Spring break symptoms and conditions

I am 19 years old and saw a gyno for the first time in October. He recommended NuvaRing to me, and I was very excited about using it to control my periods, during which I typically pass large clots, which makes them very painful. I started with the ring that day, and did not experience any noticeable side effects until I went home for Christmas. I began to become increasingly disillusioned with my life, which has absolutely nothing wrong with it. I have friends who love me, and a very intact and functional family, no man problems, and I am doing really well in school. When I went back to school in January, I immediately sank into a severe depression, probably paired with anxiety, in which I was afraid to leave my apartment and did not want contact with any other people in my life. The first morning of school, I called my mother and told her "I am not OK." I took the ring out, and the same day, my mom sent my father out to stay with me, and he did so for a week and a half without complaint. Eventually, though, he had to return to his life back home, and I was doing better and in the control of my friends, so he left. I struggled the first couple of days without him, then gradually got back to doing pretty well, but was not back to my previous self. I went home recently for Spring Break, and when I came back to school, I immediately had what I think was a panic attack (I've never had one before) and began to become depressed again. This time, however, its different. I hate being alone, and when I have down time, I start to think very profoundly about life and what it means...very philosophical and metaphysical thoughts. I only had the ring in for 2 and a half months, and I have had it out for about the same amount of time, but am still experiencing depression symptoms. I have never had problems with depression before, and am wondering if it has taken this long for anyone else's depression issues to work themselves out. Has anyone tried anti-depressants, or would you recommend them?

My 7 yr old daughter has been off of Singulair for 12 days now. The change in her personality is amazing. She experienced two nights of strange dreams and waking in the middle of the night. We put her back on Flovent once a day as a substitute. Her aggression and frustration went away within days. She is so happy and content with herself. I can see that she is no longer frustrated by emotions that she could not explain. She's silly, funny, happy. She no longer hates us, pulls her hair, or tries to slap herself because she's thinks she deserves it. She has been on the drug since she was 3-1/2. We were doing family therapy to try to help her. This is no longer needed. She's back to her old self. What a shame no one warned us of this potential side effect. I also wondered how I missed the news story since I just found this site in September 2008. The news story about Singulair came out in March - just around Spring Break. Since we were out of the country, I missed the news. Isn't that a convenient time of the year to break a story? I'm sure many other families missed the news.

My 15 year old daughter has been taking Singulair for about 10 years for asthma, and it seemed to do a great job of controlling that condition. However for the past year or two (since onset of puberty) her mood swings, anxiety, sleep problems, ability to concentrate, etc., seemed to escalate to extremes. She has always been a little high-strung and emotional, but I never related it to the medication. Lately I tried to convince myself everything was a result of hormone fluctuations although things were going from bad to worse. Late this fall she suffered a series of back-to-back illnesses (flu, sore throats, etc.) which caused her to miss so much school she almost flunked her entire first semester of high school. After the holidays she seemed to be back on track but then another bout of flu triggered asthma, and then she seemed to bounce from one to the other - and missing a lot of school again which caused a lot of anxiety, which caused the asthma to flare, causing greater anxiety, etc., etc. For almost 3 weeks she barely came out of her bedroom, and looked more despondent by the day, begging me to not force her to go back to school because people would make fun of her. After lots of arguing one Saturday she agreed to go with me to a therapist while we tried to find alternatives for school this year. Well, that same night my daughter woke me around 3 a.m. (she also does not sleep well...) to tell me about the story she had just heard on CNN about Singulair. After finding this website the next morning I was horrified - and she has not taken it since. Our allergist dismissed the CNN story, saying there was no scientific evidence to support that claim, but agreed that maybe we should take her off Singulair. We did visit a therapist, although since that day I have seen a noticeable change in her behavior and moods. If anyone else is considering a class action suit, please email me since I am seriously planning to take some kind of action - I believe the FDA should move quickly on this so that other parents may be able to avoid seeing their children have to deal with the effects of this medication. I could probably write pages, I am so appalled that this has happened, but I will end here for now....

Update...Today is the 11th day my 7 yr. old son has been Singulair free! He was taking it for "cold induced" asthma. He never had the typical asthma where he needed an inhaler. He got RSV when he was almost 3, then whenever he got a URI it seemed to go straight to his lungs, so the dr. prescribed Singulair and Xopenex (to be used with a nebulizer). I had asked the dr. a few times to take him off Singulair because he seemed to be doing much better and I wanted to see how he would do without it. The dr. would say "oh, let's wait until summer or let's wait until allergy season is over" and kept putting it off. I just had some sort of bad "feeling" about it. Of course, I look back now and know with certainty that his wierd behaviors started around the time he started Singulair. I am relieved now because his erratic behaviors are almost totally gone!!!! When I heard the news I decided to take him off the Singulair immediately. I was nervous because he had a cold and a bad cough, but did it anyway. You know what? He is fine! His cough is almost gone now without the help of Singulair! He is much happier and can actually focus on doing his homework without getting up from his chair until he is done. Before he would get up about 10 times and just couldn't sit still. He has a better attitude about everything now! He is doing great! I hope everyone who was taking this and stopped is doing better! I learned a valuable lesson from all this. I won't put him or my other son on anything until I research it! I will not trust anything anymore, and that in itself is sad, but true. Good luck to all!

I am currently a junior in college and I have had severe allergies my whole life. Last summer my doctor prescribed Singulair and I really liked it as an allergy medicine (except for pollen). As a person, I am usually optimistic, happy go lucky, and always trying to make people laugh. I am also an avid learner, and I love school. I usually never miss class...well that was until last fall. I would get up everyday for my 930 class and take a shower and then for some reason just go back to bed. As Christmas approached- I failed my first class, got pneumonia, went on probation for my honor fraternity in which I was an officer, and was close to losing my academic scholarship. I changed my major to something easier in order to bring my grades back up this spring. I was actually excited about my new classes but then the semester started. Same routine- get up, take a shower, sleep and cry all day. I have lost most of friends due to my antisocial habits, gained 45 pounds to become 180 lbs on my 5'1 frame (borderline morbid obese). My parents and lifelong friends were worried I was going to commit suicide due to my downward spiral. My mother and doctor didn't want me to go on antidepressants in fear i would gain more weight. So they decided to change my ADD medicine which helped but not a lot. Then the suicidal effects of Singulair hit the news. I stopped taking it and within a week (spring break) I was back to my normal self like nothing ever happened. Except something did happen- I lost a huge part of me that is going to take awhile to get back. I was so convinced that I was causing the depression on myself and that I was crazy. Now the end of my school semester is wrapping up and I have a lot of catching up to do. There are times out of habit that I still act antisocial (which is completely uncharacteristic of me), but I'm hoping that will fade and I can get back to truly being myself. It's just so scary for me to think that there are unsuspecting prescription drugs that can cause so much pain. If I didn't have my family and true friends supporting me all year and sticking with me through all this, I know for a fact that I wouldn't be here today..

My 5yo son is one week removed from Singulair, and we are starting to see a gradual improvement. When I first started reading these posts, I just sat and cried. My son started the meds last fall for allergy induced asthma and his behavoir has gotten progressively worse this January and February, so much so that I contacted the pediatrician to start the process of having him see a counselor. He was fine before last August. I blamed his problems in the fall to his adjustment to kindergarten, then my grandmother got sick and passed away February, so I thought this time his obsession with death and bad behavior at school was related to her. I never once even thought it was the Singulair. Looking back I realized the behavoir coincided with his Singulair use (I took him off it in December because there was nothing in the air to cause him to cough and he was fine). In January we started back up full steam ahead and the doctor increased dose...Hello!! He was so angry sometimes and had a multitude of the symptoms listed on this site. He would constantly say he hated school. He chewed his shirts repeatedly, actually chewing holes in the neck and sleeves, he would blink his eyes weirdly which I have equate to the "tick" other people described. He would say he was stupid, that no one loved him, that no kids wanted to play with him and that he was an idiot. He said he wished he was in heaven and wanted to leave this world. My mom found him wrapped in blankets over spring break and when she asked what he was doing he said he was trying to suffocate himself. His crying wasn't even a normal cry, it was in a word: soulful. It would make me cry just hearing it because it was such a mournful sound. At his aftercare program he would try and leave and say he wanted to get hit by a car, they actually had to restrain him. He had instances of aggression with other kids in school, which resulted in phone calls from the teacher and principal. Again I thought it was related to the death in the family and him having no other way of expressing his anger. I even blamed the other parent thinking they were overreacting - embarrassed about that now to say the least. I started getting names of dr's to get grief counseling to determine if it was the loss or if he was in the throes of depression. Then I see the news about Singulair and looked it up on the web since he was on it. Talk about taking your breath away. Then his stomach cramps made sense too. I would have to massage his stomach to make it feel better, thinking it was the milk causing it. People can say we are all making this up, or the posts are fake...even his allergist said they feel the benefits outweight the risks, but until you live it you really just don't get it. I took him off it that night. Each day is getting better. Today was a great day and I am cautiously optimistic for tomorrow. He was happy. Even his sister remarked about what a good mood he was in and that he wasn't whining or crying. Putting him to bed tonight he told me he loved me more than tomato pie...and in his world that's at the top of everything The sad thing is that the medicine works for the asthma and controlled his coughing. The cough is now back in force so it is a double edged sword. It's amazing how similiar the symptoms are with other kids. I guess hindsight truly is 20/20 huh?

First of all, finding this website and these stories is a divine intervention! I have a 3 year old that started on singular for food and mold allergies about a week and a half ago. Immediately he complained of an upset stomach which the allergist told us may happen but that was it. The days ahead he became a totally different child - angry, overly emotional, moody, and the only thing new was the Singular. His brothers saw the drastic change too. Thank goodness the worst was over our Spring Break. I am in a support group called MOCHA(Mothers of Children with Allergies) and thought I am going to email everyone my story and see if anyone else has experienced what we had. ( My Dr. also told us he had no complaints on the drug and it was safe. I decided after 5 days, that I was taking him off of it to see if his personality would return. Well, with in a day only off of it, he was not as agitated and less angry so I knew it had to be it.) Almost all of the responses were negative and people were so relieved that it wasn't in their head and that it was the drug. Since just yesterday, one has also decided to take her son off of it. And I am sure many others are going to follow even to just see if by being off of it for a week any of their old self returns. This drug at least for children should not be prescribed!

I am 21 years old and have never been on birth control before. I went to the doctor asking for yaz but she suggested i didn't take it because of the high level of potassium it has. I wanted yaz because i get severely depressed right before my period. But when i told the doctor about my cramps she suggested Femcon FE. So i said sure why not! I've only been on it for 2 1/2 weeks and I've have breakthrough bleeding for the past 3 days now, and i woke up 4am with the worst cramps in my entire life! i was in so much pain i vomited! finally i was able to sleep...and when i woke up i called the doctor and she said she could write me a prescription for the cramps, but i said no since they went away. Also I've never been so depressed! and this is coming from a girl who has fought depression for years. I'm on my spring break now and i don't want to do anything but cry cry cry! i feel bad for my boyfriend and my mom having to deal with me. Even I'm getting annoyed with myself! I had high expectations for birth control, i thought it would change my life and help out with PMDD. I really hope this changes, I'll let you know what happens cause I'm going to stick it out for the next 3 months! If anyone could suggest another pill just in case i still hate it in 3 months, that would be very helpful!

I too am in shock as well as relived about the news on singulair. Last night my 15 year old son called me (he's at the beach on spring break w/ friends), first he said Mom don't be mad but I haven't been taking my singulair and I feel better he then proceeded to tell me what he saw on the news about singulair and he was not ever taking it again. My son has been on singulair for the past year and as I write this I want to cry thinking of how I have treated him the past year because he went from a loving happy child to a tired, moody, grades falling, bouts of anger where he would tell me to just leave him alone he didn't care anymore about school or anything. He would stay awake at night and I couldn't get him up in the morning. Over the past 8 months I've had him at the Dr.s office trying to tell them something was wrong with. He shouldn't be so tired, angry, falling asleep in class. He was tested 3 times for mono with neg. results and I was told it was his age. Last month at my wits end I took him to the Dr. and demanded a complete blood work up because either something was very wrong with him or maybe he did developer teen add or emotional problems. The doctors diagnosis: depression and fluctuating hormones of a teenager. I'm furious at myself for all those nights trying to understand why he could pay attention in class, wouldn't remember his homework, getting angry when I would tell him theres no way you can be that tired all the time, telling me he hated fighting with me over school,and just wished he could quit school altogether. He even lost interest in his favorite sport and would get so frustrated at how he felt he would cry at night say he was sorry he didn't know why he felt so mad inside and I would try to understand but not know what to do.
I asked his Dr.s on several occasions if singulair could cause him to feel like this and every time they told me no and blamed on his age and being depressed about school. He will not be taking singulair again!.

I have an 8 year old son who has been on singulair for about 2 years now. We have a very busy schedule with school, scouts, and football. So we often times would forget to take the pill as the Dr. recommended to take it before bed. Well around November we began taking the medication on a daily basis as prescribed. And since November the number of side effects from this medication has been alarming. I never made the connection to the medication until I came across the information on this website and on other forums. Since November my son has been on his medication consistently and over the past 5 months I have seen so many changes in him. Many that alarm me and have caused me concern but many others that through this website have come to light.

My son has always been a shy but outgoing child. He is very caring and loving and recently he has turned into this selfish, depressed, paranoid, and emotional child. His teachers have made comments saying they don't know what it is with him but they see a change and they were not sure what the cause. I was not sure either. Recently we went for a walk at the park and he said, "I feel like everyone is looking at me". I just shrugged off his comment and said, everyone is looking at you. You are a handsome boy and we are at the park. People enjoy watching other people. Then he would often times tell me he was sad and he did not know why. Said I have a whole in my heart and I don't know what to do to make it better. My heart would just break for him. I felt helpless for him. He has also been aggressive. He has been in 3 fights in the past 3 months. My son also experienced rashes on his body. He has a batch of rough dry irritated skin on his belly and it has now cleared up. He had 3 patches of dry skin on his back and that also has began to clear. His legs also were achy and he has not since complained about leg pains.

This past week we were on vacation for spring break. Well being vacation and not being at home threw our normal schedule for a loop. So we took the regular AM medications (Flonase, Pulmacourt inhaler) but forgot all about the Singulair evening pill. He has not had a pill for 9 days now. Last night we had football practice and I noticed how eager he was to do well and I noticed how much more excited he was about it. I thought it was because he was enjoying it and learning something new. Now I feel like I have a clearer vision into what was REALLY going on. I will NOT give my son Singulair EVER again! I feel misguided that my doctor did not tell me that these were possible side effects. I trusted him and was at my whits end in finding a reslution to my sons asthma issues.

My daughter has been taking Singulair for almost 2 years now. She's 71/2 years old now. It seems like she's very hard to wake in the mornings and complains that she's still sleepy despite 10 hours of sleep. Also she makes a very strange sound during the night like she's scratching her throat and complains of sore throat in the mornings. Has anyone else had this experience with Singulair? I want to take her off. Is it safe to stop this drug without weaning it?

My 6 year old son has had all of these more or less. He has been on Singulair for about 5 months. We took him off last Friday when he started having seizures. It is only now that we are connecting the things he has complained about. He is still going through testing but everytime a test is done it is negative. He is in perfect health. The dr.s are stumped. What happens is, he smells a wierd smell. Then he sees lights. After this he has a bad headache and becomes weak so he lays down. Shortly thereafter he stiffens and starts shaking his arms and legs while clinching his hands. He also grunts and makes a buzzing sound and appears as though he only breathes out. the dr.s say it is not seizures but movement disorder and if it is Singulair it should be out of his system within 3 days... He is still having the seizure type fits and its been a week since we took him off singulair. He is still losing his temper and having horrible dreams as well. Cat scan was normal, EEG was normal, blood work is ok, they want to do an MRI but does this sound familiar to anyone?

Hey everyone, I posted my story on the front page about how I was on Yasmin for 6 months, felt great, NO side effects at all. Then while I was studying abroad in London I decided to skip my period..BAD IDEA...I developed insomnia and anxiety and had a full blown panic attack a week later...I was continuing to take the pills because my gyno said there was no way that's what could be causing it. I ended up having to fly home for my spring break, stopped the pills mid-pack, and saw numerous doctors who didn't help, until I found a psychiatrist who has helped me through all this hell. However, last month he had me go back on yasmin because he thought it would regulate me back to how I was, but I was really scared the whole month so decided to go back off it again now for good and let my body stay natural. My question for you all is..I was off it for about 3 months and had lots of anxiety and horrible pms, went back on it for a month, and now am off it. Do you think that one month back on it will set me back a lot? The doctors didn't seem to think so but I'm scared and regret going back on it at all. I'm also having horrible nervousness every morning when I wake up, with a surge of emotion and have to hold back tears while I'm at work all day (I'm only 20 and have to go back to college in 2 months). Anyone have any help for me? My life has completely been turned upside down :-(