A Few Thoughts on Medicine

Just had a blow out behavior this morning and it brought some observations on medicine and drugs for Autism as well as general "scripts" most all of us take for the flu or a cold...or other maladies. Each individual regardless of diagnosis has their own body chemistry and makeup. Although many of us use the same drugs or medications and usually don't have side effects or reactions..it not always that way. As has been stated a millions times Autism is a spectrum disorder each and every Autistic individual has unique traits and abilities as well as reactions to meds.
That being said Professionals will inherently put all of us in the same box because that's just how they are trained..If most people are ok with with a med why won't it work the same on our kids? many time they can be right and far be it from me to question a doc for the most part ..after all they have th training but what I possess is the 24/7 365 experience of my observations and assessment.

So here is the point of this post....this morning Dakota had a pretty good "blow out" didn't last a really long time but it was a GOOD ONE : screaming, crying, yelling at the TV, yanking and pulling on himself and me....now I have been attempting to reduce his dose of Abilify for many reasons but mostly because I just hate that he needs chemicals in his body everyday to help him cope with behaviors that come at random, unpredictably but that's the nature of the beast since you don't know 

exactly when; then the meds become "preventative"....never the less.....last night he was coughing so I gave him prescription cough syrup WITH codeine. I cannot help but think that the codeine had something to do with him blowing up this morning. Can I prove it no, do I bet it true yes. Now the question remains do I give it to him again and wait for a reoccurrence? Well on one hand I should want to know definitatively that it was a reaction to the drug on the other hand do I want him or myself to experience another meltdown like this morning"HELL NO"......,.....talk about being between a rock and a hard place. Probably the doctor would insist it was unrelated, this is when I say walk a mile in my moccasins then tell me the same thing.

One last thought about this pharmaceutical stuff and I will "tap out" I do believe many years ago I posted something similar, I think it bears repeating:
Dakota was prescribed Risperidol. It was a great and effective drug for him and we had very little problem with it and its effectiveness. He initially started the drug at a tender age ..the start of puberty  whe he was barely 5 feet tall and less than 100 pounds..the initial doseage was .25 mgs at AM and PM...as he grew and put on more weight the doctors were insistent he needed a higher dose. They kept wanting to increase it and I kept resisting. Finally I started to up the dose and I saw escalation in behavior. I put my foot down and told them it was gonna stay at 1 full mg or less a day because that was all he needed. They argued that it wouldnt be effective for his size and growth....I stuck to my guns and it turned out to be the right decision for him. I have since changed him not because I didn't think the med was effective, but simply because he had been taking it for so many years that I decided his body needed a change and/or rest. At least from that medication. He is currently taking Abilify and again I have reduced the dose and seem to have some success...

• I guess what the point of this excerpt is, that it reaffirms you have to listen to your own gut and not let "professionals"convince you to do something you feel is not the right fit for your child, for your family or for you....DO NOT BE INTIMDATED by a certificate or degree on the wall, they are human and do not have a crystal ball and they certainly don't live in your house and experience what you do....use your powers of observation and love for your child big or small to advocate when you feel something is off kilter.