T

TeDo

Guest
I'm joining the whole chorus here. It really does sound like you probably have the wrong diagnosis and therefore probably the wrong medications. If your gut says they're on the spectrum, TRUST YOUR MOMMY GUT. It took a long time for me to learn to do that because after all, THEY are the professionals you know. I was dumb enough to go along with a couple highly recommended psychiatrists that ended up doing more damage than help. My son cannot take stims so he takes Strattera for the ADHD. He takes Tenex to help with his anxiety. It took us 2 years to get the right medication combination & right doses but we are finally there. It's not perfect but it is a LOT better than it used to be. by the way, Prozac and Risperdal actually caused my difficult child 1 to become very aggressive and defiant to the point that he had his one and only psychiatric hospital stay.

We had a wonderful Occupational Therapist (OT) that I wish we could clone. I asked her to do a THOROUGH evaluation and that's exactly what she did. The things she found were astonishing and explained so much. He is a picky eater (mostly textures) and goes in phases with what he'll eat. He is a "spinner". He hates certain noises (noisy heating vents, overhead projector hums, certain voice tones, etc). He hates certain textures (tags, "scratchy" fabrics like flannel) and loves others (satin, silk, "soft" cottons). He seeks oral stimulation so he chews on straws or chews gum constantly. What she found that I had no idea is that his brain doesn't register black writing on white paper. He writes super hard because his brain doesn't realize when the pencil is on the paper. These are just some of the things we have found and ALL of them used to cause huge meltdowns that came out against his brother because he was "safe".

It's very complex to get everything to gel together but I want you to know that it can if you keep digging until you get the right answer .... and you'll "know" when you do. If I hadn't spent two years and more hours than I can count to get the right diagnosis and then the right medications, we'd all still be miserable and I'd still be saying the same things you're saying now.

I would definitely put thorough work-ups AND thorough Occupational Therapist (OT) evaluations at the top of the list. Hang in there and stick around. We'd love to walk this walk with you and hold you up through it all.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
She can be an outstanding therapist and still not qualified to diagnose, especially Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). It is a different type of training.

Ditto. You need usually a neuropsychologist to know how to diagnose Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). My son had ten hours of intensive testing in every area of function. ADHD is often the first, but often a wrong diagnosis. I wouldn't trust any counsellor. They don't have the training to diagnose medical conditions.
 
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