Re: New here

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 9/9/2003 9:17:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time,

hfa2@... writes:

> Miko welcome to be here as it to be of good to have more spectrum adults

> here. You language structure is similar to me and this is good to have this

> here for me, as much need to be to have others understand the verbal of some

> with ASD is much different but functional.

> Are you to be to live in the USA? I to live in Ohio.I to be of married too

> and to have 4 children's.

> Sondra

hello yes, i am in Florida land, yes, in Davie, yes. i am in much groups yes.

i have seen much peoples diagnosed at late ages yes, i knew not of many who

start off low function and become high function, some peoples on some AS lists

even went to regular school, yes. i went to special school all mine life, yes.

i think better than i write, yes, and dream better than i think. i am much

high functioning these days, yes, i can go to supermarket myself now, yes, and

much able to tolerate much now that inability (is this correct word? it feels

not right) i was to do so before, yes.

how are your four child peoples?/ Nicollette has severe autism and genetic

mutation. I have been told I should not have any more child peoples no. I also

have a nephew with Aspergers, a niece and another nephew with autism, and a

cousin also autistic, yes.

Juli ASD mother to Nicollette Rett Syndrome w/autism

[Guest guest]

Welcome Juli! Glad to have you here. My name is Pennie and my daughter is

Abby 6 1/2. My husband also posts on the group.

Pennie

Abby's Mom

[Guest guest]

Miko welcome to be here as it to be of good to have more spectrum adults

here. You language structure is similar to me and this is good to have this

here for me, as much need to be to have others understand the verbal of some

with ASD is much different but functional.

Are you to be to live in the USA? I to live in Ohio.I to be of married too

and to have 4 children's.

Sondra

[Guest guest]

Welcome and Nicollette!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Robin

[Guest guest]

Hi Juli! Welcome! I recognize you from one of the sensory

integration lists, and maybe the enzymes and autism list. The last

time we chatted you were dealing with one mean ABA therapist. That

was a while ago.

I'm mom to a 6-year old daughter and 4-year-old boy/girl twins. My

younger daughter has autism.

I am not to be confused with the other Pennie in Michigan, who

spells her name wrong.

I am

PennY in Michigan, and I'm glad you joined us!

> Hello I am Juli mother to Nicollette, yes, we both in spectrum,

yes,

> Nicollette low functioning, yes. Myself higher functioning, yes.

So we are both girls

> I think this so with autism, yes. myself woman person, yes, but

was a girl

> with autism once, woman now, yes, and Nicollette is now 6 year old

girl with

> autism, now.

>

> hope to meet peoples well here, yes.

>

> Juli ASD mother to Nicollette Rett Syndrome w/autism

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Juli, welcome to the group & I'm glad you joined. We have a few

other adults on the list that are on the spectrum too. I think

you'll really like our little group. Everyone is very supportive &

I've learned so much from others on this group.

Wendie

> Hello I am Juli mother to Nicollette, yes, we both in spectrum,

yes,

> Nicollette low functioning, yes. Myself higher functioning, yes. So

we are both girls

> I think this so with autism, yes. myself woman person, yes, but was

a girl

> with autism once, woman now, yes, and Nicollette is now 6 year old

girl with

> autism, now.

>

> hope to meet peoples well here, yes.

>

> Juli ASD mother to Nicollette Rett Syndrome w/autism

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi

Welcome to the list. My name is Tracey and my almost 11 year old daughter

Skylar was diagnosed autistic at the age of 3. This is a GREAT group of

people. I look forward to getting to know you and your family.

Tracey

new here

Hello I am Juli mother to Nicollette, yes, we both in spectrum, yes,

Nicollette low functioning, yes. Myself higher functioning, yes. So we are

both girls

I think this so with autism, yes. myself woman person, yes, but was a girl

with autism once, woman now, yes, and Nicollette is now 6 year old girl with

autism, now.

hope to meet peoples well here, yes.

Juli ASD mother to Nicollette Rett Syndrome w/autism

[Guest guest]

welcome to the group. my name is eric. my wife pennie and i are NT our 6

year old daughter is autistic with sensory integration disorder. we have gotten

much help from this site. we live north of detriot. where are you from? do

you have more than one child? hope you find the group to be as usefull as we

have.

eric

abbys dad

[Guest guest]

Welcome Juli. I'm Debi, mother of 3 girls, 6, 4, and 11 mos. My 4 yr

old is ASD.

Debi

> Hello I am Juli mother to Nicollette, yes, we both in spectrum,

yes,

> Nicollette low functioning, yes. Myself higher functioning, yes.

[Guest guest]

Welcome to the group Carmen!!

Robin

[Guest guest]

Welcome Carmen. I to be Sondra a adult with High Functioning Autism who to

lives in Ohio. I to be of married and have 4 children's. I to have 2 dogs, 1

kitten, and a Russian Tortoise. I to be of writer and speaker on autism,

but none of my work is professionally published as of yet. We are to be

moving soon and hope to be to get a new place of living as my basement to

keep flooding making much illness to come to my family.

Sondra

[Guest guest]

-

Hi Carmen,

Glad to have you here. My girl is 4 years old. Time goes

by so fast. I hope to see you around the boards and it's very

helpful here!

-- In Autism_in_Girls , " curlyredmomma "

<curlyredmomma@y...> wrote:

> Hey all, glad to find a board devoted to just girls in a mainly

> boy's disorder. Very hard pill for me to swallow when I view a

> prospective school and hear that of 90 children, only 8 of them are

> girls. I'm Carmen, Caitlin is my high functioning autistic child,

> she's 23 months, and I have another daughter, Madison. Nice to meet

> you all and I hope to listen to and share stories about our little

> girls.

[Guest guest]

> Welcome Carmen. I to be Sondra a adult with High Functioning Autism

who to

> lives in Ohio. I to be of married and have 4 children's. I to have

2 dogs, 1

> kitten, and a Russian Tortoise. I to be of writer and speaker on

autism,

> but none of my work is professionally published as of yet. We are

to be

> moving soon and hope to be to get a new place of living as my

basement to

> keep flooding making much illness to come to my family.

> Sondra

Thanls for the welcome. it's especially nice to meet you, Sondra, I

think you are a true asset to a forum like this.

Carmen

[Guest guest]

Welcome aboard Carmen. My name is Charlene and I have 3

children two with autism. My oldest girl has PDD and my youngest son has

moderate autism.

Wow 90 children and only 8 girls with autism???? I didnt realize the

ratio was that huge. How old is Madison and is she NT?

Charlene

-- New here

Hey all, glad to find a board devoted to just girls in a mainly

boy's disorder. Very hard pill for me to swallow when I view a

prospective school and hear that of 90 children, only 8 of them are

girls. I'm Carmen, Caitlin is my high functioning autistic child,

she's 23 months, and I have another daughter, Madison. Nice to meet

you all and I hope to listen to and share stories about our little

girls.

[Guest guest]

Hi Charlene nice to meet you. Madison will be 5 next month and she

is NT. She really does not understand why all of these teachers come

and play with her sister and not her.

Carmen

> Welcome aboard Carmen. My name is Charlene and I have 3

> children two with autism. My oldest girl has PDD and my youngest

son has

> moderate autism.

> Wow 90 children and only 8 girls with autism???? I didnt

realize the

> ratio was that huge. How old is Madison and is she NT?

> Charlene

>

> -- New here

>

> Hey all, glad to find a board devoted to just girls in a mainly

> boy's disorder. Very hard pill for me to swallow when I view a

> prospective school and hear that of 90 children, only 8 of them are

> girls. I'm Carmen, Caitlin is my high functioning autistic child,

> she's 23 months, and I have another daughter, Madison. Nice to meet

> you all and I hope to listen to and share stories about our little

> girls.

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Carmen,

I too have an nt daughter named Madison. Whenever she met someone with a

baby she'd ask them what their therapists name was, she just assumed that

since her sister had one every baby had one. At first I was horrified,

now I find it amusing and she did eventually grow out of it.

Rhonda

Olivia's mom

[Guest guest]

Kirkman's makes a lot of great products but as far as enzymes go, I'm

pretty sure most would agree that Houston's is the way to go.

[Guest guest]

Hi Kathleen

Welcom to the list.

Tracey

New here

Hi all =)

My name is Kathleen and I have 2 daughters, Kailtyn 8yrs (NT) and

6yrs (Autistic) we live in WA. We have Missy on a diet of

absolutely no casien, (milk protien) she will drink rice milk and I

have enzymes just in case she gets a cheese cracker at school. But

we have been lucky to have the girls so close in age to where

Kaitlyn really helps Missy. Do any of you also use Kirkman products

with your girls? We have been using quite a few for about 4 years

and I am really only have a time with Missy's stemming. It seems to

increase and decrease like a rollercoaster. Any ideas on that one?

=) Well I guess that is all for now I will hope to talk to you all

soon.

Kathleen

[Guest guest]

> Kirkman's makes a lot of great products but as far as enzymes go,

I'm

> pretty sure most would agree that Houston's is the way to go.

Is there a website on Houston's brand? Thank you for the info. =)

Kathleen

[Guest guest]

Hi Cheri, welcome!! Sounds as if you are on the right track with

therapy and with school and all.

Yes, it can be soooo easy for family to get sucked into OCD's

demands. You seem to have a really good grasp on just what changes

will have to be made. It's great you found a therapist who seems to

understand treating OCD, sometimes it can be hard to find proper

treatment. Don't feel guilty at all for anything you feel may have

contributed to OCD (enabling it) as it's not until things begin to

really get out of control (with child or family or school...) that we

realize something is " wrong " and work towards finding an answer (in

our case OCD).

And when there are numerous behaviors/needs involved, many times the

child is working only bossing back a few of the behaviors, so we

parents/family may ignore (enable) the rest for a while until child

is ready to work on other OC behaviors. With my son we did this. We

would pick out some things to work on, ignore the others (which might

mean I helped/enabled, etc.) until we were working on them. When his

OCD began around age 11.5 he had all these compulsions/rituals that

he did (seemed 24/7) and even once we got to the point of working on

2 or 3 things, I was " helping " with others. (He's 19 now)

Good thing is once many kids have success conquering 1 or 2

OC " demands " , it can help some of the others to be more easily worked

on. My son's OCD seemed to change a lot those first months/weeks,

some behaviors disappearing but new ones popping up; and some

problems stayed the long-term.

About his repeating things. That could be part of his OCD. My son

did similar. I would hear him " mumbling " (couldn't catch the

words). Currently his OCD (which began acting up again) has him

saying things again, that I can't hear of course; he'll sort of put

his hand over his mouth when he says them.

We also got a 504 Plan for school when his OCD began. I loved that

504 Plan! Wouldn't have passed his grades without those

accommodations and modifications for school. And my help too! )

His OCD really affected his being able to do the work, even reading

and writing, and it did distract him a lot! Back then it was a lot

of compulsions, touching, some repeating actions...needing a " just

right " feeling and the feeling also that something bad would happen

to him if he didn't do them. Presently his OCD is just bad thoughts.

Well this has gotten a bit long I guess. But so glad you found us!

How are his sisters handling the OCD, does it affect them any?

(quickly typed so excuse errors!)

single mom, 3 sons

, 19, with OCD, dysgraphia and Aspergers/mild

, 19 (twin)

Randall, 23

>

> I am new here to the parenting list. My name is Cheri and I live in

> Tucson, Az. I am a mother to six children, our oldest is 22 yrs

old

> and our youngest is 7 yrs old. We have 5 girls and 1 boy. I am

here

> because of our 8 1/2 yr old son, Garrison. Garrison is our 5th

child

> and our only boy. Garrison was dx with ADHD when he was 5 yrs old,

> he is medicated for the ADHD. He was just dx with OCD a month ago,

[Guest guest]

Welcome, Cheri.

You should not feel bad for enabling. Nobody is to blame for OCD,. .

And certainly not the care giver. For many, until they learn how to

fight OCD, that is what happens. And as pointed out, even once

you learn you need to fight it, you cannot fight all of it at once, so

you continue enabling some of it, until they can work up their

hierarchy list to the tougher stuff. The good news is, it can improve.

I think we unknowing enabled when our son was young, before we even

knew it was OCD, to try to make the least waves and keep the peace.

It's easy to get sucked into their compulsions, especially when you

don't understand them. It seems that fighting OCD seems to be the

exact opposite of what a person naturally feels they should do to help

their child too. We want to protect them and love them through it,

but the more you protect from, rather than confronting the OCD, the

more the OCD grows. We learned how to help our son through it, often

being a encourager, as he moved along at the pace he chose, to

improvement. It helped us a lot by separating the OCD (in our minds)

from our son. Sometimes it is easy to get annoyed with the child for

the behavior, when the truth is that they are being controlled by the

OCD and hate it too, but feel powerless to stop it.

It sounds like you are on the right track for therapy. It is great

that you've found someone who understands it. That can be hard to

find. I'm glad you found this group too. There are many here who

understand. It's a great place to vent, share, and learn how others

have coped with certain situations.

Our son also makes noises. I've often wondered if it's tics, or

Tourettes. With him, it is just noises. . .It changes from throat

clearing, to little grunts, etc. I have a nephew with OCD, who used

to mumble things under his breath when his " intrusive thoughts " were

really bad. I know with tics, they often are not aware that they are

doing it.

Okay, hoping this all makes sense, because it's late and I'm tired.

lol

So glad you are here, Cheri. )

BJ

>

> I am new here to the parenting list. My name is Cheri and I live in

> Tucson, Az. I am a mother to six children, our oldest is 22 yrs old

> and our youngest is 7 yrs old. We have 5 girls and 1 boy. I am here

> because of our 8 1/2 yr old son, Garrison. Garrison is our 5th child

> and our only boy. Garrison was dx with ADHD when he was 5 yrs old,

> he is medicated for the ADHD. He was just dx with OCD a month ago,

> although we knew he had it long before the official Dx. We are

> seeing a therapist, who is working with us on " Bossing Back " the

> OCD. We have had two appts with her thus far and it's a 16 to 20

> week program.

>

> We had never heard of bossing back or even a treatment for ocd, so

> that is very new to us and seemingly difficult. We also were not

> aware until now, how badly we as a family have been sucked into

> Garrison's OCD. We cater to it, and it's taken over our daily

> lives. We will need to retrain ourselves as much as our son. I

> think I am going to have the biggest changes of anyone, for I am his

> main caregiver and I am guilty of allowing this to take over and I

> didn't even know it. I am part of his daily rituals and routines

> now. It's become so day to day, I don't even notice doing things but

> I do... all day long! I feel badly that I helped this grow into what

> it is today. It makes me sad.

>

> In the packet we were given it mentioned support groups and that

> linked us to this website. I hope to learn more about OCD and

> treatments over time. Ya'll are much busier than I am able to keep

> up with on a daily basis but I will try and jump in as time goes on.

>

> I am interested in hearing more about tics because this is something

> I tried to address with one of Garrison's previous Dr's but was blown

> off more or less. Garrison repeats himself under his breath and I

> have read somewhere, this can be a type of tic. Anyone know if this

> is really the case? We have a whole new Dr and councilor now, so we

> are making huge headway already, just getting the Dx finally and with

> that we already have a 504 and we are only 3 weeks into the school

> yr. Life is getting better and better. We have not addressed the

> repeating with Garrison's new " staff " yet but we will. We have only

> been to 4 total appts between the two. We are already overwelmed

> with the bossing back but I saw it mentioned in a thread I previewed

> and wanted to ask other's who may know. Garrison is not medicated

> for the OCD.

>

> Thank you for approving us to this board of information.

>

> Cheri

>

[Guest guest]

Welcome Cheri,

I have found this group amazingly supportive and helpful and I'm sure

you will too. My daughter, 8.5 also, does the repeating her own words

thing. As a tic, this symptom is called " palilalia " My daugher has

had other relatively mild tics since age 4. There's another thread

here that speaks to the difficulty differentiating tics vs.

compulsions. I'm not certain, in my daughter's case, if her repeating

herself is a tic or a compulsion. She also needs things to happen in

2's and is " obsessed " with even #'s in general. I'm unsure whether

she repeats herself as a tic or as a compulsion to " say it 2 times " .

I've asked her and she believes it's a compulsion but I think she's a

bit too young to really recognize the difference herself. Bottom

line, and why I even bother wondering about this, is that determining

tic vs. compulsion may determine how the symptom is addressed. For

ex., tics are generally " actively ignored " while compulsions may be

addressed by " bossing back " , etc. My daughter is on Zoloft for her

OCD, yet no med for her tics as they haven't significantly impacted

her functioning......yet . If we ever needed to address the

repeating words pharmacologically, it would be important to determine

tic vs. compulsion as the first-line med would generally be

different. We're beginning CBT ERP in a few weeks and I'm sure

teasing these things out will be part of the process. Good luck and

welcome again!

W. in NY

>

> I am new here to the parenting list. My name is Cheri and I live in

> Tucson, Az. I am a mother to six children, our oldest is 22 yrs

old

> and our youngest is 7 yrs old. We have 5 girls and 1 boy. I am

here

> because of our 8 1/2 yr old son, Garrison. Garrison is our 5th

child

> and our only boy. Garrison was dx with ADHD when he was 5 yrs old,

> he is medicated for the ADHD. He was just dx with OCD a month ago,

> although we knew he had it long before the official Dx. We are

> seeing a therapist, who is working with us on " Bossing Back " the

> OCD. We have had two appts with her thus far and it's a 16 to 20

> week program.

>

> We had never heard of bossing back or even a treatment for ocd, so

> that is very new to us and seemingly difficult. We also were not

> aware until now, how badly we as a family have been sucked into

> Garrison's OCD. We cater to it, and it's taken over our daily

> lives. We will need to retrain ourselves as much as our son. I

> think I am going to have the biggest changes of anyone, for I am

his

> main caregiver and I am guilty of allowing this to take over and I

> didn't even know it. I am part of his daily rituals and routines

> now. It's become so day to day, I don't even notice doing things

but

> I do... all day long! I feel badly that I helped this grow into

what

> it is today. It makes me sad.

>

> In the packet we were given it mentioned support groups and that

> linked us to this website. I hope to learn more about OCD and

> treatments over time. Ya'll are much busier than I am able to keep

> up with on a daily basis but I will try and jump in as time goes on.

>

> I am interested in hearing more about tics because this is

something

> I tried to address with one of Garrison's previous Dr's but was

blown

> off more or less. Garrison repeats himself under his breath and I

> have read somewhere, this can be a type of tic. Anyone know if

this

> is really the case? We have a whole new Dr and councilor now, so

we

> are making huge headway already, just getting the Dx finally and

with

> that we already have a 504 and we are only 3 weeks into the school

> yr. Life is getting better and better. We have not addressed the

> repeating with Garrison's new " staff " yet but we will. We have

only

> been to 4 total appts between the two. We are already overwelmed

> with the bossing back but I saw it mentioned in a thread I

previewed

> and wanted to ask other's who may know. Garrison is not medicated

> for the OCD.

>

> Thank you for approving us to this board of information.

>

> Cheri

>

[Guest guest]

I'm wondering if it could possibly be GAD. OCD is often excessive

anxiety and worry about something that is irrational and unreasonable,

but GAD is an excessive worry and anxiety over something that could

possibly happen. Even if that possibility is small. Just a thought.

I was told the therapy for GAD is realistic thinking. We've not had

to personally go through it though, because the meds for the OCD, also

calmed down the GAD.

You never know though. . . I wonder if there could also be some PTSD

going on, where she has had experiences in the past that are sort of

prompting it too.

If it were me. . I would try to get her into a therapist who

specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders. . .Someone who has

knowledge of OCD, GAD, PTSD, etc. They should be able to sort it out.

Or, you could even write to one of the doctors on this board to ask

their opinion. They are a HUGE blessing to this group.

If you are interested in that, you can put " Ask Dr. Wagner and/or Dr.

Chansky " in the subject line, then explain what you said to us.

Louis, our administrator can forward it for you, and they answer

through the group postings.

BJ

>

> Hello everyone. I am not even sure if this is the right place for me

> to be. I have a 10 year old daughter who is going through some rough

> stuff. I assumed it was OCD because I had suffered with that most of

> my life before I sought treament. Now I am wondering if its more of a

> anxiety thing. So please give advice or opinions.

>

> She just returned home from a summer with her dad who lives 4 hours

> away. I did see her on some of the weekends and she was fine.

> has always been a bit fearful of thunderstorms because once we had a

> storm and a tree fell on our house. No one was home. I guess while

> she was at her dad's they were having alot of storms. On a particular

> night they had a heat storm and she told me it set off a bunch of car

> alarms.

> Well, she came home Sunday and she is not the same child and I am

> worried sick.

>

> She sneaks to watch the weather. She is always asking me what a

> particular noise is. She asks me if I think its going to rain, do I

> hear a funny noise like a train. She is really having trouble

> sleeping, she got me last night and her and I slept on the couch. She

> bites at her nails, cracks her knuckles, she is visibly nervous.

>

> She starts school Tuesday and I am really worried, what if they have

> a storm, will she freak out? Our entire family has talked to her

> about statistics..but as a person who suffered from OCD I didn't care

> about the statistics and was caught up in the fear.

>

> This is breaking my heart.I think we may need some

> therapy to help get her through this.

>

> Anyone have any thoughts..anything please.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi , I can't add anything to what BJ said. So - no storms

since she's been home to see how she'll react during one? Did her

dad say she began to get scared/anxious any at all while at his

house? I would think it would have shown some before she left so was

wondering if she voiced any fears to him or waited til she got home

to you.

We had a night of storms recently, pretty bad for around here, and I

know I was a bit scared myself.

So is it the storms or a tornado she's worried about? (sound like a

train)

>

> Hello everyone. I am not even sure if this is the right place for

me

> to be. I have a 10 year old daughter who is going through some

rough

> stuff. I assumed it was OCD because I had suffered with that most

of

> my life before I sought treament. Now I am wondering if its more of

a

> anxiety thing. So please give advice or opinions.

>

[Guest guest]

Thanks to both of you for replying, I feel pretty alone with this.

She was acting like this at her Dad's house. He just didn't tell me.

I will never understand that. I think its about dying in a tornado.

She is always up looking at the clouds. She wouldn't go outside today

because it was raining. She was afraid a tornado would come out of

the rain. She wants all of the curtains closed so she cant see the

clouds. It just makes me so sad. I will be calling for help tomorrow.

I just can't believe how fast and how much this has changed her. I am

scared to death for her.

> >

> > Hello everyone. I am not even sure if this is the right place for

> me

> > to be. I have a 10 year old daughter who is going through some

> rough

> > stuff. I assumed it was OCD because I had suffered with that

most

> of

> > my life before I sought treament. Now I am wondering if its more

of

> a

> > anxiety thing. So please give advice or opinions.

> >

>