difficult child & games

MICHL

Member
Nothing seems to exist for difficult child besides his video games & food. That is all he cares about. He doesn't care about his hygiene or anyone else. He is on the max dose of abilify and tenex and has been on these medications for a very long time. His counseler at school said she noticed he has been very depressed lately and has negative view of himself, he could not find anything good to say about himself. I may take him to psychiatrist to re-evaluation his medications. A lot of good that will do though, he's already tried about all of them. The abilify/tenex was the best combo, but sometimes I think why? Is it even doing anything? but I've tried to cut one of them back in the past and all H_ _ _ broke loose. Our home life is like a psychiatric ward. Ugh... I don't know what to do for him anymore because he doesn't cooperate with anything.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Hi. My son's diagnosis. officially is Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)-not otherwise specified, although he is definitely higher functioning. The videogame obsession is normal for a child on the spectrum. One of the symptoms is "narrow interests." I have to force my son to do sports, take bike rides, and go to summer school so that he gets involved in other things. He never wants to go, but he always enjoys himself once he's out.

Other than psychiatric care is he seeing somebody who understands Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) kids and can help you help him? Often they treat kids on the autism spectrum as if they have psychiatric problems and from what I've seen that just doesn't work. These kids need interventions specific to their own disorder...not medications, talk therapy (most don't communicate well) or behavioral therapy (never worked for us). Teaching my son social skills, forcing him (yes FORCING) him to do certain activities that he was good at and learning how to go easy on the transitions was very helpful and he is now doing well. What didn't work was seeing a psychiatrist as his primary doctor, medication, and concentrating on behavior rather than helping him learn more about functioning in a world he didn't understand. These kids have trouble cooperating. They are not "bad" kids. They have a terrible time with transitioning and see all people as equal...teachers, kids, parents...they desperately need text book teaching on social skills and you won't get that from a psychiatrist. Most psychiatrist do not understand autistic spectrum disorder.

These kids are very sensitive and can perceive the slightest correct as "yelling at me." My son, who is sixteen, almost seventeen" will break into tears and cry about "I'm stupid" "I'm an idiot" if we so much as tell him that we caught him sitting down with the dog instead of walking him so could he please walk the dog around the block (this recently happened). Two days has gone by and he is still mumbling "I'm so stupid." This is not mental illness. This is autistic spectrum disorder. We are still working hard on his oversensitivity, but from an autism standpoint.

You may want to talk to somebody from the Autism Society for suggestions on what kind of services he needs. You can see that traditional psychiatry is not helping him. I'm not surprised. That didn't help my son either because, although he acted different than other kids, he was not mentally ill. In fact, treating him as if he were only made things worse and more desperate...good luck, whatever you decide to do.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
I asked difficult child 3's help for this answer.

difficult child 3 bought a game for his Nintendo DS called Pokémon HeartGold. He said there is another one called SoulSilver. They both come with a device called a Pokewalker which basically works as a pace counter. It responds to difficult child 3's steps when he walks or runs anywhere, and the more steps it counts, the more things it can do. It will power up the Pokémon you place inside it. You can also use Pokémon radar to locate other Pokémon, maybe even catch them. The more you walk, the more you can do with it. The more 'voltage' (or paces) you collect, the more stuff you can unlock. One point is collected for every 20 paces. Also, you can't fool this thing by shaking it, like you used to be able to do with earlier, similar devices. difficult child 3 says that the reason for this is it doesn't use a Morse key type switch, instead it uses an accelerometer like the one you find in the Wii remote.

So - if you want to use computer gaming to get your son more physically active (which can be a marvellous treatment in itself for depression) then this could be one option. Also, I swear by Wii Fit although we haven't got it out as much as we should have lately.

We have found tat getting outside in the day and simply being outdoors and moving around, has been great therapy for depression and the sense of futility these kids can get. This gadget could help.

Marg
 

MICHL

Member
difficult child goes to a non-public school for special needs kids, and he gets social skills training there, and counseling at the school. I agree, medications are not the answer. difficult child does have Pokemon. He had it once and lost it, and then insisted on getting it again, and it's not cheap, yet i never see him using it. husband makes him do activities & classes, but he often does not want to go again after the intial class.

Thank you for your replies.
 
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