Topic : 01/17 Extreme Disorders

I am so happy to see Dr. Phil finally do a show on this frustrating disorder. Anyways, I have probably had Aspergers my entire life but it didn't get diagnosed until I was 24yrs old. I was never a normal child, as a baby I would cry if anyone other than my mom,dad,brother, or Nana looked at me or held me. If we went to the store, I would hide my face. So they knew something was up even. When I started Kindergarten I had a lot of Developmental Delays, so I was tested to see if I was learning disabled and sure enough I was. So that was the start of spending all 12yrs of school in Special Ed and RSP classes and putting up with bullies. Anyways not only do I have Aspergers, I have "Anxiety and Depression with Obsessive Features", ADHD, Cognitive Disorder (can't remember the name), and sleu of of learning disabilities, and on top of all head problems; I have Keratoconus in my right eye and am almost blind and near-sighted in my left eye and have the startings of Keratoconus in it as well. So I am a lovely mess!!!! I did take some college courses but never was successful, I always ended up dropping the classes. Right now I live on SSI and live with my parents. But I get out of the house everyday, I have a special friend who looked past my disabilities and got to know me and she picks me up every morning and we go to the ranch where she is a horse trainer alongside her husband and I get ride and care for horses all day. I LOVE IT SOOOO MUCH!!!!! They have taught me so much about life and about horses and riding. Its because of them that I ride as well as I do these days, they are reiners also and I go to the shows with them and by next month I may start showing too. YAY!!!!

Hi. I watched the show this morning with a hopeful attitude. My son is 7 and is Autistic. My hope was that the show would offer insight into the many therapies available. One that has helped my son and many, many others is the biomedical approach. Please see http://www.autismwebsite.com/ari/dan/dan.htm 

  

My son in particular was helped enormously by removing gluten and dairy from his diet. Many children on the spectrum are shown to have severe gastrointestinal problems. Maybe some of your son's meltdowns are caused by his body's inability to process dairy and gluten, and actually are causing him pain. Maybe he has vitamin deficiencies, as many ASD kids are shown to have absorption problems. 

  

There is so much information out there. Please look into the website above, and look into a good DAN! physician. There is hope and there is help! 

  

Bless you and your family. I hope this helps. 

I have Asperger's Syndrome and was very successful in school with a lot of hard work that went on for many hours. I had a few good friends, but almost no social life. I have a hard time fitting into the work world and into the adult social world. I would like to see how other adults deal with Asperger's syndrome and how this syndrome affects their work relations and personal relationships, as well as daily life. Are there any resources for adults with Asperger's to turn to for help?

  I'm a mother of 2.  The oldest is 13 diagnosed with aspergers a few years ago.  It can be hard to understand and deal with.  I live  in a small town with little resourses or no support groups.  We have worked with theorpy an meds for years an still  are.  I have seen very littloe change in moods, anger control and emotions.  We try to cope and deal with this on a daily basis to the best of our ability.  I don't think he understands what is going on in his head,  and I don't  think he can control what is happening inside of his head.  It's like tunnl vision, he can't or is unable to see outside of this tunnel.  This is very frustrating and confussing. 

  

  He is very bright , intelligent and loveable child.  We need advise direction and proffessionals in our area that are able to treat asperger with meds along with theorpy and that are able to stick with us and him.  We 've had alot of mobles, and tss's now and in the past, too many to count and none of them able to stay ahnd help in any of this.  Medications, changes, so many fo so long. 

  

  Any advise? 

  

  

  

I just saw one of the greatest presentations about  Asperger's Syndrome this past weekend.   I was at the Annual Autism Spectrum & Sensory Integration Expo,  and was lucky enough to see a presentation by a son and his mom, Jack and Maureen, about Jack's (and his family's) life with Asperger's Syndrome.  They really opened my eyes to just how Asperger's syndrome can effect lives.  

  

As a fairly new high school teacher (3rd year), I see many students with varying needs, abilities,  and disabilities in my classes.  I try to give them every opportunity to succeed in class but this is as far as my assistance in their lives goes, generally speaking.  Maureen and Jack helped me understand how the "rest" of a child/adult's life with Asperger's Syndrome is. I honestly think that their presentation was more beneficial to me than a few of the classes that I took about "exceptional children", and has made me rethink many of my methods of teaching students. 

  

Maureen and Jack have a website.  it is: http://www.aspergerplanet.com . They both answered so many of my questions when i saw their presentation.  I must have talked with Maureen for at least a half hour afterward, and could have talked for much longer! She answered all of my questions, and gave me her email address in case i had any more.  I'm sure they will answer just as many for anyone. 

  

(para hispanohablantes:  Maureen habla espanol, tambien.   Se pueden escribir en espanol! ) 

  

If you get a chance, and are truly interested, check out their website or email them.  I feel like I'm a walking advertisement for them, now...but i truly was that IMPRESSED by their presentation! 

 I am very thankful that Dr. Phil did this show. I am a 28 year old mother of 4,and my two middle childern have asperger syndrome [ AS]. My daughter is 7, and my son is 5, and with alot of time and work they are doing well. We have a TSS worker in our home 20 hours a week, to teach me skills on how to help them. It is working out well. What I am having a problem with is that , alot of people have never heard of  asperger syndrome. I  am one of them, I never heard of it till 2 years ago when my kids were diagnosed with it.  When my children started school, I told them that they had AS and no one knew what it was. They still call me and we have meetings often, beacuse they don't know what to do with them sometimes. They are both very smart kids, they just learn different. I wish more people would do shows on asperger syndrome . It is a growing problem,  and the more we educate  people, the brighter our childrens future will be. Thanks again for doing the show  

I have a nine year old autistic child who has always known that he is autistic. He does at times have fits of rage, but it is not because he knows he's autistic and it is never used as an excuse for his fits. He has the fits because he can not properly verbalize what is bothering him and he gets frustrated by this. I do not think there is any thing wrong with telling the child this. I also believe if you try and hide this from your child that will cause more problems in the future for them. I accepted my childs autism and as a matter of a fact on one of my son's papers for school he put I am special and different because I am autistic. I feel that it is a part of acceptance and if he is able to accept that then hopefully we will not go through a time of him not being able to accept his autism or himself because they are one in the same. 

Also I do believe that we should treat our children "normal", but we also can not deny them the right to know. It is not going to make them "normal" there is no cure just acceptance. 

I have a 16 year old son with a severe case of Aspergers and 5 other kids at home that makes life very stressful.  We feel out of control of our lives, so I can relate very well with the parents on the show.   I have all of the same feelings of guilt, anxiety, and of being overwelmed.  We have been through many therapist, doctors, groups and medication trying to find ways to get a handle on him.  This last year has been the worst year of his and our lives.  We even had to hospitalize him for a short while because we were afraid for his and our safety.  I am glad to see Dr. Phil have a show on this disorder because most people have no idea what it is and how it effects the family.  When you say your child has Aspergers most just look at you funny and say I've never heard of that.  I just hope that more treatment options will be available for the average family living with this disorder in the future, because it is very diffucult getting the right help. 

I want to thank Dr. Phil and his staff for doing this show about Asperger’s. My son (who just turned 8 this week) was diagnosed with high functioning autism when he was 3 years old but only on my encouragement – ‘boys are like that’ is what I was told when I started to voice my concerns almost 2 years before. Everyday has been a struggle for us. He yells, hits, kicks and screams at us for everything. His frustration level for everything is extremely high. He has an extremely high level of anxiety in so much that his average day at school will leave him so upset that it will ruin the rest of the day for him and the rest of the family. School work is difficult because he might not get the right answer and the work he does never turns out the way it should in his mind. His fine motor skills are lacking and it is just too hard for him to come up with an idea and then have to concentrate on getting the idea on paper while trying to make all those letters turn into words and words into sentences. He puts himself down and hits himself in the legs and head when he is frustrated. Even video games make him incredibly upset which leaves very few things that are fun to him. Toys never work like they do on TV – Lego has to be built exactly as it is shown on the box and in the same colours – there are so many things.

  

 

Even though I know the world is full of kids like my son Danny and Alex from the show I always feel that we are so alone in dealing with this. No one seems to understand just what we have to go through day after day dealing with the same problems every single day. We have even had people recommend things to ‘bring him out of his shell’! People think he is stubborn or spoiled and should be forced to do things. I don’t think there is any child in the world that would throw a 15 minute fit because they need to wear rain boots instead of snow boots in the winter. I don’t think other kids would complain every day for 6 weeks about wearing a new jacket when the old one was way to small and full of tears. Other kids don’t talk about missing the kitchen wallpaper border for 4 years after it has been gone or the old washing machine that broke down 5 years ago.

  

 

In the last few months I have taken to moving the knives in the kitchen off the counter and to a more secure less accessable spot. Sharp tools are so far back in the closet that my son would give up from frustration long before he could get to them. You would be hard pressed to find a match or lighter anywhere in our house and even corrosive chemicals do not come into our home. My little boy tells us often that he is going to kill us and that he wants to blow up the school.

  

 

 He is terribly bullied at school. The other boys get him to do things that they know he will get in trouble for. They push and hit him and get him in trouble for things that he doesn’t do because they know he gets into trouble for other things he cannot control. He swears all the time now and he has picked this up at school. He just doesn’t know that this should be kept from the adults like the other kids do. I worry about his safety as he gets older. He hates the 2nd grade and knowing that there is still 10 more years of school after this sends him into an anxiety induced rage. He would be more than happy to never go to school again and at times so would I!

  

 

Anyway, in all this I just wanted to say to Alex that you are one brave young man and I hope that my son grows up to be just like you in another 7-8 years. You show a lot of compassion for your family and those around you. You care about them even though this is something that I know can be difficult for you. Thank you Alex for having the courage to let people see you at worst. Even if this show opened the eyes of one person I would say that what you did was worth the incredible effort you had to make. I know Karen that you must feel the same way as me at the end of the day - maybe when you check him when he is asleep and so at peace with the stress completely gone from his face  - relief that you made it through another day and worry that maybe someday you won’t.

  

 

Liz