New and introducing...

[sickandtired]

I can't tell you all how glad I am to have found this wonderful comfort zone. I have a 4 1/2 year old son by my husband, and a almost 6 yr. old daughter from a sd (sperm donor). My son is my problem. I haven't had a chance to get him evaluated exstensively but was evaluated once but a learning center group. He was diagnosis as social ...man, i can't even remember what it's called. Anyway, the little I've read about ODD sounds JUST like him. we have our ok days and our bad days. I'm just so tired of the constant battles. Everything is an argument and it's so emotionally draining all I wanna do is sleep sleep sleep so I don't have to deal with it. I have depression and anxiety and was on celexa daily. Was on zoloft while pregnant with him, and smoked. I don't deal with stress well at all and every six months or so end up sick because my body doesn't like it. In my family there are alot of personality disorders, severe depression, alcoholism, drug abuse. On his dad's side, there's more mild depression, his dad has some anger issues. his g/f is a sociopath. dad also was drug abuser in earlier years. no alcoholism that i'm aware of.

Now, i have some questions on your abbreviations....
what is: difficult child, psychiatrist, husband, iep, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)??

 

[SRL]

Hi sick and tired, I'm glad you found us. You've given us a lot on the family history, but could you fill us in on your son, the difficulties you've had with him, and anything else that seems unusual or developmentally significant about him.


difficult child = gift from god to remind us that our difficult little darlin's are still are darlin's

psychiatrist = child psychiatrist

husband = darling husband...or any other "d" adjective you'd like to insert

iep = inividualized educational plan, a special education contract with the school

Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) = pervasive developmental disorders, most of which fall under the umbrella of Autism

 

[BusynMember]

Hi, and welcome.
ODD is not usually a "stand alone" diagnosis. It fits MOST of our kids, but it doesn't explain the "why." It almost always is difficult behavior caused by either a larger psychiatric or neurological disorder, such as autistic spectrum disorder or early onset bipolar or any number of things. It is hard to diagnose anything in such a young child and the diagnosis will probably change as he gets older. For right now, I'd see a Child Psychiatrist. in my opinion a psycologist, with so much psychiatric trouble on the family tree, probably won't help--in my opinion and experience it is better to start at the top and the Psychiatrist has all the training for both the medical and behavioral side. You can at least get a start. I wouldn't try to diagnose on my own, based on reading symptoms. Every childhood disorder sounds similar and it takes a professional with a sharp eye to try to figure out what is causing the symptoms, because the treatment for every disorder is different. If there are mood disorders and substance abuse in the family tree, those are big red flags for a mood disorder. But be prepared to put the puzzle together slowly and to at first probably just be treating the symptoms. Good luck! I attached a few links you may want to read to see if anything strikes home, but, again, don't try to diagnose on your own.

http://www.bpchildresearch.org/
http://www.childbrain.com/pddassess.html