Small Man

Thinking of Small Man and his troubles again, as always, but going back to a previous train of thought.
He is a definite 'old soul'.
At around the age of three he came to me with a photo of my father and said "this is me, a very long time ago, I wasn't a boy I was a man" he insisted at the time that we call him John (my late fathers name, he died 18 months before small man was born). I remember asking him at the time - "If this is you in the photo, what is your sisters name" he responded with "Jules" which is in fact my Aunty's name - he would have no possible way of knowing that - actually at the age he was you could probably tell him and it wouldn't really mean much. I also asked him where the photo was taken, he said "Oh a very long far away from ... Town". The photo was actually taken in America, I was astounded that he could name the town Dad lived in.....I can guarantee the hairs were up!!!!
Following this he became very difficult with food, and developed an over sensitive palette - he would simply vomit if he ate something with an unusual texture, by unusual I mean anything that wasn't soft and free of lumps. He didn't eat red meat again until he was 10 years old.

Later on, at the age of about 8 he started hearing 'voices' - naturally the family got into a massive panic, assuming he was schizophrenic etc etc. Then came the anxiety, depression etc. He was given medication to try and help - I was basically torn, you wouldn't tell a psychiatrist that you thought your child was 'spiritual' or 'psychic' - they'd have locked me up for sure - also I thought it would be very negligent of me as a parent not to take the doctors advice.

The medication caused a weight gain of approx 15 kilograms in four months, but it worked at the time. I then had to make the call, is his weight/health/self esteem more important ?
We tried several other medications, none seemed to do much really.
I stuck with the anti depressants, as this was the scariest part of how he was.
He also hit puberty at 9 - maybe a good thing looking back, he has already dealt with a lot of the mood changes bought on by the massive hormone shift of puberty starting.

We are now at the stage where he has been suffering with chronic fatigue for 18 months.
It has created a vicious cycle with his anxiety and depression, one because he is unable to exercise without suffering for it, so his weight has increased slightly, not much but enough for him to feel down.
Also his doctor increased his anti depressant to 100mg per day to try and help with the anxiety - in my opinion it may be making him worse as far as energy levels go, I have revised this and am reducing it, slowly. We tried 'rescue remedy' before school yesterday, he said he felt nervous, but nowhere near as bad.

There is a new drug on the market - XENICAL - has anyone tried it - or do you know someone who has? It is unique in that it acts on the body, not on the brain, to eliminate fat from the food you eat before it is absorbed. The doc said this could be an option for small man - I'm not looking for a quick fix or trying the lazy way out - I would just like to kick start his weight loss for him, if he feels better about himself the rest would be easier too........

G
xx