kclynn Posted January 10, 2011 Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 My son is having a lot of trouble with mood swings and episodes of a lot of anger. We are talking throwing things, or running up and down the hall or street till he collapses. I think there are a couple things at play here. He is angry about this happening to him and missing his life, school and friends. Also I wonder if he is having Adrenaline surges. He often looks at me and says he doesn't want to feel that way and doesn't know why. In addition he is also having extreme confusion, not knowing where he his or how he got someplace. Yesterday we drove up to Rochester (mostly at night) and I had to explain to him 3 times where we were and why, and inbetween he would be "ok". He was also having lots of loss of balance.Anyway, was looking to see if any had suggestions that might help the adrenaline and anger surges. I try but always seem to do or say the wrong thing and make it worse, though I am not sure. I am fearful of him hurting himself objects (not that I care other than if he damaged something that will make HIM feel even worse).We see Dr. tomorrow and Wednesday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaTrain Posted January 10, 2011 Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 Hi kcmom!I'm so sorry to hear your son is going through this. It's tough enough to deal with let alone feel like that. And you must feel terrible when he's going through it...I know we Mom's tend to take things so deeply when they involve our children. I dont really get angry but I do notice that in some of my episodes I get to a point that I will just start crying and it makes me feel so much better when it's over. It's like I need to release some extra stuff or something. Keep faith that you guys are doing a great job! What has he been dx with?KC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vemee Posted January 10, 2011 Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 It is natural for him to feel anger about what is happening to him but the confusion doesn't seem to fit into adrenalin surges. It could be a blood sugar problem. If his blood sugar drops below 60 then he could experience mood swings, become combative, confused and not recognize those around him or know where he is. Even though I have not read any official papers linking hypoglycemia to pots; I have found from personal experience and from posts on this board that seems to be a link in some people. The type of hypoglycemia some of us have on the board is called reactive or rebound hypoglycemia and is not related to diabetes. In most cases the person who has it is sensitive to changes in their blood sugar but it does not go below 60 in most people. Some doctors will tell you there is no such thing as reactive hypoglycemia but there are those of us who do have it and our blood sugar does drop below 60 which brings on symptoms. My blood sugar/glucose has dropped below 20 before. There have been times I have been extremely moody and ready to erupt into anger and have found it was my blood sugar. I would be depressed or angry and not know why. I have dealt with hypoglycemics as a firefighter and they vary in symptoms from passing out to not recognizing their spouses. Some become combative and have had to be pinned down to be given glucose. When their sugar goes back to normal they remember nothing about being combative. Talk to your doctor about getting a glucometer to test him when he is acting this way. Don't let them diagnose him as bipolar without looking into this matter fully. A lot of times hypoglycemics are diagnosed as bipolar because of the mood swings and they do not bother to look at blood sugar issues. There is medicine that can be given that helps even out the surges in blood sugar. Also when he is behaving this way give him something sweet to raise his sugar and then follow it up with protein. The sweet will quickly raise his blood sugar so that he will start acting normal and the protein will keep the sugar levels up over the long run whereas just giving him sugar will raise it for a little bit then it will crash again.If he responds to being given food then he definitely has a problem with blood sugar.I also need to add that some people go through depression due to the chemical changes in their body when they develop pots. My own opinion which is based only on personal experience is that it has something to do with the increase in norepinephrine levels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliegee Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 kcmom-Hugs from a Mom with a teenager also dealing with this. How hard it is to see our kids suffer!I worry that this doesn't sound like dysautonomia. Our kids can have more than one thing happening at once My son has dealt with much grief and loss as a consequence of his illness, but it never manifested like you are describing. The mood swings, anger issues, coupled with the inappropriate laughter (you recently described), make me suspect something else may be at play. Does your son have ADHD? Does he have moments of lucidity in between these episodes? Do you have any mental illness in either side of your family? I worried about this as my son became ill as my mother-in-law suffers with paranoid schizophrenia. Many of my son's doctors (at the beginning) told me he was experiencing emotional/mental disturbance. I worried his never ending vomiting was the beginning of the onset of that. We later learned it was all attributable to physical illness. It is difficult to extricate what is what when there are several things occurring at once. hypoglycemia, like Vemee suggests, may be at play. If that were the case, you'd see shaking, sweating, weakness turned around after eating.Regardless, my heart breaks for you. How frightening this must be. I am so happy he will see his doc tomorrow. Be sure to describe these episodes in detail. You are a wonderful Mom to be so on top of this and ready to provide necessary help. You and your sweet son are in my thoughts and prayers as you sort this out. Please let us know what you find out & know that we are here for you. Hugs-Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crowebirds Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 I have a niece that is just the same. She has severe anger and emotional issues. I have recently noticed that it revolves around her blood sugar being low. If we can get her to sit down and eat a full meal, she improves significantly. My daughter is not as severe as she is, but her issues also are affected by low blood sugar. She has to eat some fruit two hours in between each meal to remain stable. She can also be set off -- on a much milder note-- when she is around a lot of activity, loud noise, or watching a show on TV that displays a lot of anger / aggression. This has come under better control since adding her back to an antihistamine that previously was removed from the market.My prayers are with you and him for relief and understanding.Robin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delphicdragon Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 I know blood sugar can cause anger issues as can dealing with the fact that you're losing so much of yourself. Though, I hope that your son is thoroughly tested for pheochromcytoma, which can also cause these type of episodes.Good luck. Prayers abound.Sara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kclynn Posted January 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 I was surfing around and found this from a phamplet for college students by dynakids, and contributed to by Beverly Karabin, Dr. Grubb's PA. I think this actually describes his confusion episodes pretty closely an also mentions the possibilty of low blood sugar. I think it is possible all of these may be caused by the lack of oxygen to the brain and imbalance of the brains chemicals. I guess it is not a far stretch for the anger issues to be a result of this, also. Because the onset has been only recent with the worsening of his autonomic symptoms, rapid heart rate, balance problems, jerks, and other things related. I was looking to see if there were suggestions on anything that might help the situation. I do think the blood sugar is something to look into. I told him tonight if he starts acting like that again I was going to ask him to drink some juice or something else. Some of the laughter episodes happened when he was having other types of "seizure like" episodes so I don't think it is a mental illness issue at all. The anger could be made worse by this entire illness, though, as he was extremely active and his whole life is changed. Students afflicted with dysautonomia conditionsmay experience periods of hypoxia (low oxygenlevels) that can significantly reduce their cognitivecapabilities and cause periods of disabling ?brainfog? and cognitive impairment.Alterations in the dysautonomia student?s bloodflow and neurotransmitters (brain chemicals suchas serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline), as wellas blood pressure and blood sugar all contributeto the cognitive issues associated with theseconditions.Brain fog is typically described as confusion and/ora lack of mental clarity. It can feel like a heavy cloudthat reduces visibility or clarity of mind. It cancause patients to experience episodic disorientation,forgetfulness, and feelings of detachment from theirsurroundings. In severe cases brain fog may evenmanifest as temporary confusion regardingsurroundings and the inability to recall names.The cognitive impairment that is associated withdysautonomia conditions typically involvesdifficulties with regard to memory, word findingand word substitution, retrieving and recallinginformation, multi tasking, problem-solving,attention, and comprehension. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kclynn Posted January 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 I know blood sugar can cause anger issues as can dealing with the fact that you're losing so much of yourself. Though, I hope that your son is thoroughly tested for pheochromcytoma, which can also cause these type of episodes.Good luck. Prayers abound.SaraSara, His Dr. did the urine test for a Pheo last November at my request. It was negative. I wanted the blood test but she said she looked into it an was advised it wasn't nessasary. He does not have high blood pressure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kclynn Posted January 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 Hi kcmom!I'm so sorry to hear your son is going through this. It's tough enough to deal with let alone feel like that. And you must feel terrible when he's going through it...I know we Mom's tend to take things so deeply when they involve our children. I dont really get angry but I do notice that in some of my episodes I get to a point that I will just start crying and it makes me feel so much better when it's over. It's like I need to release some extra stuff or something. Keep faith that you guys are doing a great job! What has he been dx with?KCKC, He has been diagnosed with POTS. I hear you about feeling better after crying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
issie Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 In Chinese medicine - anger is associated with the liver. Is he on allot of meds? Could he have too high Iron? Could there be heavy metal issues? Have you had the liver test done? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kclynn Posted January 12, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 He has had liver enzyme levels. He has not had a lot of medicine. Small amt of amimtriptyline which he is off of and he started mestinon but very low levels, taking b2 and magnesium. He has been a bit better. I thing this is connected to the other jerks and "convulsion" activity because they have all just snowballed at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
issie Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 He has had liver enzyme levels. He has not had a lot of medicine. Small amt of amimtriptyline which he is off of and he started mestinon but very low levels, taking b2 and magnesium. He has been a bit better. I thing this is connected to the other jerks and "convulsion" activity because they have all just snowballed at the same time.If you take any B vitamins you need to take a complex with it. You will imbalance the other B's by only taking one. Also, magnesium will make the blood pressure drop - make sure it's not making his drop too much. It helps with spasams but will definitly lower the bp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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