is it ADHD are is IT Autism/Asperger's/pdd

Shasta - posted on 09/30/2010

Thanks Jennifer. It's not that misery loves company...it's just that it is comforting to know that I am not alone. It just gets so overwhelming and I sometimes feel absolutely lost. Please keep me posted on how your son makes out. It sounds very similar to what my son is going through also.

Jennifer - posted on 09/29/2010

Shasta, please push forward...that is what I am doing and we can do it together. My son was diagnosed by his Dr. at age 6 with ADHD...he was on several different medications for it and they would make him act like a zombie...he had no emotions then....After talking with some other parents whose children were diagnosed with ADHD, I realized that the Dr. never did any type of testing, so I stopped giving him the medication. His first elementary school whick was k-2 was horrible. I held him back in kindergarten and the whole 4 years he went to that school, they were not willing to help me and just labeled my son as the bad child. I met with the prinicipal at his school now, before he went into 3rd grade and her and I have worked well together to try and get my son the help that he needs. Last year they did emotional and learning disability testing on him and it came back inconclusive, but I was supposed to be getting him into a child development program at a children's hospital, so we would go from there. I never heard anything from the child development program, so I took him back to his Dr. ( I forgot to mention earlier that when he was 7 and I asked the Dr. if my son could be autistic, that he said, no way, you would be able to tell if he was autistic just by looking at him). I asked the Dr. what was going on with the child development program and he acted like he had no idea what I was talking about. I let him know then that I didn't feel he was doing everything he could to help my son, and that I was his mother and knew him better than anyone, and I think it is time for me to find mys on a new Dr., especially since he is 10, in the 4th grade and developmentally acts like a 5-6 year old. The Dr. reassured me that he was not doing everything he could and that he would be getting my son into that program. We are now just waiting for our appt. there, but in the meantime, the school is going to do some autism and asperger testing for me. I think that pushing is all we can do and they are our children and it is our responsibility to be the best advocates for our children that we can be. If you need any support at anytime, you just kkep in touch. I made need some support too. HUGS!!!!!

Shasta - posted on 09/29/2010

I am very new to this site and am very desperate for help. I am at my breaking point and feel like I could burst into tears at any moment lately. I have a beautiful, bright, intelligent and quirky 7 year old who will be 8 next month. He is currently in grade 3. As he was growing up, we started noticing erratic behavior. He started to get out of control and VERY active. He was constantly flushing things down the toilet, urinating anywhere he could because it was funny to him, drawing on the walls etc. He also would bang his back against the seat back when watching TV or sitting in the car. He also would rock back and forth in bed as he fell asleep. When he got into kindergarten, the teacher mentioned that he was a handful, but never took it beyond that. In grade one, the teacher had a meeting with us and told us that she thought he was ADHD. We took him to our family doctor and he diagnosed him as being ADHD. He was given Ritalin. The medication seemed to take the edge off, but he was still very unfocused. His reading skills seemed to be behind those of his classmates. In grade 2, his teacher met with us and said that he was definitely experiencing problems with reading and writing and thought he was very behind on his progress. She was surprised that no teacher before her had done anything about it. He was then put on an S.E.P. (Special education program) to help make accommodations for him in the classroom by giving him extra breaks, having him helped with reading instructions in tests because he couldn't do it himself and by having a Resource Teacher work one on one with him each day on his reading. After sometime with the Resource teacher, she mentioned to us that there were red flags. She said she was beginning to suspect that he not only has ADHD, but that he may have a learning disability of some sort because he was making no progress with reading. She asked permission to test him. When he was tested by her, she said the results showed that he scored in the 82 nd percentile for math, 51st percentile for verbal and oral comprehension, but only scored in the 16th percentile for reading and writing. So for everything other than reading and writing, he was at average or way above average. In the reading and writing, he scored well below the average. He loves watching educational programs on TV such as the discovery channel and will sit and talk to you all about the life cycle of a salmon, or about global warming - what has caused it, the effect it has on nature and wildlife etc, but he can't read a picture book with minimal words. Throughout the year, he had many visits with the doctor as we readjusted, change, readjusted, changed and readjusted his medications over and over time after time. Nothing helped. Many times, the school would call me to leave work and pick him up because he was disrupting the class and they couldn't keep him under control. Near the end of the school year, the school called me and said that I needed to come right away because he was acting very abnormally. When I got to the school, they had video taped him for me so I could see what he was doing. He was in the principals office crawling around and pretending he was a cat, then he would climb up on a chair and start chewing at it. By the end of it, he had chewed a big hole into the chair and would not respond to them...instead he just kept meowing. At that point, we immediately took him to the doctor who got us a referral for the mental health clinic and for a specialist. We couldn't get in until school was out for the summer. We got into the specialist first and he examined him and spoke with us for almost an hour. He was very thorough. His feeling was that our son did indeed have ADHD and was on the wrong medication. He changed him again to Adderall 15mg. The day after he started the new prescription, we had our appointment with mental health. As we had our appointment, he played quietly on the floor and spoke to the Counselor when he was prompted. The counselor suggested that nothing seemed wrong with him and that the practices we had in place at home to encourage good behavior were exactly what they would have suggested. She said that perhaps he needed to have someone work with him on a school level at the school to help him reign his behavior in and she submitted a referral to the school district and sent us on our way. During the summer, he seemed ok. He still had his strange behavior that we have come to accept as normal for him...rocking to sleep, banging his back against the seat of the car and sofa constantly (When I asked him why he does this he said it makes him feel happy), occasionally urinating in inappropriate spots (like a water bottle and leaving it on the counter, or in the dog dish etc). He has always had a tendency to throw a tantrum, but now a day won't go by when he won't fly into a screaming and crying fit at the drop of a hat. It could be as simple as "please clean up the mess you made in your room", or "Ok..Time for homework". He has a complete melt-down. He also does not have any friends that he plays with on a regular basis. Even the children next door do not come over because I think their parents hear my son's melt downs and won't let them visit. It hurts because he is lonely and wants friends. He is now in grade 3. He still can not read beyond a kindergarten level and his writing looks like little scribbles a 3 year old would make. The rest of his class in the mean time are reading chapter books and my son can't read a picture book without help. The teacher and resource teacher both agree that his behavior is still just as erratic and outlandish as it has been in previous years even though we see a more calmer version of him at home with this new medication. The school district has just recently has a psychologist come in and test him to see if he has a learning disability, but I honestly think that it is beyond that. I think personally that he has some sort of Autism, but I keep being told no when I ask. The specialist just raised his dosage to 20mg from 15mg and all of a sudden, it is as if he has had absolutely no medication at all. Am I crazy? Should I push further on the autism matter, or should I just accept it when the teacher tells me that in his 23 years of experience, he has never seen a child with a more severe case of ADHD and that his behavior is spurred on by the fact he is acting out because he knows he is different and is trying to hide it in acting foolish. I think there is more, but everywhere we turn, we get the same thing...."here...try these pills...it's ADHD."

Very frustrated and concerned Mom :(

Tasha - posted on 03/26/2010

My son was diagnosed at the age of 2 with ADHD and then in 4 yrs later with autism. The doctors are treating the ADHD as that and the autism as it is even though he has the diagnoses for both they never said that the adhd is really autism.

Abby - posted on 03/25/2010

Actually my pediatrician was not as helpful. I went to a psychiatrist and psychologist and a children's hospital when my youngest son was diagnosed. If you are fortunate enough to afford a neurologist, that would be a great option as well.

Teena - posted on 03/23/2010

what kind of dr do i need to start with do i go to his pedie are the dr that handels his adhd and do u know if asperger's calmen in premies because i had him when i was only 26 week

Tammy - posted on 03/23/2010

I have a child that was diagnosed with ADHD and Autism. He is also on meds for his ADHD and still has the autism tendencies. It took me 6 years to get a diagnosis for him. I think you should get a second opinion. We had to go through several doctors and a childrens' therapist.

Dree - posted on 03/23/2010

ADHD and Autism/Aspergers/PDD often times have the same early signs. (FYI Bipolar has the same early signs as well....my son happens to have all three, ADHD, Aspergers, and Bipolar) If you honestly feel that your son may be on the spectrum then please go and have him evaluated. The earlier the diagnosis is made the better he'll be with treatment...ie different therapys. My son didnt not get his Aspergers diagnosed until he was almost 12.



In order to get your son diagnosed you can not give up on him...if need be go to dr after dr until you can get one that will LISTEN to you and your hubby. Demand your son gets tested. Dont give up until he does. If the testing comes back saying no he doesnt have this and you feel in your heart/gut that he does...move on to another dr. Go as long as you need to to get him the help. He is your son...parents ALWAYS know what is best for their children.



Hang in there honey. Hugs to you and your son!!