Cycles and seasons

Replies:

• 
• by
  • KatsMom01
  on Jun. 2, 2009 at 7:32 AM

• I think it is the season change!  Kat normally has two moods - she's either really happy or really mad.  But the last few weeks, she's complained of being tired and she's gotten sullen.

  Now  I'm so much better in the summer.   With more sunlight, I'm much happier.  My moment comes in the winter time when the days are short!

  

• 
• by
  • dewey
  on Jun. 2, 2009 at 10:10 AM

• I absolute agree with you with the cycles and and seasons, but I go through a cycle of anxiety and I am not even asperger's.  I go through the what if cycle?  I imagine the worst possible scenarios in my head and of course they all have to do with my Aspie son.  I never ever worry about my NT son, although in a little over a week he will be taking one of the biggest standardized test in his life.  He will be taking the LSAT's the boards to get into law school

  16 going on 17 was the worst stage in my Aspie's life. I guess his body was changing rapidly all the pressure of high school and getting good grades.  He was just totally depressed, the meds that worked on his childhood body were not working on his new young adult body.  He hated school and had no friends at school.  His new doctor got him on the right track, although I do not like the amount of medication he is taking right now and it makes him so tried.  Who knows how long the meds are going to work for him?  Will he ever be able to get off these meds and live life without them??????????

   

  Right now I am going through a big anxiety cycle..although I am glad my son's school year is almost over two more finals to go. I had an anxiety attack yesterday. I am not even really feeling that good this morning, although we got his Algrebra 2 final test score back and he did great.  I am still sad over the honor society. Then I spoke to his ESE specialist last week and boy was I upset all they want to do is drop all his accommodation and I am so tried of fighting with them. He will be a senior next year. Getting  college application out.  What if we don't find the right school for him, we are visiting another school this week.   What if? What if?

   

   

• 
• by
  • extremelibrary
  on Jun. 2, 2009 at 6:10 PM

• Lately, I been feeling  alittle more anxiety. It's hard to make it go away. I have no desire to be on meds. Hopefully, something natural with no side effects. I usually just wait it out.

  Extremelibrary

• 
• by
  • micO
  on Jun. 3, 2009 at 8:04 AM

• Here's an update:

  T hasn't showered in 5 days now and we can't get him to take one. No matter what we say, he won't be convinced. The last time he went this far, he was hospitalized due to severe depression. Right now, he insists that he is NOT depressed, yet he won't tend to his Hygiene and he didn't go to school simply because he "didn't feel like it" today. I see signs of depression all over him, but also signs of mania (his Bipolar), like his irrational thinking, that usually comes in bouts of manic episodes. So if he might be in a mixed state. What is scary is that his psychiatrist is taking a vacation and can see him only in August. Now we have requested an emergency appointment and we are waiting to hear back if it will be possible. If it's not, we'll probably have to turn to the hospital again, which will mean that they will hospitalize him, AND I wanted to avoid it since it's the end of the year and all.
  Things don't seem good right now over here :-(

  On the other hand, O seems better. I'd have to have a talk with him and confirm that he IS really better, but it sure looks like it from the outside.
  We'll see.
  
  Summer is coming real fast, I think that knowing that is good for O because he knows school will be done and he has plans for the summer- he'll have a tutor coming over twice a week for teaching him gaming programming (something he is interested in) during the beginning month of his vacation and the month after that he has a camp for Drama and Arts (again, something he loves).
  
  T is a different story- he dreads summer because he doesn't have any structure! He didn't find a job and refused any kind of camp and/or tutoring, help...anything to keep him busy. During August he is supposed to have Drivers Ed and start learning driving with a driving school, so August is structured, BUT until then he simply has nothing to do, unless he changes his mind and let us plan something for him too (we thought about finding a student of culinary art for him to come and teach him some things at home, since he wants to go to Chef school after high school).
  I think that the anxiety over the unstructured time makes him depressed too.

  I just hope that his doctor will see us and that she can turn him around in time.

   

• 
• by
  • extremelibrary
  on Jun. 3, 2009 at 6:37 PM

• Wow, you got a lot on your plate. I hope everything works out for your son. Is there not a back up doctor when the psychiatrist isn't there? Keep us posted.
  

  Quoting micO:
  
  

  Here's an update:

  T hasn't showered in 5 days now and we can't get him to take one. No matter what we say, he won't be convinced. The last time he went this far, he was hospitalized due to severe depression. Right now, he insists that he is NOT depressed, yet he won't tend to his Hygiene and he didn't go to school simply because he "didn't feel like it" today. I see signs of depression all over him, but also signs of mania (his Bipolar), like his irrational thinking, that usually comes in bouts of manic episodes. So if he might be in a mixed state. What is scary is that his psychiatrist is taking a vacation and can see him only in August. Now we have requested an emergency appointment and we are waiting to hear back if it will be possible. If it's not, we'll probably have to turn to the hospital again, which will mean that they will hospitalize him, AND I wanted to avoid it since it's the end of the year and all.
  Things don't seem good right now over here :-(

  On the other hand, O seems better. I'd have to have a talk with him and confirm that he IS really better, but it sure looks like it from the outside.
  We'll see.
  
  Summer is coming real fast, I think that knowing that is good for O because he knows school will be done and he has plans for the summer- he'll have a tutor coming over twice a week for teaching him gaming programming (something he is interested in) during the beginning month of his vacation and the month after that he has a camp for Drama and Arts (again, something he loves).
  
  T is a different story- he dreads summer because he doesn't have any structure! He didn't find a job and refused any kind of camp and/or tutoring, help...anything to keep him busy. During August he is supposed to have Drivers Ed and start learning driving with a driving school, so August is structured, BUT until then he simply has nothing to do, unless he changes his mind and let us plan something for him too (we thought about finding a student of culinary art for him to come and teach him some things at home, since he wants to go to Chef school after high school).
  I think that the anxiety over the unstructured time makes him depressed too.

  I just hope that his doctor will see us and that she can turn him around in time.

   

  
  

  Extremelibrary

• 
• by
  • micO
  on Jun. 4, 2009 at 8:24 AM

• 
  

  Quoting extremelibrary:
  
  

  Wow, you got a lot on your plate. I hope everything works out for your son. Is there not a back up doctor when the psychiatrist isn't there? Keep us posted.

  Usually there is, but the new doctor won't know Tom and his entire history and even if he reads his file it won't be the same as knowing how each med affected him and what it caused really...it's so complicated with him because he has so many co-morbid conditions (ADHD, SID, chronic motor tic disorder, ODD, Bipolar, Asperger's and the list goes on) and each one contributes to his mood in a certain way, and the medications affects it in a certain way. Even in the hospital they had a hard time keeping him balanced.
  He needs a doctor who knows him well and who knows how he was on each change of the dosage- that's why I said it's gonna be either his own psych or the hospital (over there it's always the head of the ward who treats him, because he is such a difficult kid to balance on the meds, so she's known him for years now).

   

• 
• by
  • dewey
  on Jun. 4, 2009 at 10:19 AM

•  

  Quoting micO:
  
  

  Here's an update:

  T hasn't showered in 5 days now and we can't get him to take one. No matter what we say, he won't be convinced. The last time he went this far, he was hospitalized due to severe depression. Right now, he insists that he is NOT depressed, yet he won't tend to his Hygiene and he didn't go to school simply because he "didn't feel like it" today. I see signs of depression all over him, but also signs of mania (his Bipolar), like his irrational thinking, that usually comes in bouts of manic episodes. So if he might be in a mixed state. What is scary is that his psychiatrist is taking a vacation and can see him only in August. Now we have requested an emergency appointment and we are waiting to hear back if it will be possible. If it's not, we'll probably have to turn to the hospital again, which will mean that they will hospitalize him, AND I wanted to avoid it since it's the end of the year and all.
  Things don't seem good right now over here :-(

  On the other hand, O seems better. I'd have to have a talk with him and confirm that he IS really better, but it sure looks like it from the outside.
  We'll see.
  
  Summer is coming real fast, I think that knowing that is good for O because he knows school will be done and he has plans for the summer- he'll have a tutor coming over twice a week for teaching him gaming programming (something he is interested in) during the beginning month of his vacation and the month after that he has a camp for Drama and Arts (again, something he loves).
  
  T is a different story- he dreads summer because he doesn't have any structure! He didn't find a job and refused any kind of camp and/or tutoring, help...anything to keep him busy. During August he is supposed to have Drivers Ed and start learning driving with a driving school, so August is structured, BUT until then he simply has nothing to do, unless he changes his mind and let us plan something for him too (we thought about finding a student of culinary art for him to come and teach him some things at home, since he wants to go to Chef school after high school).
  I think that the anxiety over the unstructured time makes him depressed too.

  I just hope that his doctor will see us and that she can turn him around in time.

   

  My son just finished his first year in computer programming, the last quarter of the school year was gaming.   It was extremely hard, he had his finally yesterday and after the test he said it was the hardest  test he had ever taken.  The grade was posted and he got 100%.  He is now working on his own to program a pong game over the summer.  I asked him if he saved the program to the computer he said yes, but he also said that he had the whole program also saved in his brain (memorized).  The Asperger brain really amazes me, I am so fascinated by it.  If O has any question about computer programming please e-mail my son ( at my e-mail address) and tell him not to get frustrated by it.  I know a couple of  times this year my son got frustrated and his teacher would only help him a little.  My son loves tutoring people.

   

  I agree with you I am might be feeling this anxiety because of all the free time my son has and it is transitioning time for us.  The same might be true for your son T.  I can not believe that your son's doctor is  not available until August. My son's doctor (psychiatrist) told me that with  Asperger young adults it is a hard balancing act to get the  right medication.  The other day I made an appointment with my son's neurologist, my son is  aging out of this doctor, only see young adults to the age of 18.  Do I still need a neurologist for him?  This doctor does so little for him although he is the autism expert in the area.

  My son will be doing some volunteer work this summer at a local library, he might also go back to a museum where he volunteered two summers ago. They loved my son at the musuem and they were very disappointed when he didn't volunteer there last summer.  Volunteering is a good way to keep your sons busy also. 

  My son will also be taking drivers education. 

  I hope everything starts looking up for you.  It seems like sixteen is the age where trouble beginnings again for our Aspie people.  I know myself I can only hope that may son's med's continue to help him, because the beginning of this school year was a hard one for us.

  Please keep us posted.

• 
• by
  • micO
  on Jun. 5, 2009 at 7:21 AM

•  

  Quoting dewey:
  
  

   My son just finished his first year in computer programming, the last quarter of the school year was gaming.   It was extremely hard, he had his finally yesterday and after the test he said it was the hardest  test he had ever taken.  The grade was posted and he got 100%.  He is now working on his own to program a pong game over the summer.  I asked him if he saved the program to the computer he said yes, but he also said that he had the whole program also saved in his brain (memorized).  The Asperger brain really amazes me, I am so fascinated by it.  If O has any question about computer programming please e-mail my son ( at my e-mail address) and tell him not to get frustrated by it.  I know a couple of  times this year my son got frustrated and his teacher would only help him a little.  My son loves tutoring people.

   

  I agree with you I am might be feeling this anxiety because of all the free time my son has and it is transitioning time for us.  The same might be true for your son T.  I can not believe that your son's doctor is  not available until August. My son's doctor (psychiatrist) told me that with  Asperger young adults it is a hard balancing act to get the  right medication.  The other day I made an appointment with my son's neurologist, my son is  aging out of this doctor, only see young adults to the age of 18.  Do I still need a neurologist for him?  This doctor does so little for him although he is the autism expert in the area.

  My son will be doing some volunteer work this summer at a local library, he might also go back to a museum where he volunteered two summers ago. They loved my son at the musuem and they were very disappointed when he didn't volunteer there last summer.  Volunteering is a good way to keep your sons busy also. 

  My son will also be taking drivers education. 

  I hope everything starts looking up for you.  It seems like sixteen is the age where trouble beginnings again for our Aspie people.  I know myself I can only hope that may son's med's continue to help him, because the beginning of this school year was a hard one for us.

  Please keep us posted.

  I'll let  know, thanks for the offer. I'm sure O will be happy to know he has someone he can as questions about this subject, as he is so passionate about it and he is so into it for the past couple of years.

  As for volunteering- I suggested it to T and so far, he didn't bite. He did volunteer a couple of years ago in a summer camp and I guess it was enough for him. In the next year or so, he'll have to volunteer in a soup kitchen or something like it anyway in order to gain experience - it's one of the Colleges pre-requisits, so in order for him to get in, it's something he will have to do for at least 6 months, but he still has some time.
  I did find him a sudent from the Culinary Art College, that is willing to come a tutor him this summer. These are my big news. We will meet with him this weekend, I think, to go over what he will teach him and the other details, so T will be kept busy after all.

  
  You won't believe what a day we had yesterday- we got a call from his Psychiatrist's office saying someone cancled and they had an opening in 2 hours, if we could make it. They left a phone number for us to let them know. I called my husband to see if he could make it home from work. he left work within 30 minutes and called them, but they didn't pick up so he left them a message saying we're on our way. We picked T up from school early and were on our way (it's 30 minutes away from home), and called to confirm they heard the message only to find out that they ahve given the appointment to someone else already- they didn't hear the message. :-(
  I was so angry!!!
  We did call them in time (10 times or so) but they did not pick up, we did leave a message and we were on our way!!!
  They wouldn't put us in between appointments, even though we said it was urgent. They said they would try to get us in next week, before the doctor leaves on her vacation (I doubt they will).
  I am so pissed off right now...

  We'll take one day at a time and see how it goes. maybe the end of the year and having the tutor would make the difference for T and he'll be fine.

  Oh, and I did find out that O is better- yesterday was his appointment to his psychologist and after talking with him, he said that he's better now and doesn't feel depressed anymore.
  So I guess I don't have to worry about O as much as I did a few weeks ago. Now I just need to concentrte on getting T to that point.

   

   

• 
• by
  • dewey
  on Jun. 6, 2009 at 2:15 PM

• 
  

  Quoting micO:
  
  

   

  Quoting dewey:
  
  

   My son just finished his first year in computer programming, the last quarter of the school year was gaming.   It was extremely hard, he had his finally yesterday and after the test he said it was the hardest  test he had ever taken.  The grade was posted and he got 100%.  He is now working on his own to program a pong game over the summer.  I asked him if he saved the program to the computer he said yes, but he also said that he had the whole program also saved in his brain (memorized).  The Asperger brain really amazes me, I am so fascinated by it.  If O has any question about computer programming please e-mail my son ( at my e-mail address) and tell him not to get frustrated by it.  I know a couple of  times this year my son got frustrated and his teacher would only help him a little.  My son loves tutoring people.

   

  I agree with you I am might be feeling this anxiety because of all the free time my son has and it is transitioning time for us.  The same might be true for your son T.  I can not believe that your son's doctor is  not available until August. My son's doctor (psychiatrist) told me that with  Asperger young adults it is a hard balancing act to get the  right medication.  The other day I made an appointment with my son's neurologist, my son is  aging out of this doctor, only see young adults to the age of 18.  Do I still need a neurologist for him?  This doctor does so little for him although he is the autism expert in the area.

  My son will be doing some volunteer work this summer at a local library, he might also go back to a museum where he volunteered two summers ago. They loved my son at the musuem and they were very disappointed when he didn't volunteer there last summer.  Volunteering is a good way to keep your sons busy also. 

  My son will also be taking drivers education. 

  I hope everything starts looking up for you.  It seems like sixteen is the age where trouble beginnings again for our Aspie people.  I know myself I can only hope that may son's med's continue to help him, because the beginning of this school year was a hard one for us.

  Please keep us posted.

  I'll let  know, thanks for the offer. I'm sure O will be happy to know he has someone he can as questions about this subject, as he is so passionate about it and he is so into it for the past couple of years.

  As for volunteering- I suggested it to T and so far, he didn't bite. He did volunteer a couple of years ago in a summer camp and I guess it was enough for him. In the next year or so, he'll have to volunteer in a soup kitchen or something like it anyway in order to gain experience - it's one of the Colleges pre-requisits, so in order for him to get in, it's something he will have to do for at least 6 months, but he still has some time.
  I did find him a sudent from the Culinary Art College, that is willing to come a tutor him this summer. These are my big news. We will meet with him this weekend, I think, to go over what he will teach him and the other details, so T will be kept busy after all.

  
  You won't believe what a day we had yesterday- we got a call from his Psychiatrist's office saying someone cancled and they had an opening in 2 hours, if we could make it. They left a phone number for us to let them know. I called my husband to see if he could make it home from work. he left work within 30 minutes and called them, but they didn't pick up so he left them a message saying we're on our way. We picked T up from school early and were on our way (it's 30 minutes away from home), and called to confirm they heard the message only to find out that they ahve given the appointment to someone else already- they didn't hear the message. :-(
  I was so angry!!!
  We did call them in time (10 times or so) but they did not pick up, we did leave a message and we were on our way!!!
  They wouldn't put us in between appointments, even though we said it was urgent. They said they would try to get us in next week, before the doctor leaves on her vacation (I doubt they will).
  I am so pissed off right now...

  We'll take one day at a time and see how it goes. maybe the end of the year and having the tutor would make the difference for T and he'll be fine.

  Oh, and I did find out that O is better- yesterday was his appointment to his psychologist and after talking with him, he said that he's better now and doesn't feel depressed anymore.
  So I guess I don't have to worry about O as much as I did a few weeks ago. Now I just need to concentrte on getting T to that point.

   

   

  I would be pissed off too at the doctor 's office.  I know your frustration because I went through it last summer/fall.  His school was so impatient with him and they wanted for him to be better over night.  I could not find a doctor who would treat a young adult (person under 18) and the doctor I did find last year was horrible.  These meds also don't work over night it takes months to reach the right therapeutic dosage. 

   

  
  

• 
• by
  • commonsensemom
  on Jun. 6, 2009 at 2:31 PM

• I get depressed in the winter, and more energetic and my mood is much lighter in the summer.  I grew up in Montana, and would have been happy to hibernate every year, lol.  Now I live in Florida where we get more sunshine in the winter (not longer days...I WISH!!)  and it's not as bad. 

  I didn't start hating winter so much until I got Fibromyalgia.  Cold equates pain for me.  I still miss my Montana, and try to go back in the summer yearly when possible.

  Stop Dog Fighting!!  Pit Bulls are wonderful pets if you raise 'em right. 

  Heather

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