Hi I just joined

[Guest guest]

My name is LG and I am an almost 40-year-old mother to 3 boys and 2 girls. Our

oldest boy, B. (born 2002) first was diagnosed with Adjustment Disorder, but

that quickly was changed to PDD after much testing and observation. He didn't

talk well until after his 3rd birthday and is probably on the lines of

Asperger's Syndrome or another high-functioning Autism. Our other boy, J. (born

2004) is also a late talker and isn't very clear at all. It takes all my

" hearing " to understand him sometimes. He is also now diagnosed with Adjustment

Disorder, but he doesn't have the same kind of disability as our older boy does.

B. is not social and keeps to himself (he only interacts with very few of his

classmates) and is really smart, especially when it comes to math, whereas J. is

very social, but very...naive and I can see him getting into trouble because of

that when he is older. He loves playing with the other kids, but his speech

problem kind of sets him apart from his classmates and he is also very smart, bu

t has very bad fine-motor control problems that keep him from writing easily. He

also throws tantrums frequently still and gets so frustrated at the smallest

things. We will see where his " diagosis " goes, though I am not too concerned

about the actual wording of either of them. They get speech in school and we are

looking into occupational therapy too. They both have a therapist who comes in

to see each of them once a week.

I, myself, was diagnosed with supposed ADHD early in life, but then when I

finally got out on my own and got a computer with half-decent Internet access, I

started exploring Asperger's and I was shocked by what I was reading! THAT was

me all over...the social awkwardness, the inability to make friends and

" connect " with people...all of it! I sent it to my mom back a few years ago, and

she was stunned too. She said that was the diagnosis I never got and she was

100% sure that was me. I still don't make friends easily (I have ONE real-life3

friend) and the only people I associate with daily are my family (husband and

kids) and the people at the elementary school. I cannot " read " people well at

all and I HATE HATE HATE social situations. I avoid them like the plague! I hate

people around me too, and if there are too many people, I have panic attacks.

The boys both get SSI for their disability, and I get Disability payments for

mine. We don't make a lot, but we are happy and our mortgage, unlike many in

this area, is actually currrent!

We live in a small city in Pennsylvania (Scranton) and after my mom passed away

in 2008, we were able to buy the house we are living in now. Before this, we

lived in a very small, crappy apartment. I like this house better! My mom was

divorced for years and years, so I have no father (my step-father had been

really abusive so they divorced when I was much younger) and my mom's boyfriend

up and left without a trace after my mom passed away. My grandparents are still

alive (lived next to where my mom lived-about 15 miles from where we live

now-and I grew up, but that house is now sold to another family) and I have an

Aunt and Uncle who live maybe 10 miles away and a cousin who lives in Florida.

We have 2 cats, Stinkie and Ramsay (named after Chef Ramsay), a budgie

(parakeet) named Sunshine, who is now whistling at me, and a pet mouse named

Remy (after Ratatouille) that our eldest daughter takes care of.

Our children are K. (1999), B. (2002), J. (2004), D. (2007), and E. (2010) and I

don't know if we are " done " yet.

Thanks for letting me join. It is much easier to talk through the Internet for

me.

~LG