The medicated child
In my post about childhood diagnosis, I wrote: “I cannot imagine how my growth–both physical and mental–would have been compromised had I been put on OCD meds as a 9-year-old.”
A TTWS, name witheld, has the following answer:
At age 11, I started seeing a psychiatrist four times a week who prescribed Thorazine for my OCD. He continued to increase the dosage without associating the photosensitivity I experienced with the medication he prescribed. Eventually, the photosensitivity became so severe that I largely ceased going outside. My inability to engage in normal childhood outdoor activities caused me to dissipate my energy in my family’s apartment. This led, in part, to my placement in residential treatment where I spent the next three years.
liz | 3:47 PM | Uncategorized
Thorazine for a 9 year old? Of course he was hospitalize for 3 years. Its called drug overdose.
When I was in high school, I was considered to have a seizure disorder. I was also extremely depressed for various reasons. The solution: pump me full of Mysoline (primidone) and Tegretol (whatever). Photographs of me in my high school yearbook do not show an active or happy teenager. The yearbook is not something at age 51 that I acknowledge owning.
My observation here is that there must be some balance between genetic predisposition to BP disorder (where I am today after several decades of “296.33″ – major depressive disorder, recurring, not psychotic per DSM-IV TR) and environmental conditions.
Sometimes it is very hard to be a teenager. I think back to your video, Liz, and to how your freedom of movement was constrained by a row of bricks. My “row of bricks” was a great deal bigger as a teen, but nevertheless I could sense them.
I would not want to be a parent today.
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