[tooner]

Hello,

My brother is 15 and started having anxiety problems and withdrawing heavily from family and his daily life a few years ago. The situation overwhelmed my parents who eventually took him to a psychiatrist who has prescribed medication. No research has been done about medication, my brother just takes what is prescribed.

My parents, in their well-intentioned ignorance, think my brother is "not all there". My brother is consequently under the belief that his situation is not beatable. instead, he thinks that he's going to find a magic pill that will cure him of his disease.

I am looking for people's experiences with psychiatric medication in general and specifically with cymbalta, bupropion, and adderal XR. I'm not looking for technical details or descriptions of side affects, I want "real" information. For example, how quickly did you up the dosage? If you lowered your dosage, was it difficult? What is it like like getting off of psychiatric medications? Have you struggled with addiction to medication? Have you found the medication has altered your cognitive abilities or your personality?

My goal is to find information that will help me get my parents to realize how serious it is to put their child on medication and to motivate them to take an active role in helping him. Most importantly, I want my brother to have confidence that he can overcome this situation and live happily, even without pills. If anyone has suggestions or resources that can help me have these conversations, I would appreciate it.

[Travelinglady]

Hey, tooner! I am glad to hear you are very concerned about your brother. If he just has "anxiety," then that's something that might be treatable without meds.

I have taken many meds over the years, and now take Wellbutrin, Tegretol, and Klonopin. My recommendation is to take as few as possible. I was overmedicated by one doctor and I do believe the strong meds I was given, such as anti-psychotic drugs, have slowed my brain some. (I have Bipolar II disorder.)

I'm not sure your brother should just come off these meds, though. Meds are needed sometimes. Maybe he can at some point, though. I recommend that right now he also go into therapy, ideally with someone who can treat him without drugs. Then over time maybe he can get off of them. That's my take, anyway.

[onionknight]

Hey! It is really nice to see that you're taking such concern for your brother. He has you to help him; that's a plus.

Most of all your brother needs to believe that he does have hope. Feeling defeated or at the whim of his anxiety is a bad belief, especially for a young person. He can improve his lot if he works at it.

Suggest to your parents that your brother see a therapist. A therapist can teach him ways to change his thought patterns, reactions, cope with anxiety, etc. This are important lessons for any teen. It can take time to reduce anxiety. There's no magic bullet, not meds or a quick change in attitude. It takes work and patiance.

[Odee]

I extremely appreciate the apprehension towards giving teens medication. I am beyond horrified how we medicate children with incredibly developing brains and medicate teens without understanding what they are experiencing. Of course, I had experience with a med when I was 14 and then started again when I was 19. I struggled in the mean time (but not as much as now) and its a shame that my parents and doctor never striven to truly understand me. This could have saved a lot of grief.

At the same time I want to stress that you need to talk about this with your brother and remain open to a medicated future. Keep him grounded and give him the realistic expectations that meds aren't' magic and are their own struggle. But at the same time understand that you aren't feeling what he is feeling and mental illness is not easy to crawl out of. So please, don't shy him away from meds completely, you could be causing harm that you are not aware of. Remained informed about them and make sure that he has a psychiatrist that is greatly involved in his recovery.

Tell him everyday that he will get better. That encouragement has always meant so much to me on the rare occasion that someone would tell me this. Keep him motivated, you are a great sibling.

As for the medication listed: I have only had experience with two of those, one long term, and the last I refuse to take. I am extremely concerned that all of these meds are extremely stimulating and are often not the answer for anxiety. They can also severely interrupt sleep and that is not good for anybody! Furthermore, buproprion and adderal are common drugs for ADHD -- does his doctor think he has these symptoms? As for myself, even though I commonly feel ADHD, I also feel that this ties into anxiety and thus I do not want a stimulant.

My experience on cymbalta lasted a week on the starting dose -- I was having twitches that intensified as the week wore on. I was not going to take it anymore. I was on wellbutrin for over a year, it did help my focus but never solved the depression or anxiety. I started on 150 for three days then moved up to 300. At one point I dipped low into depression again and my Pdoc upped it to 400mg. Still wasn't a fix.

I experience depression and anxiety but I was eventually diagnosed bipolar 2 instead. I have done much better on mood stabilizers and never had success with any antidepressant -- a common feature of bipolar 2. My experiences on the ADs I spoke about that are experiences based on taking drugs not for me, so keep that in mind.

I agree that your brother should see a therapist for sure...a bunch of these meds do have crazy side effects, and he seems awfully young to deal with those.

Cymbalta messed with my short-term memory (I was prescribed it for depression)...other people had to remind me if something happened THAT day or the day before, etc. I will also say that I am in the 1% of the odd side effects group of everything, but since you asked, I thought it was worth mentioning. It totally freaked me out, but I was fine once I got off of it. The side effect showed up after like 3 days of being on a low dose, titrating slowly.

I wish your brother the best and hope he can get help without meds.