I have a son who will be turning 16 soon who has asperger's syndrome, we have been through similiar situations as the guests on your show. We found a family counselor whom has helped us to understand this is not his fault nor in our control to change. We have seen great progress in his behavior, attitude and ability to control is out bursts. We all still face the challenges of daily life and the the syndrome, my son is not usually violent but shows tendancies toward self punishment. This is the area that worries me. I believe he is using drugs, not heavy drugs but pot. I fear he is heading down the road to self distruct. In our family there seems to be a pattern of neurological disorders, since my son has been diagonosed for 8 years I can now look back at my brothers and see some similiarities between their struggles and my own son's issues, I know have a nephew whom is 3 years of age (my brothers boy) who is believed to have autism with seizure disorder. The doctors mentioned testing him for "Fragile X Syndrome". I know very little about this syndrome but feel it needs to be looked at for our situations. If anyone knows about this syndrome or about a doctor who deals in this area I would so appreciative of that information. Over the past 5 years we as a family have been through alot of downs, we need some ups. We lost our mother to melanoma cancer of the brain , this has effected all of us in our own way. My son was very close to her and i feel he hasn't dealt with her death. As i have learned from family counseling it is important to establish as sense of predictability and routine to our lives so that our son feels secure and has a place to break down if he needs to. We try to assist him in establishing a system so he can handle the daily pressures of school, kids and all the teen ager things. As he has gotten older it has been getting better, and worse at the same time. I feel we still need more help for him and guidance with my nephew as a family. I would like to thank all of you who respond I will do my best to answer any one 's question that need info on asperger's and what we have found to be a help
Peggy
