Steely
Active Member
Well, once again, my difficult child has started a new school. This is his zillionth try at schooling in his 16 little years, and I am beyond lost with it all. :cry:
To make a long story short - in 5th grade I took him out of public school to place him in a therapeutic private school. He lasted there one year, and they asked him to leave. "He was too much to handle." I then enrolled him in another therapeutic private school, the only other one in Dallas, and after one year he was once again asked to leave because he "was too much to handle." At this point I decided to homeschool him for a couple of years, got a divorce, got his medications to a point where I thought he was truly stabilized, and tried to overhaul his and my life. Fast Forward to 9th grade, where I found a school that taught individual classes. He spent his 9th grade year, happy and stable - but once again, at that year mark he exploded in class and was expelled. :mad:
His tenth grade year has been spent with him floundering, and becoming unstable again. We tried the homeschool thing again, and he refused to do most of the work. His grandpa was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer, and his Dad reappeared in his life after being on a 10 year hiatus - both of these things caused him to eventually become unstable again, and end up in the hospital a couple of months ago. His medications are once again stable, and he seems mentally pretty healthy, so I insisted he get back into school. I found a half day charter school, and enrolled him - and he started today.
We drove up to the school today and he just lost it. I mean I could tell he was having a huge anxiety attack, chest pains, rapid breathing, etc. but what is there to do except power through it? He just kept going on and on about how "he would fail in this school too", and he "could not do this successfully" and how he knew he would "get really mad and do something that he regrets". Unfortunately I just lost it - I mean all of my frustration just exploded all over him and I said things I really regret. Through my tantrum I managed to get him out of the car (really a proud moment for me) - and he walked into school feeling like he was not capable of being a success there.
Here is my question, my dilemma, and my conundrum. How does one know when a mentally ill person really is NOT capable of handling the stress?????? And if he not able to handle the stress of just a half day school - then what is his future going to hold?? In my opinion, if he cannot make it at this school - then his future looks pretty bleak - as in a highschool dropout that lives with me the rest of his life!
Noooooo! :cry:
And if I push him to go to this school, and he really is not capable, what if he gets arrested for blowing up in class? Have I not just completely set him up to fail?
Thanks in advance!
To make a long story short - in 5th grade I took him out of public school to place him in a therapeutic private school. He lasted there one year, and they asked him to leave. "He was too much to handle." I then enrolled him in another therapeutic private school, the only other one in Dallas, and after one year he was once again asked to leave because he "was too much to handle." At this point I decided to homeschool him for a couple of years, got a divorce, got his medications to a point where I thought he was truly stabilized, and tried to overhaul his and my life. Fast Forward to 9th grade, where I found a school that taught individual classes. He spent his 9th grade year, happy and stable - but once again, at that year mark he exploded in class and was expelled. :mad:
His tenth grade year has been spent with him floundering, and becoming unstable again. We tried the homeschool thing again, and he refused to do most of the work. His grandpa was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer, and his Dad reappeared in his life after being on a 10 year hiatus - both of these things caused him to eventually become unstable again, and end up in the hospital a couple of months ago. His medications are once again stable, and he seems mentally pretty healthy, so I insisted he get back into school. I found a half day charter school, and enrolled him - and he started today.
We drove up to the school today and he just lost it. I mean I could tell he was having a huge anxiety attack, chest pains, rapid breathing, etc. but what is there to do except power through it? He just kept going on and on about how "he would fail in this school too", and he "could not do this successfully" and how he knew he would "get really mad and do something that he regrets". Unfortunately I just lost it - I mean all of my frustration just exploded all over him and I said things I really regret. Through my tantrum I managed to get him out of the car (really a proud moment for me) - and he walked into school feeling like he was not capable of being a success there.
Here is my question, my dilemma, and my conundrum. How does one know when a mentally ill person really is NOT capable of handling the stress?????? And if he not able to handle the stress of just a half day school - then what is his future going to hold?? In my opinion, if he cannot make it at this school - then his future looks pretty bleak - as in a highschool dropout that lives with me the rest of his life!
Noooooo! :cry:
And if I push him to go to this school, and he really is not capable, what if he gets arrested for blowing up in class? Have I not just completely set him up to fail?
Thanks in advance!
