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I am going to enter in on this thread, as I find it quite interesting and fascinating...let me say upfront, I have had no problems with either of my boys, as far as being 'at risk' children...

What I find most interesting and refreshing about this thread, is that it has parents who are fearless, and unashamed to say, that yes, their child has a problem, that puts them at risk, here is what we have gone through, here is what we are facing now...and most refreshing of all, we do have to use medications, if so warranted...

If you would indulge me, let me tell you why I find this interesting and informative....my older boy, Mike, died many years ago, at age 15, from a rare and usually fatal type of leukemia...he lived for only 15 months with the disease, and during that time he was in the hospital for 8 months, and I was his primary caregiver, nurse, and whatever else I needed to be, when he was finally at home...

After he died, I remember burying him, and then seem to have gone into some sort of stupor, because can not remember anything else, until about a year later, when I was admited to a psychiatric wing of the hospital, where I spent a week...I was diagnosed with severe clinical depression...the doctor assured me, that I had probably been going on a downward swing toward depression for many years, and the death of my son just brought it to the surface...with or without my sons death, he felt I eventually would have manifested all the symptoms of depession sooner or later...I was put on meds(imipamine, an anti-depressant)and have lots of one on one meetings with mental health specialists...the counseling lasting for several years....

Eventually I tried to get off the anti-depressants, but when I did, I began the slow slide back into depression...so my own family doc, knowing my history, put me on Prozac...I am still on Prozac, and the few times we have tried weaning me off, have met with no success...so I feel that it may well be that I will be on Prozac for the rest of my life...

But so be it...the counseling and the anti-depessants, saved my sanity, saved my life, saved my marriage, saved my ability to care for my remaining child...

Yet, from the beginning of my diagnosis, I have always met opposition from people, who have no idea, what true severe clinical depression is, ,or how it can ruin your life, or cause you to commit suicide, if left untreated...I have had people tell me such cruel things as "Just pray, and if you just trust God, you will be cured"...or "just snap out of it, you son is gone, deal with it" or..."If you have to rely on anti-depressants, you must be weak"....there are always those who know nothing, yet pontificate on everything...

As I look back on my life, and having read alot about depression in its many forms, I have realized that my mom was not doubt, severely clinically depressed, ,and just never got treated...how else to explain her months on end of true sadness, her inability to cope with normal situations, her long, long 'blue'periods....I look at my moms mothers behavior, ,and believe she was manic....her extreme highs, and her extreme lows, and her often irrational behavior lead me to believe these things of both my mom and my maternal grandmother....

Am I a product of genetics, leaning towards depression, or did my sons illness and death, become the defining factor for me...I believe its a combination of the two factors...

When I was in group sessions in the hospital one gal brought up the most interesting point....she had been hospitalized more than once with depression...she said, you know, ,when you are absent from work for a hospital stay, you can return to work with a cast on your arm and explain you broke your arm...or say that you had surgery and show off your surgical scar...but when you brain malfunctions, how can you show that...how do you make people understand, that just as your body becomes ill or gets hurt, so can your brain and your mind become ill and get hurt...

And if people seem to think that meds are ok for pain from broken bones, or antibiotics to fight off infections, or chemo drugs for cancer, why do those very same people scoff at the idea that perhaps meds are needed for help the brain and the mind heal?

I salute and admire each and every mom here, who has an 'at risk' child, and is doing their very best to help their child, in whatever way that may be...I know, it must be hard, to go against those who scoff at the idea of using different meds for children who are 'at risk'...

Those of us who have never had an 'at risk' child in this sense, cannot fathom what you moms are enduring, and how much more difficult it may be, to raise you child...

I also think that keeping this thread going, in this particular FR forum, rather than on Yahoo Chat, is the better idea...simply because there are so many lurkers on FR, who altho they may not join the thread, are nevertheless reaping benefits from it, perhaps for their very own child....

And I would appreciate lurking as well...I have nothing to add, of any importance, or factual knowledge in this area, but like to keep myself informed of the newest areas of treatment and research in this area, because my younger boy, Andy, who is now 28, may someday present me with grandchildren, and who knows, perhaps a grandchild of mine, may be an 'at risk' child....it never hurts to have lots of information...

Thanks for letting me go on and on...and thanks in advance for not booting me, because I have no children in this situation...

Welcome mom! I suppose I should have titled this "and parents at risk"....it's hard to be a mom when you can't function. Because the what I deal with on a daily basis with my daughter, I am on anti-depressant/anti-anxiety medication....Paxil. I doubt on some of my worst months (like this past one) that I would make it through without medication. So I know just how my daughter feels

It sounds to me if your grandma was bipolar (periods of depression followed by periods of mania, etc). I'm not making a diagnosis, I'm not a doctor, LOL...just an observation from what you said. You are quite right that you are a product of genetics. My aunt was a manic depressant (what they now call bipolar) and I truly believe from his behavior my ex is an undiagnosed bipolar. So my daughter had the luck of the draw from genetics.

I agree about the medication. Our society still looks at things like bipolar and depression, and even autism and downs syndrome, etc. as "mental" illnesses....they are so ignorant to the facts that the problem stems from a physical ailment...a chemical imbalance, etc.

Risa...I went out and bought fish oil capsules tonight and I'm going to try that with my daughter....if anything can decrease the medication she's on, that's fantastic.

Mom...the anti meds people don't realize, at least in the case of my daughter, that something like lithium is a chemical that occurs naturally in your body, your kidneys produce it. Part of a bipolar's problem is their kidneys do not produce enough (hmmm, kinda like a diabetic needing insulin???? oh, but that's ok...that's diabetes).

I praise people who's family member (be it child, parent, grand parent) can be kept off of medication. Medications are not fun, they are expensive, they are a hassle. I spend (after insurance) $150 a month on medications. And a lot of the same on co-pays and deductibles for testing and such. What people need to understand is doctors (at least GOOD doctors) don't just throw people on meds,they put them on them and then monitor them to make sure they got it right....change them when necessary, etc. It's not a "ok, here's your medication...go live happily ever after" type of deal.

However, welcome and I"m so glad you are here.