Brain Damage and the Child.

Met with the Child Psychologist. Somethings I was told weren't a huge surprise, some things made me sad. Our son needs placement at Manchester House. he presents as someone who has suffered traumatic abuse in his life. She said that from reading his case history, she doesn't believe that the abuse is real, though it appears real to... our son.

Our son is afraid of a number of things. First, he is afraid that we are going to kick him out of our family. Second he is afraid that someone is going to kill him. His response to confrontation is a reflection of that. It is called fight or flight. Even the slightest confrontation is seen by him as a threat to his life. This also explains his assaults on the furniture and other violent behavior both at school and at home.

Our son was telling the doctor about some of his life. According to our son, his birth mother took him home from the hospital and fed him illegal drugs. He also told the doctor that he had a party late one night while everyone is sleeping and with the help of his friends put whipping cream all over mom and dad while they were sleeping.

In the future he may have issues with Dissociative Identity Disorder and other things. He exhibits some traits of Autism, so Autism therapy may help. Although he can't be diagnosed as having Autism Spectrum Disorder. She said that our son has an incredible ability to jump from thought to thought so quickly that it makes the average person dizzy and that it is also surprising that his IQ is as high as it is given the limitations the brain damage places on his ability to concentrate.

It is hard to see our child in this light.

The doctor said that he may learn some alternative behaviors, but that they will be learned and susceptible to replacement by other memories, rather than a learned behavior that stays with him throughout his life.

The doctor also stated that when our son comes home he needs respite care for the rest of the family, as well as a self-contained classroom, a one-on-one aide and a few other things. She thinks that he will need to be transported to another district until trust can be established with school personnel. Comments were made about our sons experience with the school so far. It is sad that everyone but the school could see the difficulties that he is faced with.

In my role as the chief disciplinarian for our son, he is afraid of me. The doctor said that if mom had that role, he would be afraid of her.

There is no magic fix for him. All that we can hope for is that he will learn to cope with the life he has, and be as successful as he can be in that regard.

As he reaches adulthood, he will need group home care.

Brain Damage and control

A lot has happened since my last post.  We received a tentative diagnosis of "brain injury" for our son. 
He started a partial hospitalization program last week, and today has been  a long day.  today is the first time I have heard someone use the term "brain damage" and his name in the same sentence.

M was put in the hospital from the program he was in.  When I asked what he did to necessitate him being put into the hospital.. the only thing i was told is that he was out of control.  Want a kick in the guts?  have someone tell you "we know he has brain damage".  I will wait to confirm "Brain Damage"  with the psychiatrist.  I know that the psychiatrist was talking about a brain injury diagnosis, but did not know that our son had been firmly diagnosed.   So our son is in the hospital again.  hopefully tomorrow I can get a better idea of what out of control is.