Back home (so soon) after our Psychologist appointment...

[Chaosuncontained]

I can just sum it all up by saying "I'm not happy right now".

I don't know WHAT I was expecting. But it WASN'T what we got.

The Psychologist took me and Carson into a room. He was in an awful mood. I know he was wound up just being there. I had only told him we were going to see a lady who was going to try to help him be more "in control". In the waiting room he acted very ugly. Tantrum with me, over the other boy not sharing the blocks...


The Psychologist asked Carson questions. He was defiant. Answered them all but very hateful. Crawled around on the floor after being told numerous times to sit on the couch. Whined. Bit my leg because he couldn't play with a doo-dad on her desk.

Asked me questions. It soon became clear that she was focusing on his defiant behavior. Which I admit he has a lot. BUT--he was in "OVER THE TOP" mode today. I know some of it was "showing out". He;s not usually this bad.

Then she asked me about 10 questions. Then told me they were criteria for Oppositional Defiance. You need 4 out of...whatever. He scored 6 out of...whatever. I told her I was thinking he may be on the spectrum somewhere. She looked at me all puzzled and said she could do a "test" to rule it out. We were in her office for an hour. Just me and Carson. She also metioned that he could and probably is an ice cream sundae. Multiple scoops of different "flavors". ADHD. Mood Disorder. ODD. and something about "impulse something something disorder".

Then we went back to the waiting area. Carson wanted my MP3 player (Star Wars on repeat). I told him he could after he did some paperwork with another lady (IQ test). He threw a huge fit. Screaming NO! The IQ lady gave me an screening for Aspergers. I thought I was going to have to drag him off of the couch and back to the testing area. He *finally* got up and went stomping off with her.

Maybe 20 minutes later she came back. I could tell she was frazzled. She said "Wellll, it was pretty hairy for a bit but we got finished". We were then directed to the check out window. I was told that a report would be mailed to me in a week. Sigh.

Another thing the Psycologist asked was "What services is he using?" Ummm, WHAT? I told her I would love for her to direct me to the proper place and tell me what to ask for...

I'm disappointed. And too afraid to look up info on ODD.

 

[Bunny]

difficult child is labeled ODD. Oppositional Defiant Disorder. For a while I pushed for that diagnosis, but I have come to believe that it's really just a label. They say ODD when they can't pinpoint why they are defiant. For us, it was Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and ODD and what we were told was that if we could get the anxiety under control then the defiant behavior would slowly go away. It hasn't, and that's because the anxiety is not the only cause of it. We're still digging to try to figure out what makes him "tick" so to speak, and where the defiance comes from.

At least you seem to have a starting point, and that's better than nothing. I hope that the therapist is able to help.

 

[Chaosuncontained]

I agree, a starting point is a starting point. As you can see, Carson has enough dxs (ha). He covered every single criteria for both types of ADHD. Can't say my boy does it half way. Carson was also diagnosis as Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) (just a few months ago).

A frusteration of mine is that no matter what medications we seem to try--they don't really work. I mean I would hate to see him without ANY medications...but ON medications he isn't real managable (impulse, mood, agression). The anti depressant is the one "WOW" drug he's been put on. I know you can't medicate all the symptoms away...but geez.

He was awful. awful. awful today.

 

[TeDo]

Don't bother looking up ODD and personally, I would find a different psychologist who works primarily with younger children. I don't know that I would trust this lady after reading this. When were his medications checked last? It may be that he needs an adjustment or maybe different ones. Obviously, given this post and others recently, I don't know that the ones he's on are helping much. You might seriously also look into a neuropsychologist. If he has that many "layers", they'd be the best ones to sort it all out.

 

[Malika]

Chaos, I don't know if this helps but whenever I take my son anywhere for the first time, particularly to a doctor's, etc, he becomes over the top. I guess it's to do with anxiety. When I took him to the speech therapist the first time he was just manic - uncontrollable, zooming in and out of all the rooms, unwilling to talk or focus on anything. When we went the third, fourth and fifth times, he was a different child. So I wonder to what degree Carson was feeling anxious yesterday rather than wanting to be difficult just to put a spoke in everyone's wheels?

 

[buddy]

I was thinking the same thing as TeDo and Malika... Not only for my son, but when I read your post, I thought.... oh gosh this chick is gonna say he is autistic... why I thought that?? Because this is exactly how kids I first see often act. Just overwhelmed and their sensory integration is all off, they have no coping skills and just go for everything they can in a kind of panic..... biting, kicking, grabbing, not being able to sit. And by the way, that was my first clue this lady had no clue.... he had to SIT in a chair??? NO way. she should have had a bunch of toys set out and been on the floor herself.

To say there is a test she can do to see if he is autistic is silly. Yes, there are protocols that reveal if a child is likely on the spectrum. The diagnosis can not be made or ruled out based on them. It must be observed in more than one environment. How a child looks in one meeting with a person can not give a diagnosis. They must consider your input etc. They really are supposed to actually observe him in different settings.

I absolutely COUNT on Q falling apart with anything new. Sometimes I get lucky, but even if it is a happy thing that he will love, he struggles way more the first time. Especially how he treats me. Then once comfortable, he is his normal difficult child self.

My gut said the same as TeDo... I am not sure if I would share her results with anyone unless you feel they are right in your gut. She was just labeling behaviors she saw that minute, not looking at the big picture. Very scary kind of a professional if you ask me. I would write it off and move on.

 

[Chaosuncontained]

No, Carson and I sat on a couch across from her, she sat in a chair. I gave her a copy of his current report card, copies of all disipline reports and several recent emails from his teacher. She asked him what his least favorite classes were. Then a lot of questions like: "Have you ever hit anyone? Have you thrown things when you were angry? Do you say bad/cuss words? Do you do what your teachers tell you to so? Mom? Dad? Has anyone touched you in a place they shouldn't? Have you ever smoked? Drank alcohol?" And so on...

The Aspergers test was just a screener...that I filled out. You know, "Have you observed this?" I know he scored a above median on all but one area (can't remember for the life of me which one).

I will wait to get her "report" in the mail and see what it says...but yeah, I wasn't confident in her at all.

And I'm not hellbent on him "having" Aspergers... I just have a feeling, something is there, not just ADHD or Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) or mood disorder or depression. I mean, come on. I feel these are SYMPTOMS of something else... And you are right, TeDo, his current medications don't seem to be cutting it...

 

[buddy]

such a good warror mom.... sorry you are going through this... {{{hugs}}}

 

[Chaosuncontained]

Yesterday was BAD. Very defiant. Yesterday, he BIT me on the leg (he's never shown that type of agression towards me-ever)!

Today he woke in a good mood. Went to school, took his Reading Benchmark test no problem (well, I don't know the score yet, but there were no outbursts). He told me that he "said a few bad words, but they were all in my head." Then he said "Mom, I was really p-i-s-s-e-d off!" He spelled it instead of saying it. I'm calling today a good day.

OH! He told me that he took his test in a small classroom all by himself, with the teacher that gives him extra Math help... and that his Math Benchmark was that way too. They've never done this before, although I have suggested it for tests.