End of Semester Review

Six months ago, Dreamer was a bit of a mess. Dragged his feet out of bed each morning, off to school (usually late, because he'd get distracted and not have his shoes on when it was time to go), arrive home, fall on the bed, sleep. Nagged awake, nagged into the shower, he'd stay there through dinner time, and be out in time to microwave re-heat his food and eat alone. Sleep, rinse and repeat.

Ugh.

We found a nice psychiatrist, to help with his disability pension application, and she promptly diagnosed him (on top of his ADHD and Aspergers) with major depression and OCD, and talked him into trying an SSRI
(Zoloft).

He was rapt. He thought it was more than wonderful. He's only missed about two days since February, which is amazing considering he has the attention span of a goldfish.

He told me that the kids at school were rapt that he started talking back to them. His social life has improved ridiculously. Amazing what happens when you actually talk to people.

I've been enjoying the change so much, so happy to see him happy, and thrilled to have him going out and doing normal, teenage, social things. For the first time in his life.

I suppose I knew that we'd have to address the academic issue eventually, but no way was I going to slam down on his new social life to have him catch up on school work. One thing at a time...I wanted him to enjoy his new-found confidence and self-esteem first.

So this week is end of semester exam block, and I can see the reality-check hitting him over the head. He's probably an inch shorter each day when he gets home from school.

I don't know, maybe he thought that with everything going so well, he'd magically pass his exams, and his assignments would magically get done in 10 minutes.

Uhuh. I'll wait for the report card next month, but my feeling is that the marks will be better (as he's been more available for learning in class), but they won't be pass marks. I haven't actually seen him doing any assignment work or homework.

Current status:
Social life - big tick
Happy and confident teenager - tick (except for exam week).

Next priority:
Getting the OCD out of the house.
Maybe in the holidays I'll help him sort out his room, and possibly even throw away some of the junk thats so 'precious'. There are things lurking in the cupboard that have been there for eight years - paperclips, silver paper and other 'shiny things' that were the collectables of the day back in Grade Four.

We could symbolise some fresh starts. Change some habits. He has admitted that (since medication) he doesn't have to do things, but is doing them from habit. Some days he's fabulous, and others he slips back into old habits. 

We could also do some work on timetables. Previous attempts have been abject failures. That'd be something to do with the fact that you actually have to read them (not put them away under a stack of books), and keep track of time.

Next semester:
Academics. Making attempts on things that have been brick walls for so long that he's afraid to even try. It's going to take bucket-loads of encouragement. And reminders. And probably timetables.

Do you think I could get a 'My Frontal Lobe' app for his phone? Because mine is sorely over-taxed.

Alphabet Soup

Yeah, well, I'm home alone, with a new baby blog, and no kids reading over my shoulder asking "What are you doing, Mum", so why not say a few more things?

Like, first off - Valerie, you're responsible for this.  Is this blogging going to chew up my life? Normally on a Sunday afternoon I'd be raiding with my guildies on World of Warcraft.

And then, I was debating whether or not to even mention diagnoses here, or just leave our family as neurologically interesting.

Some of us have labels, and some don't. That's not to say we aren't all peculiar in our own ways, it's just that for some of us, getting along in the NT world has been more difficult.

Being a practical person, I'm not averse to using Alphabet Soup to get what my kids need, if that's the only thing that a school or a government department understands.

But still, there is more to a person than a label, so I'd much rather talk about aspects or traits or tendencies.

Alright, I'll do it. *takes a deep breath*

ADHD/ADD, AS/ASD, CAPD (APD), OCD, major Depression, Anxiety.

They are the official ones, and I don't think I've forgotten any.

Then it starts to get blurry.
The child who is not ADHD is a hyperactive, sensory-seeking, kinaesthetic learner, who the school wanted on Ritalin.
The child who has no labels has oral-defensive issues that have me tearing my hair out.
And I'm still not sure where the line gets drawn between ASD obsessions and anxiety and the seperate labels of OCD and Anxiety.
Executive Functioning, anyone? Where does that fit?
Then start to look at the adults, and surprise, surprise, the apples don't fall far from the tree. 

But there you go. Bit of this, bit of that, whole heap of the other, stir up the family gene pools, and you get what you get - just your average family. ROFLMAO.