifests into these fears of choking, throat closing, stopping breathing and because of the OCD she cant let go of the thoughts or overcome them. He decided to put her on Luvox because he thought it would work better.
At the end of February there was a lock down drill at her school and she got stuck hiding in the bathroom. Needles to say, a child with her conditions could not handle it. All the anxiety from that incident manifested it into the usual suspects. Only this time the Luvox did not regulate it and it has been a nose dive since. We are at the point now where she will not even swallow her saliva sometime.
Her psychiatrist gave her risperdone which caused things to go even farther down the drain. We spent 14hrs at the children's hospital with the emergency psychiatrist yesterday.
They increased the Luvox from 50mg a day to 75mg and gave us Clonazepen .125mg twice a day and Lorazepam .25mg up 4 times a day as needed.
The Clonazepen and Lorazepam seem to snap her out of the panic attacks short term but do not help with the fear of choking. For the most part she is now swallowing saliva and drinking a little bit.
We have an appointment with her psychiatrist in 2 days and they asked us to look into Remeron and to be prepared to discuss is.
Does any one have any medication advice? We are looking for short term health just to get her healthy and then get back with the CBT again.
Does anyone know any other good websites for questions or other info?
To say we are emotionally spent is an understatement. Any help is welcome.

[kaliope]

hi 8yearolddad
i am sorry that your daughter and family is having to experience this. i dont know of any sites that will be helpful. webmd is usually the one that pops up with medical information. you may want to check out nami.org and see if there is an affiliate in your area where you can gain education and support. they have classes where you can learn about coping tools to deal with a loved one with mental health issues. anyway, i noticed this was your first post and wanted to be able to welcome you. welcome to psych central. you will find we have several forums where you can post about your concerns and receive feedback from other members. you will get a lot of support here. again, welcome

you could take her for therapy? talking therapies can be more helpful than meds. also make sure she is busy seeing friends and doing lots of activities. as she gets happier, the anxiety will decrease. make sure you are there for her and don't dismiss any of her worries or anxieties; talk about them seriously.

[CANDC]

Welcome to Psych Central (PC) 8yrolddad. Sorry to hear you are suffering as you try to help your daughter cope. There are many people at PC who experience that also in their own lives. I think you will find compassion and understanding for what you are going through here on PC.

None of us are trained in meds so we can't give personal medical advice. There are articles on PC that might be of interest to you.
Psych Central - Search results for Medicine to treat fear of choking

Some people at PC will find a therapist will help them sort out the roots of their life while they try to be a caregiver. Some people use the forums and chat as a way to express their inner turmoil and find people of like mind.

There are articles that go into more detail about coping
Psych Central - Trusted mental health, depression, bipolar, ADHD & psychology information.

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Please feel free to private message any of the Community Liaisons by left clicking on the name in blue to the left of their post) for questions or just to share.

[BeaFlower]

Welcome to PC. I don't have advices about meds, but I wanted to say that it's beautiful that you want to get information and help your daughter. I have OCD and I know that it's hard; try to support her and to appreciate all her efforts and little steps.
You could also post in the forum here about Psychiatric medication.
Wish you all the best.