Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New profile posts
Latest activity
Internet Search
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
Parent Support Forums
General Parenting
psychiatrist gave parial asberger's diagnosis, but reluctant to give any bipolar diagnosis. change in medications
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 371958" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>Interesting points, Terry. With 9/11, we had to shield difficult child 3 from the news coverage. It was sadly easy. Then a few years later when he was 11, his class at school were being taught about it and I had to explain to the teacher that difficult child 3 was likely to get freaked out by that level of deliberate violence against innocent people, perpetrated in such a shocking way. We have to shield him against a lot of this sort of thing, including the tsunami that happened a year later and a lot of the war coverage that was also happening.</p><p></p><p>Over the next few years difficult child 3 has been able to cope with the knowledge, but possibly a bit easier when it hasn't happened just a few days previously. We still need to shield him against really bad, very recent news.</p><p></p><p>As for fantasy & reality - to difficult child 3, it was all real. We didn't realise just how bad it was, we had done our best to show him a lot of the special effects and "making of..." segments on DVDs (including the detailed stuff on LOTR) and we thought he was finally understanding about movie magic. </p><p>Then we took him to the village film night where we watched "Mars Attacks!". We thought it would be so obviously over the top that difficult child 3 would have no trouble believing it was not real.</p><p>Then after the film, which he had watched wide-eyed, difficult child 3 came to me asking for reassurance. "I know it wasn't real, it was just a story," he said. But did they put all those buildings back together after they wrecked them? The White House? The Sydney Opera House? I know it's back in one piece because we drove past it last week, but how did they wreck everything and then rebuild it? It must cost a lot of money to do all that. An what about the people? Were they able to bring the people back to life after the ray gun disintegrated them and turned them into green skeletons? And what about that lady whose had was put on her dog? How did they do that, and then put her back together again?"</p><p></p><p>Poor kid. He was trying to enjoy the movie (or the concept of the movie) but all he was concerned about was the trauma that people must have gone through, to be disintegrated/dissected/dismembered and blown up, purely to put on a show for other people's enjoyment. I felt awful, I imagine how the ancient Romans must have felt when trying to indoctrinate their children to enjoy gladiators being torn apart by lions purely for public enjoyment.</p><p></p><p>We did our best to explain (again!) that movies really are not real.</p><p></p><p>He didn't get it until he got his own chance to be in a movie. We'd already been in a small special effects movie we'd made ourselves at the museum, he had the chance to see how it was done (we did green screen stuff a lot as well as other trick stuff where voices were changed and other things distorted) and we had to do this over and over, and were still never sure exactly what it was that helped him finally work it out.</p><p></p><p>He was still trying to please us though, by making an effort to accept that we wanted him to watch the movie, even though in his heart he believed he was really watching people being killed and dismembered.</p><p></p><p>Just think - if our kids really did see someone dismembered in front of them, if we as parents actually sat them down to watch this happen for entertainment, wouldn't we expect some level of PTSD in the child as a result? it's not necessarily what they actually see tat is the problem, it is what they believe they see. And for difficult child 3, he was (and still is in ways we can't always know) being traumatised by everyday living.</p><p></p><p>No wonder life is so difficult for them sometimes.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 371958, member: 1991"] Interesting points, Terry. With 9/11, we had to shield difficult child 3 from the news coverage. It was sadly easy. Then a few years later when he was 11, his class at school were being taught about it and I had to explain to the teacher that difficult child 3 was likely to get freaked out by that level of deliberate violence against innocent people, perpetrated in such a shocking way. We have to shield him against a lot of this sort of thing, including the tsunami that happened a year later and a lot of the war coverage that was also happening. Over the next few years difficult child 3 has been able to cope with the knowledge, but possibly a bit easier when it hasn't happened just a few days previously. We still need to shield him against really bad, very recent news. As for fantasy & reality - to difficult child 3, it was all real. We didn't realise just how bad it was, we had done our best to show him a lot of the special effects and "making of..." segments on DVDs (including the detailed stuff on LOTR) and we thought he was finally understanding about movie magic. Then we took him to the village film night where we watched "Mars Attacks!". We thought it would be so obviously over the top that difficult child 3 would have no trouble believing it was not real. Then after the film, which he had watched wide-eyed, difficult child 3 came to me asking for reassurance. "I know it wasn't real, it was just a story," he said. But did they put all those buildings back together after they wrecked them? The White House? The Sydney Opera House? I know it's back in one piece because we drove past it last week, but how did they wreck everything and then rebuild it? It must cost a lot of money to do all that. An what about the people? Were they able to bring the people back to life after the ray gun disintegrated them and turned them into green skeletons? And what about that lady whose had was put on her dog? How did they do that, and then put her back together again?" Poor kid. He was trying to enjoy the movie (or the concept of the movie) but all he was concerned about was the trauma that people must have gone through, to be disintegrated/dissected/dismembered and blown up, purely to put on a show for other people's enjoyment. I felt awful, I imagine how the ancient Romans must have felt when trying to indoctrinate their children to enjoy gladiators being torn apart by lions purely for public enjoyment. We did our best to explain (again!) that movies really are not real. He didn't get it until he got his own chance to be in a movie. We'd already been in a small special effects movie we'd made ourselves at the museum, he had the chance to see how it was done (we did green screen stuff a lot as well as other trick stuff where voices were changed and other things distorted) and we had to do this over and over, and were still never sure exactly what it was that helped him finally work it out. He was still trying to please us though, by making an effort to accept that we wanted him to watch the movie, even though in his heart he believed he was really watching people being killed and dismembered. Just think - if our kids really did see someone dismembered in front of them, if we as parents actually sat them down to watch this happen for entertainment, wouldn't we expect some level of PTSD in the child as a result? it's not necessarily what they actually see tat is the problem, it is what they believe they see. And for difficult child 3, he was (and still is in ways we can't always know) being traumatised by everyday living. No wonder life is so difficult for them sometimes. Marg [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Parent Support Forums
General Parenting
psychiatrist gave parial asberger's diagnosis, but reluctant to give any bipolar diagnosis. change in medications
Top