Help me understand my five year old - how many labels does he have to have?

[Guest guest]

Hello, this is my first post here.

So much info here, its hard to fathom. Wanted some advice from all

you knowledgeable parents if you would be kind enough to help me.

My boy has Autistic Spectrum Disorder, and is five years old. He has

been pulling at his hair since he was baby (Trich) on and off. and

now has most of the hair off his crown missing. He did this before,

pulled out the front of his hair completely when he was 2, and now it

has returned.

I dont know if this is a sensory thing or an OCD thing, how does one

tell? He has pulled at my hair since he was a young baby, used to

twist his fingers in my hair so bad, it took ages to untangle.

He also has suspected ADHD, as he has NO attention span whatsoever.

He is very bright (is learning to read on his own) knows how to

manipulate very well but flies into rages if he cant get what he

wants. He has major sensory issues when we go out, and a trip to the

park is a nightmare on wheels, he just runs the whole time and will

escape at first opportunity. Trying to teach him something is very

fleeting cause he cant sit for more than a few minutes.

He has never been formally labelled with anything except his ASD and

i have found to date, doctors have been pretty useless in helping me

with that, much less anything else.

Regardless of labels, we do have the manifestations in his behaviour

of a lot of things, but going to a doctor about it will mean

psychologists and probably the offer of drugs. I dont want either, as

my boy is only starting to talk, and we use biomedical interventions

for his other stuff.

My basic question is, are you on your own with OCD/ODD and the rest

with or without a formal label? Have you received outside help with

your kids or did you have to " reinvent the wheel " for each of your

children in helping them? So far this has been the case for me, with

my boy's autism and I suspect will be the same for the rest.

by the way, my boy is home educated. The schools were damaging to him

because he was sensory overloaded.

Finally, do you believe that ODD is real? Until now, i thought it was

B.S., but now i am thinking otherwise - thought i can see its very

complicated and tied in with everything else. Nothing seems to stand

alone, its all tied up with the rest.

thank you people