We suspected for a long time that something was not 100% ok with our son. He was always rather hyperactive, had problems concentrating on anything, but he also had problems making friends, and had problems living up to the simplest of rules we set.
He was starting to understand that he was having problems he couldn't solve himself. So we finally had him checked at a psychiatric center. After several sessions, yesterday he was diagnosed with ADHD as well as PDD NOS. Now ADHD can be enough of a problem by itself, but because of his PDD NOS, he isn't able to understand why people get annoyed or angry of his ADHD actions...
So now we have a family with physical *and* mental disabilities...I always said that I would have much more problems dealing with mental disabilities than with physical disabilities. But now that Tom has been diagnosed, nothing really has changed. Of course, we now know what his problems exactly are, and we will learn to deal with it better than we did before, but of course, he's still our son, and we don't see him any differently than we did before.
I've always believed that you never get a burden heavier than you can bear (or in Dutch 'Kracht naar kruis'). And so it is. We can handle it, for sure. But sometimes you can also think "Will it ever stop? Will things get easier? Ever?". We'll just see.
I found a good description of PDD NOS since I hadn't heard that particular acronym before.
Good luck. As much as you've done for your family, I'm sure there's a special place in heaven for all of you.
Re:Others may be wondering...
spur on 2005-04-03T15:36:30
From the example given, you're probably going to have a kid with some difficulties socializing with other people, who will enjoy solitary activities. In other words, a hacker;-) Re:Others may be wondering...
merlyn on 2005-04-03T15:53:36
Yeah, I've noticed that a lot about some of these "diagnosed" conditions. They look like the things that make people brilliant, because they're different.Maybe we "different" folks should come up with some "disease" names for those people who socialize a lot forming a group-think, like they have "Tribal Bonding" syndrome, or something. That would explain politics and religion as a disease, possibly treatable. {grin}
When I first read this I thought "PDD-NOS... that sounds familiar" but I couldn't remember where I had heard it. I was talking to my mom and she mentioned my brother had PDD-NOS and I was like "oh yeah!" (He has other problems but that's something for a post of it's own.)
