Dr. Steven F. Wu

You can always apply for SSI, but whether he gets it or not depends not so much on the diagnosis but by how disabling the condition is in interfering in the ability to sustain gainful employment, by how incapacitating it is in the academic arena if he is still in school, or how deficient adaptive behaviors or activities of daily living are. I do many evaluations for Social Security, and I have three adopted children with ASD, one mild, one moderate, and one severe. The mild and moderate ones are identical twins. The moderate and severe ones were approved for SSI, the mild one was denied benefits even though her twin was approved. So it depends on capabilities and not necessarily diagnosis. Apply anyway and SSA will determine if he qualifies. The test results from the psychiatrist and his or her opinion can be used to to aid in their decision or they may send him to another independent consultant for another opinion. You can have ADHD and get SSI, or have ADHD and function normally from being on Adderall and therefore not be granted SSI because you're not disabled. See? It's not entirely about a diagnosis, but by the degree of disability. Even a high functioning ASD like Aspergers Disorder can still get SSI if it interferes significantly with schoolwork, socializing or keeping a job. If you don't like SSA's denial, you can always appeal their decision and even hire a lawyer to advocate your case, but you better be able to prove how disabled he is by SSA criteria.

Yes. Go back to your prescriber and let him or her know about this and the dosage or medication can be changed to reduce or eliminate this side effect.

There are several techniques now for treating trauma such as Cognitive Processing Therapy, EMDR, Prolonged Exposure Therapy, and Stress Inoculation Therapy. Some medications are also now being used so seeing a psychiatrist may be helpful.

If he has been taking those medications for a long time already, it may not be those medications, unless his memory is failing and he is inadvertently taking more than he should. Perhaps you should be monitoring or giving the meds instead. If those meds are new to him, they could be causing that side effect so in that case let the prescriber know and change out the meds. Alternatively, the hallucinating could be caused by a progressive dementia, so a psychiatrist or neuropsychologist should be consulted.

There are excellent and effective treatments for anxiety now, particularly cogntive-behavioral techniques, so seek a qualified psychologist who uses those type of techniques. While anxiolytics are helpful, try to stay away from those and try CBT first. If therapy isn't enough, then see a psychiatrist for those meds. It also sounds like you may have unresolved grief for your mother, or fear of death issues, that may also need to be addressed.

Panic attacks are simply the fight/flight/freeze response to a fearful situation. Fear is a natural emotion triggered by the amygdala in the limbic system of our brain and is a response to a clear and present danger that something may harm or kill us. It is a bottom-up process. Panic can originate from a real dangerous situation one experienced, and then generalize to other potential future events that are similar to the original stimulus, or it can also originate from anxiety. Anxiety is manufactured or artificial fear, a false imitator of fear, and is future-oriented, i.e., imagining a catastrophic event in the future. Usually, the things we become anxious about are not going to kill us. Modern stressors are not like the dangers that cavemen had to face that really could kill them, but our brain is still the caveman brain, so it treats anxiety the same as fear. Anxiety originates in the left prefrontal cortex and is a top-down process that sends signals down to the anterior cingulate gyrus then through the caudate nucleus, and finally to the amygdala, which then triggers the autonomic nervous system sympathetic division, which triggers the flight/flight/freeze response called panic. Brain lock sets in, the circuitry becomes hardwired to keep repeating the cycle of anxiety and panic.

Without talking to or knowing your sister, I would not know the root cause of her panic attacks; past or recent events that triggered stress, anxiety, actual fear may be the cause, or even just imagined fears. But once one has experienced the horrible feelings of a panic attack, it begins to create its own anticipatory anxiety, which then predisposes one to more panic attacks. One begins to fear fear itself, and the monster grows exponentially. Without professional treatment, it is likely to continue and/or get progressively worse. Psychiatrists and anxiolytics can certainly help, but medications simply dull the amygdala, which is actually part of the memory system (it stores emotional memories), so dulling it or anesthetizing it doesn't help it to learn how to overcome the original fearful stimulus, and there are side effects to anti-anxiety medications. Cognitive-behavioral techniques and exposure techniques actually rewire the anxious brain better. I would recommend she read the book Rewire the Anxious Brain and Dr. Schwartz's book, Brain Lock. Both books can be found on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I recommend she find a psychologist and start by reading those books. Being afraid to go to treatment will likely only prolong the anxiety and panic attacks.

Yes, but note that today most psychiatrists tend to spend 15 minutes per patient because they can see four in an hour that way, and they tend to prefer prescribing medications in that 15 minutes rather than spend 50 minutes with one patient (except for the first intake interview). It's not as financially rewarding either to see only one patient in an hour rather than four an hour. And if you've ever waited in a psychiatrist's waiting room, you'll see that they're often overbooked and crowded, so spending 50 minutes per person isn't efficient in terms of serving a patient population. Psychiatrists also don't tend to be as well versed or trained in various psychotherapies as psychologists, who spend 50-60 minutes per session and spend a lot of time in graduate school learning therapy techniques under a lot of supervision. Of course this depends on the psychiatrist as well, some will do longer psychotherapy sessions without prescribing medications, depends on their training in medical school and residency, and whether they take a more holistic approach, so you'll have to experiment a little and find out about that psychiatrist's preference. Today psychiatrists may prefer to refer out cases to psychologists if they feel that a patient wants more time to talk or that a psychologist is better trained to handle certain issues. 

It depends. Does he have this obsession with other things or situations as well? It can be normal if he really enjoys the movie and doesn't get upset if you turn it off. What is his reaction if someone else tries to get him off it? Temper tantrums, inflexibility, and refusal to change could signal an anxiety disorder or an autism spectrum disorder, it depends if it's a recurrent pattern with other situations as well, so check with a pediatric neurologist, pediatrician, child psychiatrist or child psychologist. It could just be a great movie worth watching repeatedly! This seemed to happen with the Disney movie Frozen for little girls. The key to your question is whether this seems to be a recurrent pattern with other things as well.