Our first REAL step forward

My son and I had been trying to deal with this situation for five years at this stage. Finally someone was taking our position seriously. There was definitely a sense of relief. However, now that the ball was rolling in forward motion, I was apprehensive.

In complete honesty, having this meeting was great, but I felt that nothing would be done again. I had been where people had said they could help us, many times prior, and to date nothing had come to pass. But I had hope again. I am glad my scepticism was proved to be wrongly placed.

Within a month of the meeting we had an appointment with a child psychiatrist. She spent almost two hours with us, assessing my son, and how well my partner and I catered to his needs. At the end of the session we had a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

It may sound stupid, but finally getting a diagnosis was both a huge relief, and also an added weight upon our shoulders to deal with. (I say ‘our’ because my partner had completely come to terms with having children in his life, and was totally devoted to sharing the burden of caring for them.)

The psychiatrist told us of a medication that would help my son’s anxiety. She was prescribing him amytrip (an antidepressant) to help mellow him and keep him settled. Initially I was opposed to this, but was reassured that if this did not work then we could look at other possible medications to help him.

Before I continue, I have a drug problem. After being involved in a car accident in my teens I became addicted to pain killers and introvenous drugs. It took many years of failed attempts to get clean from the drugs, but so far I have managed to kick them for over five years now.

Amytrip are a highly addictive drug. They have all sorts of side effects. Being used upon a child of ten made me fear that he may start to head down the road I did, so I voiced my objections to the doctor. She reassured me that, because I had been there, it would be more security to make sure that my son would not head down this same path and we would administer the drugs responsibly as prescribed.

While we were there she also advised us that she wanted my son to start taking Melatonin pills to help him with his anxiety at night. Melatonin is a chemical which is produced by the brain, naturally, to help tell us when we are tired. It tells us that it is getting dark outside, and that is time to get the body to rest. At this time Melatonin was still experimentally being used as a substitute to sleeping pills.

We went and got the prescriptions filled straight away and started him on them.

After a month of using the Amytrip my son said he was feeling dizzy and not liking the effects it was having on him. He also said the Melatonin was helping him lots. Because we were not sure which drug was effectively doing what to him, my partner and I took him back to the psychiatrist. She had left the practise but the person replacing her was just as brilliant.

My son’s med’s were reviewed, and it was decided that he would not use the anti depressants any longer, but would continue on the Melatonin. At this point my son was also referred to a pediatrician, just to make sure that there was not something physiological going on with him as well as the behaviour issues. And also, we could get prescriptions from him at the same time as our visits.

In our experience, the Melatonin did help a little to alleviate my son’s anxiety at night. Although, in saying this, it has been eight years so far, and we still have to have all the lights on in the house for him at night, and make sure that the whole house is kept warm for him so that he feels safe and secure.

This was the first major step forward for us. It would be one of many.