When my teenage daughter was going through her “Angst” period, which included bulimia, she was prescribed an anti depressant, anti anxiety, anti convulsive plus more of the same to help her sleep. All of these had the same side effect which was suicidal thoughts. so to fix al of this, they prescribe Ambilify, to “boost” the effectiveness of the other drugs.
After a few years of dealing with the suicide attempts(thank god she sucks at suicide), a yearlong trip to the residential treatment facility, numerous psychiatric stays, enough cutting to think she was attacked by lycans, spending my entire life savings and a bout with the law, I decided that it was time to take her to “my guy.”
For years I told her doctors, my wife and anyone who would listen that she has way too many meds in her and we should simplify. And everyone told me she was borderline, manically depressed and whatnot. “My guy” is a childhood friend of mine who “dabbled” in pharmaceuticals before realizing his calling was in psychiatry, where he could legally prescribe meds.
Onto the plane, cross country we went. He told us to bring all her meds, which the TSA had a field day with. Basically it was “why so many pills?” which got the response, “none of your damned business.” Got to his house, he told me to go get dinner and come back in an hour. Got back to the house and he told me she is good.
He lowered her meds to two at night to help her sleep and one during the day, for ADHD. For two years now she hasn’t cut, hasn’t been hospitalized and has been functioning. I asked him what he did. Here was his response. “every specialist you see will diagnose her according to his specialty. And he won’t remove her from any other doctors prescriptions for fear of being sued.”
My child’s school is famous for “suggesting” that these kids get put on drugs instead of being dealt with.