Our partner

Looking for some resources to help me with my son

Forum for significant others, family and friends of people with mental illness to discuss relevant issues they face.
Forum rules
This is a support forum for the family, partners and friends of those with mental health issues. This forum is intended to be a safe place to discuss information, give and receive support and learn about all the issues related to being involved with a person with a disorder. Whilst it can be healthy to express various emotions, please remember to be respectful about the disorder itself. This is a place for constructive discussions, not a venting forum.

The issues experienced by the significant others of those with disorders cannot always be discussed in the other parts of the site in a way that does not trigger those with disorders. Moderators may therefore move threads from other forums into this one at their discretion.

Looking for some resources to help me with my son

Postby mrchips » Tue Apr 11, 2017 8:04 pm

I’m not sure where to start here. The number of forums on the different disorders is so overwhelming, I don’t know where to start looking for info related to my son. Perhaps someone could point me to some resources.

This is a rather long story, so will try and just provide the important details. My son is 7. He is very, very intelligent. He reads like an adult, retains facts and data especially science related info, and he does math several grades above his own with ease. He’s frighteningly smart, and we struggle sometimes with how to keep him challenged. He’s not interested in doing things that I would consider normal for a boy that age, like riding his bike or playing sports. Although he is “book-smart”, he struggles with his emotions. He doesn’t like being in large groups, he gets very anxious when his schedule is thrown off; he wants to disagree or argue or debate or negotiate any direction from me or my wife. He also gets manic at times and can’t seem to control himself and “settle down”; he tries to be silly almost all the time at home with his younger brother (who is almost 5) and also tries to get his brother to do things he shouldn’t. He cannot regulate himself at all at times and sometimes has meltdowns over what we would consider small things (e.g., like being late for school) and is showing signs now of a temper (slamming doors and hitting things). He shows little empathy towards his brother or others, and struggles to be friendly or social to adults. He often seems to want to be punished and says he’s a bad kid. We tell him he’s not; that he’s good, and that we love him. It’s very odd.

My wife and I are very concerned about him. For a while we thought perhaps he was on ‘the spectrum’ or perhaps has a disorder we are unaware of. He sees a very good pediatrician every few months who is monitoring things, but does not believe he is spectrum. The Dr. is reassuring us that he is OK, and that he is just who he is, which I agree with to a point, but we feel like things are not quite as they should be and just want to make sure we can help him through things, or at least understand him a bit more so we know what makes him so sensitive. Sometimes he seems very happy, but this can get turned on and off like a switch. Anyway, just looking for some basic first steps to try and work through this a bit and get some resources and info. Many thanks.
Last edited by mark1958 on Wed Apr 12, 2017 12:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Moved to SOFF for hopefully better responses
mrchips
Consumer 0
Consumer 0
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Apr 11, 2017 8:00 pm
Local time: Fri Mar 29, 2024 9:15 am
Blog: View Blog (0)


ADVERTISEMENT

Re: Looking for some resources to help me with my son

Postby realityhere » Thu Apr 13, 2017 7:12 pm

Per forum rules no one can diagnose here, all one can do is take a guess here as to what may be going on with your son. Based on what you've written, I get an impression that your son may have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), not spectrum autism. Children with ADHD are sometimes misdiagnosed for autism or Asperger's, as some of ADHD's symptoms mimic high-functioning autism and pediatricians who have little training in developmental disorders in children can mistake one for the other. As with many disorders, there is usually some comorbidity with other disorders or conditions such as anxiety, oppositional defiant disorder, etc.

That said, both ADHD and autism are developmental disorders, so a full evaluation conducted by a trained psychologist who specializes in these pediatric disorders will be able to differentiate the test results.

There are several organizations such as CHADD, which has chapters of support groups for parents of ADHD children throughout U.S. (don't know where you live, but it's a good resource), ADDA, and Canada also has an organization, I think. If you join a support group, members can be helpful with referrals to psychologists who specialize in developmental disorders. These organizations also have online websites from which you can start with info and phone numbers to contact. The developmental disorders tab at the top in the header of blue index tabs on PF's website also has threads that you can read under the sub-forums of autism and ADHD, and you may glean other info there as well.

Hope this helps.
realityhere
Consumer 6
Consumer 6
 
Posts: 2637
Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2015 10:31 pm
Local time: Fri Mar 29, 2024 7:15 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Looking for some resources to help me with my son

Postby mrchips » Sat Apr 15, 2017 2:01 am

Thank you for you reply. Strange thing, even before you replied, I did some digging around and came upon some info on ADHD and as soon as I read a bit I felt like I had some answers, or at least a start. I don't think I had ever considered it before because I assumed ADHD was something different than it is. There are so many attributes that he has that are setting off my alarm bells. We live in Canada, and I will be checking into resources that you suggested.

I feel terrible that he's been struggling all these years and perhaps this has been overlooked. Thank you again.
mrchips
Consumer 0
Consumer 0
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Apr 11, 2017 8:00 pm
Local time: Fri Mar 29, 2024 9:15 am
Blog: View Blog (0)


Return to Significant Others, Family & Friends Forum




  • Related articles
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 14 guests