Advice on Anti-Depressants for Teens

[noscat]

Not sure whether to post here or in the children's health section, but my dd (17.6) has been put on 20mg of fluoxetine to help with her anxiety and depression. It's been a long journey to get to this point and over the last five years she has seen counsellors, educational psychiatrists, CAMHS, social services, drugs counsellors etc etc - unfortunately nothing has really helped her move forward with her life and she feels stuck. Taking medication is something that she wants to try but I'm worried that she's pinning so much on this that she is ultimately going to be disppointed if it doesn't help. We've been told that it can take up to 3 months to become really effective - does anyone else out there have any experience of this? She is also still seeing someone once a week for a CBT session but recently that has been up and down depending on her mood swings & anxiety levels (she won't leave the house or her bed when she's really low).

yes, she's already gone down the path of self medicating with alcohol & other drugs - not cannabis, probably because she doesn't smoke. It is tough - so difficult to know what to do to help, and the usual boundaries aren't always appropriate. At present she's just feeling sick, dizzy and completely zonked out, but she only started them yesterday

Poor girl, noscat, and poor you.

I've only got second-hand experience, but I'll share it with you for what it's worth.

My friend's daughter became sad, withdrawn, angry, unsociable, under-confident when she was fifteen. She was prescribed anti-depressants and saw a therapist once a week. This approach worked wonders for her and over a period of two or three months she recovered and regained her normal happy, confident,out-going, light-hearted self.

Six months or more down the line, the psychiatrist that she is under was happy to take her off the ADs (in January).

I have had my fingers crossed that the daughter stays well but my friend said to me just last night that she thinks that her daughter might be slipping back.

Maybe she needs to be on them for longer - my friend has long-term issues with depression and is on ADs and happy to stay on them for the foreseeable future. It may be that some people need to be on them long-term?

Not much help probably, but I thought I'd share my limited experience with you.

Good luck to you and your daughter.

thank you both so much for your replies, it helps to know there is someone out there! We've just had a session with her therapist who is very supportive. She's struggling now to cope with the thought of socialising without her usual props of alcohol or drugs, but she's been completely "clean" for a month now so I'm enormously proud of her. But it's difficult - everything feels like it is on hold, but it's been like that for years :(

She's doing brilliantly to be clean for a month - she must want to get better very much, which is great.

I'm pleased that she's got the support of her therapist and her Mum, but what about you? Have you considered asking for some counselling/ support too? I think you deserve to have someone holding your hand through all of this - it must be really hard.

oh Maryz I feel for you - I know she will probably slip up now and again, she's got loads of birthday parties to go to as all her friends turn 18 over the next few months, and the thought of remaining teetotal just about kills her off. And she's not got one friend who doesn't drink or take drugs of some sort, shocking but there you go. On the other hand all of the others seem to have been able to manage to continue with their lives, eg study, prepare for uni etc, which has not been the case for my dd. How old is your son? Is he under 18? I do think that mental health provision for adolescents is woefully inadequate in most areas.

cyrilsneer, I did a course of CBT myself about 18 months year ago, as I was getting anxious about her!

Noscat, do you mind me asking how you got to the meds stage?
My DD2 has battled depression+ eating disorder+ self harm since she was 14..she's about to turn 17 and I feel like we are banging our heads against a wall trying to get help. We saw CAHMS last year and they made her worse..too much focus on her eating (which was improving well) and not enough on her depression.. and it made her worse.
We are about to go back to docs next week and beg for referral to adult services and I strongly feel we need to try meds alongside therapy, but they seem so reluctant to take her seriously when she's just a teenager:(

It hurts so much to not be able to help her..

My ds's best friend showed signs of depression from last spring. He went on ADs in August of last year and is still on them, Ithink they'll be reviewed this August.

I know his mum quite well, and she was desperately worried about him but he seems much better now. He's close to my ds and my ds also says he seems a lot happier. It took about 3 weeks to see an improvement from starting on the ADs. He sees a counsellor privately every week, not sure whether that's helping.

My son (now 19) has been on ADs since last March. The January before he was diagnosed with OCD/anxiety/depression. He saw a psychologist weekly for CBT and after 2 months they decided ADs would help. What we didn't realise was that for the previous year before diagnosis he had been 'self-medicating', using a legal high sold on the net.

Move on a year. The OCD is virtually under control and he does not need any more CBT. The definition of this is that it is no longer incapacitating and he does manage to lead a pretty normal life. He is still on ADs as although probably not suffering from depression they do help with anxiety. I and him are quite happy for this to continue. However, the drug use has become more entenched and once he has finished his exams in June he will go into rehab as the therapist and psychaitrist say that without total abstinance it won't work.

The ADs helped him confront the anxiety/ocd and carry out the CBT. But like your DD he has a large group of friends and their socialising seems to revolve around clubs, drink and drugs! I worry about what will happen after rehab when he goes back to 'real' life and most probably university.

Just to give you a boost 'we' did go through the very low times where he wouldn't get out of bed and he missed about half of his final school year and some of his CBT appointments happened on the phone.

Also all his treatment has been done privately with medical insurance. I cannot begin to think the situation we might have been in without this.

Sorry about the length of the posting but once I started I couldn't stop. And I don't know if I've been of any help except to say been there, done that and 'we' are beginning to see a future.

It's interesting that the OP and lazymum's children both have active social lives. Ds's friend became very withdrawn and only really socialised with DS and one other person. He never picked up the phone to organise anything (mind you, my DS is just as bad about that).

northangerabbey - I prbably did not make it very clear. The first signs to us that something was wrong was that he stopped socialising. It has only been since about last october that he started going out with friends again. He has to make a huge effort to do this and it was a real sign of him getting better when he told us the next day that he hadn't enjoyed himself so much since he was about 14. He now knows that when he goes out he can have fun but he still suffers before hand with these issues. So you are correct in saying becaoming withdrawn is ver common. I also tried to involve him in things we did and force him to come to cinema with us etc.

Thank you for all your replies, I haven't been able to get onto the computer before now. In answer to
Medusa it's taken years to get to this stage and the anti-d's have been prescribed by my gp rather than through CAMHS. I'm afraid our experiences with them have not been altogether positive - she saw them at 14 (they said she was just rebellious) and again just over a month ago when she was referred to them by her educational psychologist who thought medication might be the way forward. CAMHS disagreed and were quite dismissive of her feelings and fears. She's well aware that there are other children who suffer much more than she does, but it did come across that they were belittling her problems. After the meeting my dd was so distressed and angry she went straight out, had a drink and on her return in the early hours she "flipped" and self-harmed which she hasn't done for years. We went to the GP and after consulting with her psychologist (who does the CBT with her) he agreed to prescribe anti-ds but we're now in the awkward position of being between the two services -I'm waiting for CAMHS to say whether they will continue with her care or sign her over to the Adult section.

Lazymum & Northanger - my dd's socialising is very narrow - she will only go out with a select group of friends who she feels will not "judge" her - and they are a wild bunch! It's just too uncomfortable for her to meet up with old school friends as she constantly berates herself for dropping out - she puts pressure on herself about this - although I was very upset about the whole school thing at the time I now think there are bigger things at stake here, and her education can always be started up at a later date. Yes it will be hard but it's not as important as her health and wellbeing. Family gatherings are a nightmare - it's virtually impossible to get her to attend.

I'm going to try giving her the medication in the morning rather than the evening as her sleep patterns are now even more messed up and she can't sleep at all (as opposed to sleeping for up to 12 hours at a time).

I will keep you informed of how we get on and thank you all for replying.

Maryz I've read some of your other posts - you poor thing, you've really been through it all! Good for you for sticking by him, that's the best support he can have.

Lazymumofteenagesons - I'm so pleased that the Anti-ds worked re your son's anxiety and OCD, and it's reassuring to know that there can be a future out there. So far no horror stories re. anti-depressants which is reassuring

I think it's certainly worth trying - if your daughter had a physical problem, and a doctor said 'there's these tablets - it'll take three months to see if they work, and we may have to change the dose or try a different kind, but it may well help' you'd not say no, so why should it be different for a mental health problem?

I've been where your daughter is, and frankly I wish my GP had prescribed AD's rather than fob me off. I got better without, eventually, but it took years and it was awful. You sound like you're really great and supportive - it was my parents that got me through it and I'm sure your support means a great deal to your daughter too.

Hi Just thought id add my 2 cents. Ive been on prozac (fluoxetine) on and off since i was 12. I have no experience of CAMHS as there wasnt anything like that for me.
I did find it to be helpful but in my case i was forced to take it rather than wanted to. Ive recently begun taking it again after stopping for several years and now its my choice i feel much better about taking it which i think can be half the battle.
It can be very very effective and usually you notice a difference quickly , i do after less than 2 weeks although full effectiveless can take longer.
Hope some of this is helpful.
Side effects can be unpleasent , ive not had many. However i do want to mention (not sure if you will want to bring this up with her or even if its relevent to your DD her only being 17) but im taking it now (in my 20s) i did notice a lack of interest in erm the opposite sex and didnt enjoy it as much with my partner. Its a bit but i had no idea this would happen as id taken it before and been alright. However it probably it wasnt an issue when i was 12 ! Anyway after a couple of months this did fade away too. Which is nice now i feel a lot more back to normal.

This is really helpful. My dd has just been diagnosed and GP is not keen to prescribe AD's, but sounds like they might be helpful or at least worth a try.

egarding side effects - DS1 did feel more anxious when he started and slightly 'twitchy'. He kept swallowing alot. This went away within a week. But every time his dose was increased this occurred. The dr. usually starts off on a lower dose and gradually increases it. The first dose won't have any real effect at all on her depression. Thats proabably why they need you to keep going for a while before it works.

Thanks lazymum, very interesting re the side effects - she's spoken about having a horrible taste in her mouth, and at certain times of the day she feels very twitchy & anxious. She was sleeping a lot less too but since we've changed the time she takes the tablets from evening to morning that has improved. Pixielovescake, yes I did read on the leaflet re. the effect on libido but I'm afraid I took the coward's way out and decided not to discuss that with her - just handed her all the information so she could read it herself! It's been her decision to go on antidepressants, she's been keen to at least try them. I so hope they work or we are back at square one.

dear noscat i know this is a old thread but i wanted u to know i have exactly the same problems with my 15 yr old daughter she has been depressed last 2 yrs been put on the same antidepressents as yrs. she also cant sleep and dosent go out no interest in school or future despite exams, she has only been on them a wk so early days, but was on another type for 3 months which didnt help so we are teying this one, its hard for me too i just want her to be happy she has no confidence either even though shes lovely, she dosent think so. by way my son has bipolar and isnt alowed ad as they effect his other meds. hope this helps. please can u re list how you are doing.