Anxiety meds for chronic irritability

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My teen took a small amount of an antipsychotic to manage irritability. It worked well for us. He had many fewer outbursts and felt better.

The antipsychotics doses for irritatability are much smaller than for bipolar or schizophrenia. Like 2mg for irritability versus 15mg for the serious mental illnesses. So it might be worth a trial if your kid is having life difficulties and supports the change.

Also kid was already taking an SNRI, so this was a second medication. SNRI helped with depression but there was still irritability. Zoloft and the more anti anxiety meds made him almost hysterical and jumpy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because psych meds like SSRIs and anti-psychotics are very serious medications with a lot of side effects. They shouldn’t be prescribed just because your child is showing behavioral that you think is suboptimal.

Medication shouldn't be taken lightly, of course, but behavior that significantly bothers other people isn't why you medicate. You medicate because of how a person feels. You don't want your child to experience life always feeling terrible, on edge, anxious, angry at the world. Not because the resulting behavior is "suboptimal," but because that's a miserable way to feel.

Well if your child isn’t old enough to decide for themselves about what feels unbearable, all you have to go on is their behavior. Medicating kids just because you subjectively believe they feel terrible isn’t appropriate.

For all parenting decisions, we can only go by what we see. My point is, externalizing behavior isn't the only reason to decide to medicate. Medicating because all signs suggest they feel terrible is appropriate.

And even young kids can communicate that something feels unbearable. Or even super unpleasant.

I think young kids being unable to function on a daily basis makes it quite evident that things are unbearable for them. Parents deciding to medicate young kids aren’t doing it because they refuse to eat their peas at dinner or sometimes get into mischief. They are doing it because their kids have significant integration challenges. We are lucky that medication exists to help these things and that it is becoming less stigmatized to treat neurodevelopmental and mental health challenges.

Well that’s the point - OP hasn’t described a child “unable to function” and apparently the psychiatrist hasn’t seen the need for meds. And of course just because the child has challenges doesn’t mean that medication would work or be worth the side effects

[Anonymous]

Your child being a grouchy tween or teen isn't something you can medicate out of. I would suggest family therapy.

[Anonymous]

Omg who is this troll on here doubling down on being anti med?? And why??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Omg who is this troll on here doubling down on being anti med?? And why??

I mean, the child’s own psychiatrist doesn’t want to prescribe meds here … not sure where you’re getting “anti-med” from that.

[Anonymous]

I’d just make sure your negativity about meds doesn’t influence the child. If your kid complains about side effects that is a problem. But don’t project that it’s too many meds. Each kid is different. Just treat whatever symptoms are bothering your child today.

A portion of these ADHD/anxious/autism whatever kids will go on to develop a serious mental illness like bipolar or schizophrenia as an adult. Your kid’s chances are higher than for a person without any psychiatric disorders.

https://chadd.org/for-parents/pediatric-bipolar-disorder/

[Anonymous]

Drugging kids