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Can Anybody Here Relate?
My son is in the hospital -- inpatient psych, again, second time in less than a year. What bothers me is that NOBODY at the unit sees his anxiety...when every one of his private providers (teacher, art therapist, psychiatrist, OT, behavior therapist, speech therapist) can't stop talking about his anxiety. Not to mention, we live with his anxiety at home all the time.
What gives?! Is is possible that the psych unit in a hospital can't see something that is so apparent to the rest of us?
The hospital is characterizing what the rest of us consider anxious behaviors as PDD-NOS. I get that he doesn't do well in social settings...but it's because he's scared of them! He's a child who is entirely emotionally connected with others, but has a very difficult time expressing that emotion.
Anyway. Just wondering if anyone else has been in the situation of a whole set of providers diagnosing one thing and another set of equal professional opinions telling you something completely different.
Our psychiatrist explained that we are seeing where the break is in the field of mental health -- those who believe that behaviors drive a diagnosis and those who believe that in order to accurately diagnose, you must look past the behaviors to what lies beneath them.
Not quite sure what if all these labels really matter in the end. But I'm just wondering, am I the only one dealing with this??
:)cms8741
What gives?! Is is possible that the psych unit in a hospital can't see something that is so apparent to the rest of us?
The hospital is characterizing what the rest of us consider anxious behaviors as PDD-NOS. I get that he doesn't do well in social settings...but it's because he's scared of them! He's a child who is entirely emotionally connected with others, but has a very difficult time expressing that emotion.
Anyway. Just wondering if anyone else has been in the situation of a whole set of providers diagnosing one thing and another set of equal professional opinions telling you something completely different.
Our psychiatrist explained that we are seeing where the break is in the field of mental health -- those who believe that behaviors drive a diagnosis and those who believe that in order to accurately diagnose, you must look past the behaviors to what lies beneath them.
Not quite sure what if all these labels really matter in the end. But I'm just wondering, am I the only one dealing with this??
:)cms8741
Tags: diagnosis, psychology
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Heather M on -
Unfortunately, I can't help on this one, because our issues are considerably different. However, that sounds incredibly frustrating and I have heard this from other parents secondhand. Sending hugs!!
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Permalink Reply by Azaera R on -
Actually as a child I developed panic attack disorder when I was only 8 years old. I've endured the anxiety and panic attacks throughout almost my entire life. It's extremely frustrating when people don't understand what you're feeling or why you are feeling it. As his mom if you know what's going on with him, he's lucky to have you, especially if you are willing to stand up for him and make sure his health care providers know it too.
When I was told my son had an ectopic posterior pituitary gland I was overwhelmed at first, but then when I realized he wasn't seeing and the doctors told me "just wait, he was born premature he'll develop his vision eventually" I did my research about his condition. I found out that he had septo-optic dysplasia. When I told this to his doctors they finally took me seriously and referred him to an opthalmologist who confirmed that I was right and he is legally blind. It took a lot of work on my part to make sure they knew what I was seeing was relevant, even though they are specialists, I am his mom.
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Permalink Reply by Leah on
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You're not the only one. Our situation is somewhat different, but I too have a child diagnosed (with no eval) with PDD-NOS as a - maybe stopgap? - because the behaviors are displayed. But the whole picture doesn't agree with that diagnosis.
For now, I've stopped hoping for diagnoses to be either broadly or deeply meaningful and just use them to surf from spot to spot of usefulness, of anywhere help and improvement and growth can truly be found. If the spot doesn't bring those I move on if we can.
Sometimes as a parent I can see something that would be so useful and it's just not available though. And then there are these awkward places where people don't truly see the child or they get stuck or we all get stuck.
So are you happy with what is actually happening in the hospital?
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Permalink Reply by April Vela on
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Yes were are there now 4 doctors said are daughter has bipolar adhd and anxiety but at the at the childrens hospital they said she has 2 kinds of anxiety and adhd and not bipllar. They make us feel like it is us that we are bad parents but her school she see her behavior to. so now they are taking her off her bipolar meds and discharged today wish us well.. Her bio family has a bad history of mental health
April Vela;
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Permalink Reply by mom2spiritedboys on
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I know the original post was from a while back but wanted to chime in - we have one group who say our son has Asperger's (on top of many other diagnosis) and others who say it is his Attachment Disorder and others who say it is a manifestation of his OCD/Anxiety/Tourettes etc. I never tell people that he has a form of Autism because some days I feel he does and other days I don't know that it fits. In the end - all these professionals are also the people that keep telling me the labels don't matter as much as what we do about the behaviour and what is causing it. But what you do for OCD can be very different than what you do for Bipolar and very different for what you do if it is Aspergers/anxiety.
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