To not give my teen DD medication

[Foxjonessssss]

My 15 yr old DD has ASD and OCD, both diagnosed by CAMHS who she is under. She is brilliant in every way and manages so well. She is in grammar school doing really well academically but struggles in other ways. The school are great and really help her.

She has had therapy via CAMHS and through school but still struggles with intrusive thoughts.

CAMHS consultant has said it’s now time to start medication. I have really wanted to avoid this for her. I don’t want her on medication that has side effects and she may be reliant on. DD doesn’t mind either way.

I just think she has done so well with everything without medication I wish she didn’t need it ☹️

AIBU if I don’t accept the medication for her?

Mediation can help and there is no shame. Would you feel this way if the medication was an inhaler for asthma? Why is that more acceptable to you?

Sertraline if it works can be lifechanging. A close family member was attaining well but really struggling. It massively helped with the OCD that had been consuming virtually all her waking thoughts. It made her less nervous around people. She went from being overwhelmed and exhausted at school to thriving. So much less time and mental capacity was taken up by the OCD and sensory seeking behaviours. Girls in particular can mask how hard a time they're having. You don't realise how much until you see them when they don't have to mask.

I imagine this is tied up in a lot of weird feelings about it being mental health related.
If it was medication for asthma, diabetes, or in fact any other sort of health problem, I doubt you'd have batted an eyelid.

The fact that she currently seems to be coping quite well in the structured and well-controlled environment of school and home is just luck. Perhaps she and her team are "rightly" thinking that getting on some medication now will set her up better for when she enters the much less predictable world of "out of school" and young adulthood.

I think she deserves the chance to at least try the medication. If it doesn't work for her, she can stop. She's not condemned to be on it for life.

i had intrusive thoughts all through my twenties .. I did yoga and Excercise and coped but nothing silenced the negativity in my head like lexapro or my antidepressant medication that I finally got in my forties. Don’t leave your daughter suffer unnecessarily.

I bought several different strength THC gummies from the USA to experiment with and cut each of them into eight initially. When she felt overwhelmed and unable to function and the techniques that her therapist had taught her were not working, she took an eighth of a gummy. We allowed it time to work and monitored the effect. Over a period of months we were able to ascertain the correct dosage to address the debilitating anxiety, stress and panic attacks without it causing her to feel high. Thankfully she no longer needs it. The ongoing therapy and learned coping mechanisms are working well … but it was an amazing short term support.

@SpiritOfEcstasy
Thankyou. That's so interesting

@SpiritOfEcstasy
Where they ordered online? What about customs?

Recent research just come out that antidepressants increase suicide…

www.madinamerica.com/2025/02/observational-studies-confirm-trial-results-that-antidepressants-double-suicides/

wow reading this it seems like a lot of minors are on medication that alters their brain chemistry. I would be incredibly wary, ever since I watched Louis Theroux’ medicated kids documentary I developed an aversion to the idea of giving minors drugs to alter their brain. I’d be asking a lot, a lot of questions — lots of doctors are not great, and lots of pharmaceutical companies benefit from their drugs being used.

An adult, yes, but someone whose brain hasn’t even finished developing? Really uncomfortable with that idea

No. I bought them in New York. I asked at the dispensary about the legality of bringing them home (it was a spontaneous idea) - I live in Ireland - and they said there would be no issue as they were bought legally … 😗 I hadn’t done any research on that side of things… nor did I believe them 😂 but I decided to chance it anyway. Luck would have it, we were greeted by a sniffer dog on our arrival back into Ireland and we were asked to line up with our bags in front of us while the little spaniel walked about having a sniff…we weren’t chosen for a search. They are sold in really heavy weight double sealed packs that are incredibly difficult to open which may explain it …
If we were in the UK I think I would consider applying for a CanCard https://cancard.co.uk/about
I’m not opposed to my DD taking medication for her condition but at her age l, I felt I wanted to try something short term and as and when it was needed.

Many ADs have suicidal thoughts as side effect.

I don’t think you read the article.

I was pretty uncomfortable when my daughter tried to hang herself, tbh, and when she didn't leave her room for days on end, and when she battered her head full force against the wall, and when she didn't manage to go to school for over a year, and when her bathroom full was covered in her blood.

Her brain chemistry needed to be altered, or she'd be dead.

I just read the article and the "about us" section on the publication: "Mad in America’s mission is to serve as a catalyst for rethinking psychiatric care in the United States (and abroad). We believe that the current drug-based paradigm of care has failed our society, and that scientific research, as well as the lived experience of those who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, calls for profound change." Fair enough if you agree with what it says, but it is clearly coming from a particular angle.