By H.M.
“Your son is definitely NOT autistic.”
The child psychiatrist’s reassurance was music to my ears.
“Trust me, I did a rotation in autism. If your son was on the spectrum he could not relate to others. Your son is simply extremely ADHD.”
It was true that my 2nd grade son, Mark, loved to engage with others, but it concerned me that his social encounters almost always ended in conflict. Moreover, he was disruptive in the classroom – even on stimulants.
As our session ended the physician handed me a prescription for Tenex to add on top of our Adderral. I left the office hopeful that this new pharmaceutical combination might magically transform Mark into the perfect little boy, and relieve me from feeling like a cast member in “Desperate Housewives.”
Of course, I hadn’t always been a desperate type of person. Prior to children I had a high paying job which I loved. Life had always treated me kindly. In high school I was voted “Most Likely to Succeed” while my husband was elected “Scholar/Athlete.” Together we thought we were going to have some sort of a “super child.” We did, in fact, have a stand out – just not in any way we would have ever imagined!
What had gone wrong? Mark had started out as the perfect baby. He was long and healthy, slept 16 hours a day, breast fed like a champ, and rarely fussed. Somewhere along the line, though, our gentle giant transformed into a bit of a terror. His biggest challenges: hyperactivity and aggression.
We never experienced some of the classic signs of autism – lack of language, excessive stimming, side gazing or head banging. Our child’s behavior was severe enough that his preschool called in the Department of Health for an evaluation, but not severe enough to qualify him for any services. Mark was simply pushed along. When it came time for Kindergarten our pediatrician told me to “send him to public school and let the chips fall where they may.”
Recognizing the challenge we had on our hands, I quit full time employment to become a stay at home mom. My extra free time allowed me to immerse myself into books on ADHD and to participate in parenting classes. Moreover, I was actively involved in Mark’s school – in part to observe my child’s behavior first hand, and in part to show the teachers, administrators, and other parents that Mark’s behavior was not the result of “checked out” parents.
Yet despite the collective efforts of my IEP team and our privately hired child psychiatrist, Mark’s behavior remained troublesome. The depth of my problem was punctuated by his arrest in school during the 2nd grade. Yes, you read correctly, he was arrested. Mark had minor dodge ball incident during recess with a child whose mother worked for a law firm. She called in the police to press charges.
Sadly I listened at Mark cry “I’m so sorry, but I couldn’t help myself” as I heard the officer read my 8 year old his rights.
There was no good explanation for Mark’s continued bad behavior that I could determine. He came from a loving family with actively involved parents who followed all the advice of the “professionals” in detail. Yet, the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. So, I decided to take more control over my child’s destiny and find another set of “professionals” who could really help us. The team in place was not working, and never would.
In search for new sources of help and information, I decided to fly from Honolulu (our home) to Southern California to get Mark a brain spectscan. While spectscans aren’t used for diagnostic purposes (yet), the suggestions from the scans were incredibly enlightening. Specifically, the scans showed that Mark’s brain did NOT fit the ADHD profile and that stimulant medication was probably the worst type of medication to apply given his already “overactive” frontal lobes. Additionally, the scans showed the intensity of his personality was probably the result of a red hot basal ganglia. Finally, it was observed that Mark demonstrated a hypoperfusion pattern (underactivity) in his temporal lobes and cerebellum which was characteristic of ASD.
There’s no doubt that the scan results themselves easily justified our trip. However, the most helpful information I gained from the trip came from a couple I met in the spectscan doctor’s waiting room. While busily tending to their own ASD child, these parents unselfishly took time to introduce me to biomedical interventions. Special diets, lab tests, supplementation – it all sounded a bit extreme. But honestly, I was extremely desperate or I wouldn’t have been there!
Listening to information on “the protocol” and theory, I wasn’t sure if my encounter with this family was the best thing to happen to me, or the worst. But recognizing these individuals had nothing to gain financially from their outreach, I heard them out………….and thank God I did!
Today Mark is in 5th grade, off of stimulants, and significantly improved thanks to biomedical interventions. Aggression – largely under control; hyperactivity – under control; eye contact – remarkable; sensory issues – not a big problem; verbal tic – gone. He does remain a “work in progress,” but under the guidance of a capable DAN! we continue to make great strides.
But NONE of this would have been possible had that “family in the waiting room” not risked rejection to speak with me about biomed. That dear couple took a chance on me, and changed the life of my family forever.
TAPOSITIVELY 