What to do during meltdowns

[buddy]

Yes, I'm with Terry ..... Don't discount the eeg because you havent seen classic signs. my son has seizures that often only show as sudden mood changes -- where he just reacts to the feeling as if mad about whatever is around so it seems like a rage over something real when really his brain just misfired. They found he was having these electrical changes all day and night repeatedly over three days of.monitoring. They also wake him to a certain level that makes him yell out during the night. Lots of people are helped with anti seizure medications even if not treating specifically seizures, they can help with mood stabilization and/or behavior regulation. Just an option to keep in mind....I mean, what are the odds of having such intrusive behavioral issues and it not being connected to abnormal brain activity findings ....sometimes they dismiss things too quickly I have found. We were blessed to find a group that looked at the big picture after years of evaluations. You may not see any outward signs of "seizures " and they may not rise to the level of being clinically called seizures but that extra or abnormal activity can have a big impact depending where it is in the brain. Did the. neuro say where it was coming from?

Good lead in my humble opinion....yet sometimes very hard to treat.

I hope the Clonidine helps. It sure did help us. Adderal for us did nothing, we.had.to use ritalin and.concerta. everyone is different of course so just sharing my experiences!

 

[julierose24]

So Buddy, do you think that her moods and defiance might be seizures? She seems to become a different person when defiant -her faces changes to an angry face, and it can be for no reason at all. Sometimes it escalates to a full blown meltdown, and sometimes nothing happens.

Now I'm curious.

 

[buddy]

I couldn't say for sure obviously, just saying ...for us, it was a clear connection once they found that he had all this extra electrical activity starting in the right temporal lobe area and moving to the left. The emotional centers are in the path of them. Seizures are defined differently depending on the neurologist but there are different levels of abnormal activity and what shows up on a machine as small for one person might have obvious symptoms and vice versa. For us, looking at the big picture ....so many behavior analyses said he really did seem to switch out of the blue. That can mean we just didn't know about a situation that was bugging him but??? And then, he also had frequent headaches. You could often see that after behavioral explosions, he would yawn and sometimes even fall asleep. That can be symptoms of seizures too.
I'd just think you might not want to dismiss it...keep it in the back of your mind even if the doctor doesn't think there's an issue. I personally dont think stuff like that happens with no effect. Keep an eye on it and if, as you try medications you don't get relief and need to explore options maybe the antiepileptic group could be an option. Even in the case of obvious seizures though, just as with so many conditions, there is often no easy fix.

If you have a neuropsychologist who can help identify what types of symptoms that difficult child has and might be associated with the areas of difficult child's brain that are affected, that might help you to have some clues to what is going on.

I've had several neurologists over the years really narrow in their interpretation of tests and unwilling to take time to look at the big picture. Once we ended up with a group who specialize in disabled children life changed for q in a big way. He had started.asking if he needed to die to get rid of the feelings.....once they found the issue, seizure medications really changed his quality of life.

 

[hearts and roses]

Clonidine helped with my difficult children rages-A LOT.

 

[julierose24]

thanks so much! I'll keep thinking about this!