Anxiety Disorders in Children Support Group

Hello: My first post.

My daughter, has school phobia/anxiety.

Details are similar to other posts. Just turned 13. 7th. grade.

Psychiatrist started Zoloft, at 25mg. Did a gradual increase to 100mg.

Started the Zoloft in July. When school started in August was up to 100mg.

Around Oct. The school phobia/anxiety started up again, missing school, etc.

Psychiatrist started increasing the dosage.

After a month we are up to 200mg.

We talked to a 2nd Psychiatrist for a second opinion. He said, the dosage affects different people in different ways.

The 2nd Psychiatrist said, be careful, when you increase the dosage to fast, it may have the opposite effect.

I know this is a long comment, and does not exactly fit you post. One question, though,

you mentioned your child had "general anxiety", the med's you mentioned said it was for ADHD on wikipedia. Was that correct?

Good luck, I hope this website provides some answers. My wife and I have been fighting this school phobia since April,2009.

Strattera is an antidepressant , but it is also used for add and adhd as well. The way the doctor explained it to us is it is one of the only antidepressants approved for a 7 year old and its a mild one. We are trying that first before we go to something stronger. Also her anxiety causes her to have horrible problems focusing at school so we are hoping it will help with that as well.

OP:

Is your daughter seeing a Therapist.

According to our Psychiatrist, for our daughter, the Zoloft helps with the anxiety.

But the cure is the Therapist. We are on our 2nd Therapist. The first one moved. Since we are new to Therapists, we are still learning....Seems to be a very slow and unscientific process.

I've talked to everyone I know, including strangers. Seems unless you personally are going through this, "friends and strangers", can give you sympathy, but have no "idea", the stress and frustration we are going through.

Again, stay strong, don't blame your daughter, and keep fighting.

Many people say avoid "meds", but sometimes they are needed if the patient cannot function, ie, avoids school.

Right now, my daughter missed school 3 days last week.

I think we will have to put her on "hospital care", it's a process where the school system sends a teacher to our house 1hr a day, five days a week, to keep her current.

We have to have a doctor, Pyschiatrist, fill out a form, which states, my daughter is under his care and he is suppose to provide a date when she can return to school.

Again, good luck, we are in the same boat....

hope all gets better....