I can honestly say that a special needs school is the best approach to managing your son's moods. My daughter who is 13 attends a spec needs school and absolutely loves it there. It's very comforting to know that she won't ever be bullied there bc all the students have a disability and the staff is great with getting the kids involved with events and boosting their morale.

My daughter has behaviors though and she can get loud when yelling or screaming at something when she gets anxiety. If it's raining and she can't go on the playground, it creates anxiety and a behavior. she usually starts out yelling then when you try to calm her down she gets worse and starts biting her hand or throwing things. they have a BCBA working with the teacher to help with the behaviors, but they are running out of ideas. My initial thought was to give her meds to help with the anxiety, but I'm afraid of the side effects of the meds. She takes meds at night to make her sleep, but the doses are very low and she is adjusted to them. I'm considering options now but it's been a rough year with hormones and puberty contributing to it!

My son is hf asd, 11yo and has been on fluoxetine for 2+ years. In our case the drug was great, he was having aggressive and frequent meltdowns. The drug mellowed him out and made him more easy going to changes in routines, less angry, and meltdown became more rare. It did little to nothing for his social isolation with peers. He is depressed and suicidal because the children ignore him and make him feel worthless. He's so smart, he recognizes these acts of bullying and ostracizing from the other kids. He only ever feels depressed and unhappy at school, not at home, so we know it's social and peer related. You could try the drug, but it may not work to fix things if his depression is due mainly to his school environment. Our solution is going to be moving him to a autism friendly school to be around peers like himself, or online schooling as a last resort. Good luck to you!

Thank you every one for your responses. I’m not going to put him on the ssri. Things have been going better lately. I am home schooling him in the core subjects in the morning and he goes to school in the afternoon which helps take some of the social stress off of him and also enables him to learn more than he would if he was attending those classes. There is a private school that I’ve looked into but did not think I would get the (intellectual,emotionall and financial support and of his father ( my ex husband) to enroll him. It was a battle to get him to concede that our son needed to do the half day of homeschooling. However, now that that is proving to be a good thing he may be more amenable especially if I qualify for some financial support. So thank you for reminding me of that option.

Hi Wellbutrin, first, here is the link to fluoxetine,https://www.drugs.com/prozac.html. I don't blame you for not wanting to give it to your son. Remember, the first thing doctors will do is prescribe medication, it's a quick fix and easier to do, instead of taking the time to find non medicated options. There is a reason why your son is probably depressed, perhaps due to the bullying, or possibly not happy at school. Does he communicate with you and know how to express his feelings? If he can't communicate well/express his feelings, write a social story for him. You can find these stories on this site: http://www.pbisworld.com/tier-2/social-stories/
As for the ADD, you don't need to treat this condition with medication either, as a matter of fact, the med for ADD side effects are pretty lengthy too. You can use behavior modification therapy to deal with the ADD. Example: If he sits for 20mins, give him a star, if he stays on task for 10 minutes or listens, give him a star, eventually earning 5 stars to do something he wants by getiing either a candy or prize.
Now, I'll be honest, a lot of these issues will take work and a lot of patience, it isn't easy.
Fyi, my son is taking a medication right now for seizures, and I hate it, unfortunately, he has to take it, otherwise he'll keep having seizures. I know though that it's poisoning him and causing horrible side effects. When I get the time, both my husband and I are going to take a month off to travel to see specialists to pinpoint and eventually try to find alternatives to taking the seizure med. He also communicates with us and tells us that he notices the bad changes, it sucks.