Stepping Back Into the Light

Yes, it was therapy day for The Princess and I this morning.  If you’ve read this blog for a while, you know therapy has not been a very productive or fun time these last couple of months.  Today was different.  The Princess was engaged, made appropriate eye contact, paid attention as much as her ADHD would allow her to do, and she PARTICIPATED!  She was even pleasant.  I believe our happy, sweet girl is on her way back.

We have eased out of using Seroquel XR 50 mg/day over the last month, and have slowly added Abilify.  The Princess has another med check on Friday, but I believe this is working for us.  She is also on Focalin XR before school and a generic (not slow release) Focalin after school.  Abilify is usually added to an anti-depressant.  She is not on one of those now, but the Abilify seems to be helping anyway.  (Maybe tomorrow, I should do a post on medications?  I could list those I know and what they’re used for and let you know how effective they’ve been when we’ve used them.  The thing is, there are on-going adjustments that are made as the kids’ systems get used to the medications and they become less effective over time.)

I’m proud of my girl.  She’s working.  It’s hard.  She’s not always conscious of what she’s doing or how she’s behaving, but she wants to be.  She responds well when she’s approached in a manner that displays teaching rather than irritation or condemnation.  She just wants the freedom to be who she is, but she needs to learn the tools to help her mature and navigate the world.  Today, she was willing to start working on that again.

I feel like we’re stepping back into the light.