Do you have a Teens on Meds for Mental Health?

[TomorrowBeckons]

I have a nearly 14yr old. He suffers from obsessional thinking & intrusive thoughts. Things have got to the point where he doesn't sem to have a moment's rest from these thoughts and cannot concentrate on his school work. We are already under CAMHS, and they have suggested medication. We are scared to go down this route. We've been told before by some friends not to ever use medication as it has terrible side effects.

We are also seeking CBT but thats not going to happen immediately. Does anyone have a child this age who had been on medication for something similar and could you share your experiences?

bump. anyone pls?

Perhaps you should repost in the Child Mental Health area.

Sorry that you and your son are going through this. I don't have personal experience of this but I just wanted to say I think it would be wise to consider using medication if the mental health team think it would help him. They will be very experienced in this and will watch closely for side effects. I totally understand being concerned about side effects, but to avoid medication at all costs could be detrimental to your son's health. Is there a specialist nurse in the CAMHS team that you could chat through your concerns with?

My DS is on meds for adhd. He has also recently become very morose and depressed. Started avoiding going to school. Obsessional thinking. He has recently started taking ssri s. I have been very worried; and researched them thoroughly. So far to be honest they seem to be helping a lot, he is getting back to his old self. It makes me sad he is taking medication at such a young age. However, it does seem to be helping, and I hope it may prevent some of the things that his dad used to do at the same age (drinking, weed, glue!). He did this to self medicate- presumably he too suffered the same kind of symptoms . My DS is 14 too.

thanks all for your comments. We have an appt .coming up so we'll discuss meds in more details. Sqeegle DS is also on med. for adhd.
What is SSRI S? its really sad they need medication at this age isn't it? although i'd rather have a dc on meds and well than a very ill child not on meds.

He is on escitalopram- it is an SSRI anti depressant that is somewhat related to Prozac and similar. He felt quite sick over the first two weeks, but is gradually improving. It takes a while to work I understand. I am absolutely with you about feeling sad- but am hoping that in recognising some of these issues early that my DS will be more self aware, learn how to improve his own moods where he can, and not fall into the alcohol trap as soon as he can. His dad drank a lot from an early age as I say. Apparently ADHD co exists with depression/ anxiety quite often, and puberty can be when it first hits. But like you say, definitely better to deal with it if possible.

I'm scared of any medication that makes you feel sick because DS trialled a medication 2 yrs ago that gave him nausea for 2 weeks and he developed/triggered emetophobia in him.

I read on on here about something a herbal remedy called Inosital. Lots of posters came on to say how it had helped but no one mentioned wether under 16s could use it. Its such a minefield.

DD is on fluoxetine, (Prozac). She had slight headaches for the first couple of weeks but nothing else. We were warned that there can be serious side effects such as an increase in suicidial thoughts but she has not been affected in that way thankfully.
We are hoping that at some point she will want to start talking therapy but she isn't there yet and the medication definitely helps her to function. My experience of CAMHS is that they are reluctant to medicate so if they are suggesting it I would seriously consider it, even if your DS agrees to engage in CBT the wait lists are months long generally.

I've asked for MNHQ to help move this to CMH.

Yes. DD developed anxiety and depression and started self harming. She had counselling and propranolol to help. Then was diagnosed fluoxetine which helped greatly. After about 6/7 months she was diagnosed with ADHD and started ritalin. This was remarkable for her.

CAMHS were beyind hopeless, closed her case twice having offered diddly squat and wiuld never have got close to disgnosing the underlying as a neuro developmental disability. DD is well and has fulfilled her pitential because we had her referred privately to a psychiatrist who privided sound advice, diagnosis and regular monitoring. To get well she needed diagnosis and medication.

Yes, CAMHS are so overstretched. CBT is like gold dust to many suffering from MH. We're not even on the waiting list yet, it could be next yr before DS gets anything unless we go private.

We'll be moving this thread to the Childs Mental Health topic soon.

My ds has just been referred as urgent to our youth mental health team... is this something we can expect soon or is this a wait also?