The Decision to Medicate

As a parent, there are so many tough decisions to make.  So many ways you can possibly screw up your kid(s).  There's a lot of backlash against the medical community, the pharmaceutical industry, and parents of difficult children.  And like most parents, until we were parents ourselves, Hubby and I were Judgy McJudgersons when it came to children being given drugs to alter their behavior.  I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.  Maybe you've even had the thoughts a time or two yourself.

How can those parents live with themselves knowing they're putting toxic substances in their kid's bodies?  Their kid wouldn't need the drugs if the parents would just parent.  Kids just need to run and play and work off all that excess energy.  I don't see a real problem there.  The kid is just a brat who needs discipline (or a good spanking)!

And to all the people (parents AND children) I've judged, I'm so SO sorry.  Just know that Karma - bitch that she is - has bitten us in the ass and taught us a valuable lesson.  Unless you're living it, don't be so damned quick to judge or even have the arrogance to assume you could do better.  Maybe you could, but most likely not and it doesn't matter anyway.  That person you're so busy sizing up is doing the best he or she can.

It's with great humility and even greater thought and deliberation that Hubs and I made the decision to ask Sunshine's neurodevelopmental pediatrician for medication to help him sleep and to help with his anxiety.  For all of the progress he's made (and we're talking HUGE strides here), we've watched his overall level of anxiety ratchet up to the point that multiple daily meltdowns often resulting in him physically hurting himself and others were becoming the norm.  When he gets to that point, there is no reasoning with him and often trying to head off the meltdowns results in a 50/50 chance that it will just bring it on faster and make it last longer.

One of the factors that we took into consideration when deciding to go the medication route was knowing that sustained high levels of cortisol - the fight or flight hormone created when a person is in a state of anxiety - can cause major health problems.  This is a physiological problem and not one that can be solved by ABA or CBT.

If you're the parent of a special-needs kid and you're on the fence about trying medication, just know that you're not alone.  There are plenty of us out there who understand and those who don't aren't worth your time.