Aa
Please help to diagnose..
Hi all, I'm a single dad with 2 beautiful children.
Recently not only I but my daughter have noticed my son's behaviour is becoming quite strange, maybe because you wouldn't consider it particularly strange for a 5 year old so it wasn't concerning.
The problem is, my son is 15.
I will start with his personality....
Extremely emotional, easily offended, compulsive beyond words, easily angered, very unorganised and unconcerned about anything.
He is a very intelligent, almost gifted boy in many ways, great sense of humour, very grounded and mature in many ways, then there are the things that are just hard to understand.
He finds it very hard to make friends, yet desperately wants them.
Whatever he is into at the time ends up driving everyone around him crazy in short time as he becomes super obsessed by his interests.
The main concern for myself and his sister is that he seems to lack the ability to recognise when something is just not the "done thing"
Now I'm all for standing out from the crowd, individuality, living your life in a way that makes you happy etc but there are just things you don't do.
e.g he will pick his nose and eat it at 15 years old.
At a recent school disco he was the only one dancing, BY HIMSELF!!! with not a concern in the world that it might be a bit strange.
He seems to be the king of awkward moments but he doesn't sense the awkwardness at all.
An example would be we held a garage sale and while I went inside for a moment some scumbag came and pretended to have a look and stole a flashlight, well the next guy to browse the items for sale would clearly have been able to have felt my son's breath on him he was so close, as he casually told him that he was just making sure the customer was not stealing anything.
He also can't seem to accept blame when he has done the wrong thing and will come out with ridiculous irrelevant excuses as valid reasons for his behaviour.
He doesn't care how he dresses, he'll wear a pair of pants so small that they only reach his knees and not see anything wrong or strange about it.
He will go without showering for 2 weeks if you let him, not a care in the world'
I'm hoping someone out there can diagnose or explain his behaviour and lead us to a correct way to address these issues.
Thanks for your time.
Recently not only I but my daughter have noticed my son's behaviour is becoming quite strange, maybe because you wouldn't consider it particularly strange for a 5 year old so it wasn't concerning.
The problem is, my son is 15.
I will start with his personality....
Extremely emotional, easily offended, compulsive beyond words, easily angered, very unorganised and unconcerned about anything.
He is a very intelligent, almost gifted boy in many ways, great sense of humour, very grounded and mature in many ways, then there are the things that are just hard to understand.
He finds it very hard to make friends, yet desperately wants them.
Whatever he is into at the time ends up driving everyone around him crazy in short time as he becomes super obsessed by his interests.
The main concern for myself and his sister is that he seems to lack the ability to recognise when something is just not the "done thing"
Now I'm all for standing out from the crowd, individuality, living your life in a way that makes you happy etc but there are just things you don't do.
e.g he will pick his nose and eat it at 15 years old.
At a recent school disco he was the only one dancing, BY HIMSELF!!! with not a concern in the world that it might be a bit strange.
He seems to be the king of awkward moments but he doesn't sense the awkwardness at all.
An example would be we held a garage sale and while I went inside for a moment some scumbag came and pretended to have a look and stole a flashlight, well the next guy to browse the items for sale would clearly have been able to have felt my son's breath on him he was so close, as he casually told him that he was just making sure the customer was not stealing anything.
He also can't seem to accept blame when he has done the wrong thing and will come out with ridiculous irrelevant excuses as valid reasons for his behaviour.
He doesn't care how he dresses, he'll wear a pair of pants so small that they only reach his knees and not see anything wrong or strange about it.
He will go without showering for 2 weeks if you let him, not a care in the world'
I'm hoping someone out there can diagnose or explain his behaviour and lead us to a correct way to address these issues.
Thanks for your time.
My younger brother has a mild for of autism and this sounds EXACTLY like him. It sounds like they share similar habits and personalities and my younger brother just turned 16. From what I've learned about autism over the past 16 years my brother has been around, most of the habits that him and your son have are the same symptoms seen in most adolescents with a form of autism, ADD/ADHD, or aspergers. Thatd just my thoughts, I'm not a doctor or anything haha
I have ADD and I have a lot of the same behaviors. Although I am hyper aware of my surroundings, but that could just be because everyone is different. I take medicine every day for it and it seems to help me. Just my experience though.
My son is 13 and has ADHD and asperger's. Sounds a lot like him. We were diagnosed by a psychiatrist a few years ago.
You may want to look into Asperger Syndrome. Just going by what you've written, he seems to be showing many of the associated behaviours, including difficulty relating to others (having few or no friends), difficulty or inability to read social cues, difficulty or inability to recognize socially appropriate behaviour, and obsessiveness over a few areas of interest.
A few other common, but not necessarily present, indicators include repetitive behaviour (such as always taking exactly the same route to school), overstimulation from external stimuli, and a marked tendency to take words literally.
Asperger Syndrome is often diagnosed in late adolescence or adulthood, and usually by a multi-disciplinary team. Talk to your GP if you read up and find the diagnostic criteria familiar.
A few other common, but not necessarily present, indicators include repetitive behaviour (such as always taking exactly the same route to school), overstimulation from external stimuli, and a marked tendency to take words literally.
Asperger Syndrome is often diagnosed in late adolescence or adulthood, and usually by a multi-disciplinary team. Talk to your GP if you read up and find the diagnostic criteria familiar.
2 Comments
Thank you for your time and opinion.
Very helpful.
Very helpful.
I agree with M. The problem with children who have good intelligence is that they get overlooked because they pull good grades, and its the kids who aren't doing well or are hyper that get the attention.
But, being the CL on the ADHD site http://www.medhelp.org/forums/ADD---ADHD/show/175 ;
I have also seen kids with ADD and intelligence who have the same problems. They are so smart they can get through school, but know that something is not quite right and have all the traits that you mentioned.
Does he have any classes where his grades have begin to dip? Even really sharp kids will begin to have problems in math areas (but that could still be a year or two away). How long does his homework take him?
But, being the CL on the ADHD site http://www.medhelp.org/forums/ADD---ADHD/show/175 ;
I have also seen kids with ADD and intelligence who have the same problems. They are so smart they can get through school, but know that something is not quite right and have all the traits that you mentioned.
Does he have any classes where his grades have begin to dip? Even really sharp kids will begin to have problems in math areas (but that could still be a year or two away). How long does his homework take him?
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