Undone People On A Downward Spiral

Aside from a hubby with Multiple Sclerosis, an oldest with SED, and a youngest with Gastroparesis and Oral Dysphagia, I have a middle daughter who has anxiety that comes and goes.  Lately with all our super fun changes, it has gotten out of control.  She pic-pic-pics ay her skin until it is a bloody mess, throws tantrums that put our two-year old tantrums to shame and stutters like you would not believe!! It is unbelievable.  At any rate, she has now, at the ripe age of 7, come to a point that we have no choice but to treat this or allow her to walk around looking like the world’s youngest Meth addict while teaching our youngest boy how to take his tantrums to a whole new level.  There was one point when she was about 5 that we had really struggled with her anxiety and it just so happened that she struggled with anxiety and hyperactivity at the same time at the same time.  After avoiding medication to the point that her teacher could no longer handle her at school, both ourselves and her doctors decided we would try a very “mild” combination of Prevacid and a low dose of Dextroamphetamine.  WOW!  I don’t thing it took 2 days before the kid started staying up all night long– no, really, ALL night long– screaming, crying, scratching walls, ripping her clothes, ripping her skin, batting away at imaginary “bugs” in the air around her head and who knows what else.  This behavior lasted 24 HOURS A DAY for at least 3 FULL days!! It was like hell on earth for her father and I, let alone how she must have felt.  Multiple calls to the doctor led to little more that confirmation that she was experiencing a Psychotic Episode and our choice was to take her to the local psych hospital so they could put the kid in a straight jacket or sit up with her for days on end to keep her safe.  Ummmm, yeeeaaahhhh- we stayed up with the terrified 5-year-old kid for days on end.  When it all ended we found out that about 1% of the population who takes that particular combination of medication she was prescribed suffers a similar reaction.  In Canada the combination is rarely prescribed for that very reason.  AArrrggggg!!!!!