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[quote=Anonymous]My son has severe generalized anxiety and severe adhd. We started treating the anxiety at age 4 with weekly therapy (as well as diet, exercise, OT, meditation, etc.). We tried it all. The anxiety got much better for a couple of years, then worse than ever--he became unable to separate from me and would have panic attacks about leaving the house, going to school, a playdate, anything--at which point he started to take a low dose of Prozac (he was 6). The Prozac was life changing. He still continued to exhibit anxiety but no longer in a paralyzing way.

When he was about 7, on the advice of several professionals, we decided to try a stimulant to treat the ADHD. We had hoped that lowering our son's anxiety would help with the attention issues, but it didn't work out that way at all for us. As he gets older, and life gets more complicated and taxing, the attention challenges are more and more obvious. So he was put on an extremely low dose of ritalin, much less than a therapeutic level, with the goal of working our way up to the lowest therapeutic dose. When we reached about half of that lowest dose, he had the worst panic attack of his life--something we hadn't seen since before the anxiety meds. I stopped the stimulant immediately and decided it just isn't in the cards for him--at least not at this point. It is really tough. He is so incredibly bright, tests gifted, and yet struggles so much to regulate his attention.

This is a tough profile, but you really don't know how it will work out until you give it a try. I don't regret any of the decisions we made--they were all researched and considered for a long time. I know some people have great success using a combination of meds, but it is complicated and a difficult process. [/quote]

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