Separation anxiety symptoms and conditions

Have been experiencing the same serious behavioral issues (screaming, launching every toy he has out of his room, knocking over his night stand, hitting, kicking and just being hateful) with my 4 year old who has been on Singulair for 2 years as I'm noticing many of you have here. My wife and I have a wonderful relationship and happy home and tons of love and support from other family that's close buy so the kid has a very nice environment. We have taken him off the medication as of yesterday. I have consulted his doctor but I'm anxious to hear what methods of treatment for the asthma all of have chosen in replacement of Singulair or did you just maintain with an inhaled maintenance program with something like Pulmicort? Also, how long was after taking your child off of Singulair did take to for the outburst to subside and the behavior to become more mellow and normal (what is normal for a 4 year old?). Any info would be greatly appreciated.

My 4 year old daughter has been on Singulair daily for approximately 2 months. We started noticing some minor changes in her behavior early on (shyness, separation anxiety, anger, moodiness) but chalked it up to starting a new pre-school and arguing with her older sister. Then about two weeks ago, she started having an obsessive-compulsive type behavior about wiping herself. My first inclination was that she had some type of infection (yeast, UTI, bladder, etc) but all of the tests came back negative. My doctor told us to stop the Singulair, so we have been off for about a week now, but the OCD symptoms haven't lessened. I would say that some of the other behaviors are improving somewhat, but I am not seeing a "whole new kid" effect after being off for one week. Has anyone had a similar experience with OCD type behaviors? I am beside myself with concern! Thanks for any help.

It has been 18 days since my 9 year old daughter has taken Singulair. Our daughter had been taking Singulair for approximately 2 years. It was in the last year that we started to notice some behavior changes and mood swings that were so often unprovoked. We were somewhat concerned and thought like so many other parents that it was a phase. Then in December 2007 she came home from school with a tummy ache and had several episodes of vomiting. She seemed better the following day, but we took her to the pediatrician to be sure that this was a virus. The stomach pains continued, and then anxiety attacks began. Over the next month she began to wake up each day with stomach aches and we began more visits to doctors and more testing. She had abdominal X-rays, CT scan, mekel scan, GI consult and endoscopy. All were ok except she did have some small amounts of acid in her stomach. She was treated with Prevacid with really no significant changes. As weeks passed she missed more and more school, she just could not make it through the day. She had intense separation anxiety, and developed OCD about being sick again and vomiting, fears that she may stop breathing; fear of dying and the list goes on. She was refusing to ride the bus to school, and was having more and more panic attacks that would last for hours. We finally took her to a psychiatrist after we had done every test we could possibly do and all were normal. She woke up with the fear and anxiety, and fell asleep each night the same way. The doctor said she had "OCD" which she believes was triggered by the fear from vomiting. "This was the first time she had vomited since she was an infant.” She was treated with Lexapro, and Klonopin. The symptoms worsened over the next few days even with the new medications. After many calls to the doctor we were finally advised to have her admitted to a children’s psychiatric hospital for closer evaluation where higher doses of medications could be administered. She was there for 4 horrible days with slight improvements. Over the next few weeks the medication did begin to help some and she was able to make it through school each day as long as she was able to call me a few times a day for re-assurance. I thank God each day for her wonderful teacher and staff that have helped us through this. They all have known her for 3 years and knew this was just not her character at all and she was truly struggling. She was always known as "Smiley" to everyone because she always wears a grin. We began therapy with a psychologist as well and she has good and bad days. Then we heard the news about Singulair and I began to trace back other issues she had with focusing in 2nd grade and how things just seemed to progress from there. It all happened so gradually that I would never have put two & two together. She is showing improvements every day with personality, mood, attitude, fears, and the "OCD". She told me today that this was the best day ever!! I have made all the Doctor's involved aware of this information and the progress she has made in the last 2 1/2 weeks. Her doctor did cut her meds in half this week as well. Thanks to everyone that has posted their nightmares as well, and we will pray for you and for full recovery for all those that have suffered.

i am so happy to hear all of these stories of recovery. i discovered my son's singulair side effects in march 2007, after 3 years of use. i can tell you from our experience that the most significant recovery comes within 3 weeks. after the 3 weeks, the more subtle improvements continued to occur for months and months after. without the effects of singulair, they experience life in a whole new way. my son's experiened 3 years of undetected side effects which included: irritability, FEAR, stomach / leg pains, poor appetite, difficulty with focusing / comprehension, restlessness and nightmares. the last 2 months on the 5mg dosage, he also experienced a facial tic, dilated pupils and hallucinations along with an increased in intensity of all the above. i thank god everyday for finding this website and removing my child from singulair.

Everytime I read these side effects, I am still amazed about how the stories are so similar. My youngest son and I went to the doctor today. I think my son's doctor does a very good job. However, he is still suggesting the Singulair. He checked for updates on Singulair. Since the "FDA" has not sent any information with some of these serious side effects, it is still the green light. That is fine. But, I will not be administering this medication to him or my other child. These stories and my sons' side effects are substantiated enough for me. I think it is a matter of time, and we will all blessed after its findings. I am reading all these side effects again because my youngest son is again sick with diarrhea and puking. This has been happening a lot this year, and he is suppose to be taking the MAP testing. This stresses me since he has missed so much school. Last year, for quite some time he suffered with separation anxiety, and it took my husband and I forever to get him to school. Sometimes when we got him to school, he would not get out of the car. Sometimes we had to go inside with him and negotiate to get him inside the classroom and try to tell him we would be fine. One morning it was two hours, and another morning I finally left the school with him and took him to his father. I was exhausted!!!!!!! The school counselor would try to help too. I just do not think this is my child's disposition......................

Day 14 update:
blood pressure down from 130/90 to 110/70 (was 90/60 pre-Yasmin), lost 5 lb water weight (which it was supposed to help me with in the first place), have only had one panic attack, but it subsided quickly and wasn't that bad. Overall, I feel better and better every single day.

Erin:
I did become violent in terms of yelling and threatening a lot, but I don't think I ever hit or kicked him. I did have separation anxiety, which was progressively getting worse (I think I'm OK now). I'm not sure from your post--are you STILL on the pill? If yes, and if I were you, I'd talk to my doctor and see if maybe there is a better birth control alternative available.

Best of luck to everyone

ATTENTION: if you are on birth control pills and having awful side effects with zoloft it could be the bcpills. I have been on 4 anti depressants in the last year and had difficult problems with all of them especially zoloft. I had diarhea and constipation, I had break through bleeding, irregular periods, and increased anxiety, depression, mood swings, panic attacks, separation anxiety, and awful headaches. Please. I have been to doctors who diagnoised me with IBS, ovarian cysts, depression, ADD, and OCD. I might have tendency towards all of these, but listen I am not this person, I have been off the bcp andn I am feeling better. Dont ignore this warning if I only could have had it!

i asked before but didnt get an answer, has anyone become violent or had separation anxiety?

Has anyone experienced violent anger or separation anxiety?

I have been on Yasmin for about a year and a half now. I loved it in the beginning because it cleared my acne up great nothing has ever worked better. But probably about two months into it I noticed a depression and stronger anxiety. I am already a little high strung so it didnt hit me.
But the past two or three months have been awful, my boyfriend doesnt know me anymore and he is stressed about the way I am acting. Little things stress me out so bad. I cry about nothing, everything feels as it is the end of the world. I feel depression and am not myself. I feel it is a blessing to have found this board. I didnt have ANY idea it could be causing this.
However, I wanted to ask about a couple of side effects that I have been having that I have not found on the board yet.
I have experienced feelings of out of control that lead to throwing objects, hitting, and kicking my boyfriend. I have never been like this and I dont know where it has come from. ALso, I have a strong separation anxiety when I am alone especially from my boyfriend. Has anyone become more violent or more scared of being alone? Neither of these have ever posed as a problem before?
One more thing I wanted to ask. My boyfriend has no understanding of my depression. He thinks I can control the crying and the anger. He and my dad say things such as "Be happy, dont cry." That is so hard for me to hear but I know that it probably has something to do with a man's viewpoint. Can yall lend me some advice on how to explain to my boyfriend that my actions are not me and that I will be over this soon, once it gets out of my system. I can not make him understand that it is not me. He thinks that because sometimes i am happy and not stressed that it is something I can turn on and off. Thank yall so much, this site is truly a blessing from God.
Erin

i posted here (#12536) on august 10th reporting that my son had really bad emotional side effects from singulair and i just wanted to follow up. we've taken him off singulair and after about a week of not taking the medication he's doing much much better. he's no longer depressive and whiny and his separation anxiety has decreased tremendously. also, no more tantrums. since taking him off singulair we have been giving him a natural remedy for allergies and asthma (quercetin with bromelain) and although his throat clearing symptoms are back he hasn't had an asthma attack or a severe allergy attack, even around a cat, since we stopped singulair. without the quercetin he would have had, at minimum, a severe allergy attack, so we do feel that the natural remedy is at least taking the edge off his allergies until we can find another method of treatment.

please, everyone, keep reporting your symptoms here and keep telling your doctors. i printed this entire thread and gave it to my son's doctor. if they read it and just one other child is helped i'll be thrilled.

My son took Singulair for about a year from ages 5-6. It was the worst experience of our lives. He too became very moody and anxious. He started having strong separation anxiety, nightmares and sleeping problems. We assumed this was tied with starting kindergarten. Then after being on the drug for about 10 months months his dose was increased because of his growth. Immediately after increasing his dose, he began to be afraid of choking while eating his food. Within a few weeks he was refusing to eat anything other than soft food. He also became terrified of leaving me because I might die and never come back. At night he could not sleep because he was afraid the house would burn down. He refused to sleep alone at this point. After two weeks of this, he became terrified that his food was poisoned and would cry while eating. He often had to get up to spit out his food. His fear of fire increased to a fear that any electronic item might spontaneously explode. He also started having full blown panic attacks. We were beside ourselves trying to figure out what was wrong with him. At that point, we took him to a psychologist to find out what medication he'd need to take to control his anxiety. I started seaching the net and found one site mentioning anxiety in children on Singulair. We took him off the medication the next day. Our psychologist was able to get him to eat again by walking him through the grocery store and having his sample various foods from the shelves with the promise that he'd get $100 on the spot if he started choking. Of course he didn't, and was reassured that he could actually eat solid food again. Within a week, all of his anxiety was gone. After being off Singulair for two weeks, we had our son back again. The experience was absolutely terrifying, and I'm so glad our psychologist believed that it was Singular and didn't put him on an anti-anxiety drug. Since then my son has been diagnosed with borderline ADHD, but we're afraid to try any medication because ADD meds also can cause anxiety. Our psych also agrees. I'll take a squirely child over a terrified, sleep deprived and hungry one any day. If your child is experience any of these types of problems, throw out your Singulair now!!