schizophrenia Archives - Page 302 of 303

I didn’t realize what the problem was until today

I've come to an important realization today. I used to think that Elliott didn't have any issues with socialization. He has friends and interacts with them throughout the day. When we're out in public, he's the most polite kid in the world, and people comment on it all the time. All those things are good. They're great actually, because not all kids on the Autism Spectrum have those skills. Unfortunately, it never occurred to me that what he's been struggling with has to do with social skills. On the surface, everything seems great. It's when you look a bit deeper that the problems become more apparent. Elliott struggles to understand where people are coming from. Today is a perfect example. Elliott was riding the bus home from the field trip…

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April 28, 2017

Emmett John / Meltdowns / My thoughts

Never underestimate the impact of a meltdown

This was one of those days where I spent all the energy I had in morning. The boys went to the zoo today and the anticipation/excitement of that kept Emmett from sleeping last night. We camped out on the couch and he did eventually fall asleep, but he didn't get nearly enough. He was a holy terror this morning. Overstimulation, exhaustion and anxiety are not his friends. As volatile as he was this morning, when we got to school he was fine. He gave me a super long hug and a kiss, before hopping out of the car and walking into the school. I don't know own how he turns it off like that. Gavin used to do that and it drove me crazy. He's get Lizze and I all…

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April 27, 2017

Emmett John / Meltdowns / My thoughts

The meltdowns are killing me today

The boys are going on a field trip to the zoo today. Emmett is in a truly horrible mood this morning. He's been screaming all morning and it's been like one long meltdown. The problem is likely the fact that he woke up after midnight and couldn't go back to sleep. He and I crashed on the couches in the living room but he didn't fall asleep for hours.. That meant that I couldn't fall asleep for hours as well. I don't have the patience to deal with this at the moment, as I'm exhausted.

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April 27, 2017

Emmett John / My thoughts

The meltdowns are killing me today

The boys are going on a field trip to the zoo today. Emmett is in a truly horrible mood this morning. He's been screaming all morning and it's been like one long meltdown. The problem is likely the fact that he woke up after midnight and couldn't go back to sleep. He and I crashed on the couches in the living room but he didn't fall asleep for hours.. That meant that I couldn't fall asleep for hours as well. I don't have the patience to deal with this at the moment, as I'm exhausted.

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April 27, 2017

Gavin / My thoughts

Why this is a blessing and a curse

I know it may seem silly to some because what happened this morning at Gavin's doctors appointment, didn't really change anything, but I'm struggling anyway. Would it make the Universe implode if just for once, we could get really good news at one of Gavin's doctors appointments? Would the cosmic balance be thrown out of whack if Gavin was able to catch a break? Would life as we know it cease to be if Gavin were able to recover from even one of his many physical or emotional health problems? I realize I'm biased but my God, how much should one kid have to endure in a lifetime? I'm trying to be positive about this, so here's my thought. Maybe one of the major challenges he faces has an upside…

4 Comments

April 26, 2017

Gavin / Major Update / Mental Health / My thoughts

Gavin had a major diagnosis change today

Gavin and I met with Dr. Reynolds this morning. Lizze wasn't feeling well and was resting up so she would be better when the kids got home from school. Sometimes we have to divide and conquer. Today's appointment was basically supposed to be a followup, because we had discontinued the Lithium last month. Dr. Reynolds wanted to make sure everything was okay. We met for quite awhile, and the discussion turned to something I hadn't planned on. I asked the question, at what point do we revisit his Schizoaffective diagnosis and look at straight up Schizophrenia? The reason I asked this question is because we haven't reevaluated him in a long time and his symptoms have changed as he's gotten older. Long story short, Gavin's official diagnosis has changed to…

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April 26, 2017

Gavin / My thoughts / Vivint Gives Back

3 items are helping my son with #Autism gain independence

I've spoken about this a few times before, but I wanted to share something we've done, to help our low functioning teenager with Autism, gain a bit more independence. Gavin is seventeen years old and struggles in most areas of his life. He's unable to remember things, and his cognitive ability is in a slow, unending decline. One of the things that we've recently done to help him better manage his daily life, weekly schedule and bedtime routine, is introduce some home automation into his room. I've been working on automating our home over the last year or so. For whatever reason, Gavin was resistant to being included in this process but a few days ago, he decided he'd like to give it a try and that's pretty exciting because…

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March 5, 2017

Gavin / My thoughts

Update: This kid is driving me effing CRAZY

I took a large part of the weekend off from writing. Things were getting stagnant for me and I think a break was in the cards. I'm feeling good and my thoughts are stringing together will less effort. Yay for the little victories... ☺ There's one main thing to touch on tonight before I go to sleep and that's about how Gavin's doing as we've cut his Lithium in half. Gavin's been on 900 mg of Lithium per day for close to a decade. Overall, it's served him well. That's something that we are grateful for because it improved the quality of his life by helping to manage his bipolar disorder. The problem is that sometimes these improvements come at a cost. In Gavin's case, it seems that the combination…

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February 13, 2017