jessie

thanks everyone. I will contact the DVA today. His test is on wedenesday which doesn't give him much time although we do livein aberdeenshire and the snow might mean it gets cancelled.

thanks beth. tha is reassuring

has anyone encountered any problems regarding learning to drive if they have a diagnosis of Aspergers with ADHD. My son has been having weekly lesons for over a year and is supposed to be sitting his test next week, but jis instructor phoned tonight to say that he should have decalred this condition to obtain a provisional . Felt as thoug he was suggesting that my son might not be able to obtain a liscemse. I was a bit annoyed as the instructor then went onto say that he had been in youch with my sons examinor to pass on details of his conditions which he had no right todo as i feel that the examinor may have a predetermined view on my son now. I am also annoyed as i explained within a few weeks of my son taking lessons that he had comcentration issues and that the instrucor should have brought up conerns then pr at least not let us shell out £1500 on lessons for over a year. jessie

oops, you would think I would have the hang of this by now. I have just been reading about straterra tand wondered if itmight be classed as an SSRI. My son took this drug for a few years. The report I read noted the various side effects which included thought disoreders. I am now wondering f my sons current state of mind could be realated to taking straterra. has anyone had any similar experiences.

I wrote a while back about my son having obsessive thought regarding him being the only real person in the world. It made him feel very frightened and alone and he couldn't cope with school for a week.He also be came very withdrawn. Well he finally had his hospital appointment today and the psychatrist explained how it was an obsessive thought and gave himstrategies to deal with it. He has a follow up next week. She did mention meds (have to find out what they are...SSRi I think, will have to check out what they would be). he has been better over the past few weeks but still gets times when the thoughts take over. He seemed just happy to have the appointment and said that he fely comforted by the fact that meds were available to help if things don't ompltely improve. Wonder if anyone has any info on the drugs they might prescribee. I am hoping that he won't have to go down this route as hr had side effects while on ritalin and later on straterra. AT least he is more hisnormal , awful, teenage self and not withdrawn anymore.

I would hope that they would respect your privacy wishes if that is what you wanted. I remember when my son took his test. He created a great storm by cycling up and down the road in front of the school with hands off the handle bars in the air and feet wide off the pedals. He had a one to one helper after that. He still passsed ....eventually

hi julieanne sorry things are so hard. I know the feelings you are describing well. It really catches up on you when you don't get enough sleep and then have to cope with extremely challanging behaviour. My son reacted badly to ritalin in that if really affected his sleep. Also his appetite suffered too and I must admit that I wondered how much the sleep loss and lack of nutrition contributed to his awful behaviour. He initially took the short acting doses but we all suffered as it wore off and then with the longer acting concerta version we found that it stayed in his system far longer than the 12 hours and he would be up until twelve and one. We persevered for a few years only giving the drugs during school terms and stiopping at holdays before finally deciding to stop. It's just wortha thought that increasing the dose might be making things worse. It is very difficult when you get lot of different advice too. Try and get time for yourself to go for a walk, or to meet up and have a moan with your friends. Hopefully once he is back into the school routine he will improve. He has probably beena little anxious with the end of the holidays and school return. I know it is hardbut it will improve.You are copingand just need time t step back and see that. jessie

We have three cats and my son still oves them when they go to bed with him at night time. he had a really difficult time last week and made sure he had oneof the cats on his bed in the evening. we also have two ponies and he likes them and will chick the odd apple into the field. We have a few chickens too but the cats come out tops

Glad you are feeling brighter. Here's hoping he has a settled night and that so do you. My son was diagnosed with ADHD when he was seven but the diagnosis for aspergers didn't come until he was 12. The ADHD traits are better now although he is still very impulsive but as a younger child they were much more obvious. We were told his ADHD behaviour was/is a result of the aspergers and his poor ability to cope in different situations with stress making everything a lot worse. Right time for me to get off to bed now night night

Well today has been really positive and my son seemed much more his normal self. He says the 'thoughts' are still there but he is able to distract himself more so Idofeel much happier. He has agreed that he will still attend the hospital when we get an apointment and I think this is wise in case a different obsessive thought appears. fingers crossed tomorrow is even better

Hi Dawn gosh, I do sympathise with that one. My son is much better now and at 17 has finally sussed out ways of staying awake without keeping the whole family up, although he can still go off on one and run round the house screaming to wake up everyone(luckily not too often). It also must be very difficult being in a flat. Our cats came in pretty handy for getting him to bed. We got both boys kittens (onlyone got aspergers/ADHD ) and they both got to take their kitties to bed. That helped for a while but maybe not possible n a flat. I do remember spending a few hours each night persuading him to stay on bed along with lots of bribes and I guess he eventually got better at staying in bed. He never slept much as a young child , just a few hours each night. We tried lots of other different things such as recorded books(Harry Potter being a fav) and he could listen to this on headphones. DOn't be afraid to ask your gp for help or referal to a specialist. We hve also had on off help regarding our sons general behaviour.It is realy hard for you just now but it will get better. I never thought I would get an uninterrupted nights sleep and truely treasure them now.

thank you so much smiley. You are a little older that my son and gave me insight into what he might be going through by not being able to cope with the thoughts. I don't know if it's obsessive, or that he just can't cope with being not being able to make sense of things. He will be seen by a mental health team to rule out anything else. The local gp seems to think it's AS related in that he seemed rational about his thoughts and wasn't hallucianting etc.... but we will see. I was very worried when he told me he wasn't sure if I was real....it must be so scarey for him. Interesting what you said about the reassuring making you worse. I will think about that one more when talking to him. He has never suffered from depression that we have been awarre of but can be anxious a lot of the time about most things. I will let you know how we get on. He saids tonight that the thoughts got very bad then eased off. My husband has come to the rescue with a good old game of poker asa distraction ....hope he wins(son that is) thanks again for sharing your experiences with me

thank ypu mariaq. Things are alittle better in that he managed to go to school today but said it is still greatly on his mind and that he couldn't concentrate. I haven't heard about a hospital appoinment yet but will chase things tomorrow. Hope things improve with your son too. thanks again

hope tomorrow goes well.