Well, I’m not sure we are starting the year out on the right foot here but whatever. The anxiety monster completely over took Rye yesterday in anticipation of school starting again and the whole event completely wore me out. Lord have mercy, the kid was all over the place all day. Up, down, perky, grumpy, angry, frustrated, silly, belligerent. Really, it was all a but much.
Luckily he had a friend with him most of the day which helped distract him and ground him some. And I have to say, God love his friends. They really accept him as he is and often put up with a lot from him. I can’t imagine where he’d be without them. I mean he has a million positive attributes and is a very fun, loyal, compassionate good friend over all so I guess they find it’s worth it to them.
Anyway, as the day drew to a close and I needed to wrap things up I looked at my options. They were A) club him over the head and call it a day, B) throw him back on medication that I said I’d try to do without for a while, or C) look to my new “natural” way of working with this situation.
I opted for C, for now. First, I gave him 2 tablespoons of children’s benadryl (the liquid one). Ok, I am cheating with this one. I know, it’s not natural. But it’s not a heavy hitter either and it does wonders for helping Rye relax and mellow his mood. We call it our poor man’s mood stabilizer. And honestly, I’m pretty sure Rye has a histamine imbalance so I think this helps in some way. I have noticed in my reading that many antipsychotics work on histamine receptors as well as dopamine receptors etc. so there must be something to this. In fact, in review of this post I just found this:
http://www.counseling.txstate.edu/resources/shoverview/bro/psychmed.html
Well, what do you know? Benadryl is considered an anti-anxiety med. I had no idea.
Second, I remembered that Epsom Salts are supposed to be good for relaxing and we had them in the house so what the heck, let’s use them. I looked up Epsom Salts and anxiety and found these sites that convinced me all the more. Apparently they are quite popular with parents of autistic children to calm their mood swings. The magnesium works to relax the system and the sulfur helps to bind with toxins to eliminate them from the body. Also, the one site states that in as much as like 90% of children with hyperactivity they are found to have a magnesium deficiency. Well, this would have been nice to know a hundred years ago when he was first diagnosed with ADHD.
http://www.naturalnews.com/026782_magnesium_food_adhd.html
http://www.thepeacefamily.force9.co.uk/epsom.html
So, we gave him the benadryl and the bath and between the combination of the the two the anxiety monster settled in for a few minutes of TV after his bath and then was dead asleep by 9:30pm. It worked. He slept peacefully through the night and woke up in a good mood.
Whew.
8 Comments
I like Chlor-tab, an over-the-counter allergy medicine, for daytime anxiety. Its effect is not quite as strong at Benadryl and it has a shorter duration. Benadryl is good for sleeping though, it is the active ingredient in a lot of the over-the-counter sleep pills.
At least antihistamines don’t the the addictive/withdrawal problems that benzodiazepines like xanax can have..
I’m glad that the day ended well for both of you
HB
Here’s an interesting article about an infant that was misdiagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, when in fact he had a issue processing protein correctly. After making significant changes to his diet, he is doing very well:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/04/health/AP-US-MED-HealthBeat-Newborn-Screening.html
Thank you HB! We will try the Chlor-tab.
Benedryl is the only PRN allowed to my daughter due to paradoxical reactions to benzos, and has been given (by a hospital one inpatient stay)300mg per day. It can cause psychosis in some people, but for most 25-75mg knocks them out for sleep. Many people have written anecdotal stories that they had the same results for insomnia as Seroquel, because of the histamine connection…of course Seroquel is a long term more dangerous drug, so Benedryl is “better”, more benign.
Try teaching him visualization techniques for anxiety and sleep, it helped my daughter.
I am by no means claiming to be a medical professional, and certainly this would need investigation. That said, it was suggested to me a few months ago(by a medical doctor) that adding Zantac, Tagamet, or any other over the counter medicine for heartburn could be helpful with allergy issues when added to a different antihistamine. Here was his thinking: I was taking Allegra which is a Histamine II blocker. He had read studies which indicated that a Histamine I blocker, such as Zantac and the like, could improve the anti allergy response. Those acid-relieving meds work BECAUSE they are Histamine blockers, indeed, a large dose of Prevacid will produce sleepiness in many people who are sensitive to antihistamines.(Like myself) He made the point that it was harmless to try even if it was not helpful, which I why I make the point.
I am just wondering–if histamine is a complicator in this situation, could it be helpful to give over the counter meds that can block BOTH Histamine receptors?
Just a thought.
Chlor-tab is really Chlorpheniramine and the ‘brand’ name on the bottle has a few variations. It is also the antihistamine in some of the Alka Seltzer cold remedies, although those are usually coupled with a pain reliever and decongestant.
When I was using Chlortab, I would usually take just a half of a pill (2mg) for daytime anxiety, and a whole pill for sleeping, but I’m sure there are individual differences.
In regards, to your more recent post, I have to stay that school can be tough. Middle school was the worst for me (lots of teasing and isolation), but college was also difficult – it is hard to meet deadlines and concentrate in class when you’re coping with Bipolar stuff. My teachers were really understanding, but having to comply to someone else’s schedule can be really difficult. I do much better now that I work for myself, on my own time schedule, and homeschooling might work out well for Rye, if that’s what you decide.
HB
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