Hello,
I am the mother of a 24 yr old son with AS. He was not correctly diagnosed until he was 16 yrs old. Before that I thought I was the most inept parent on the planet. My son Steve was mis-diagnosed with many things: neurologically underdeveloped, learning disabled, ADHD, partial complex seizure disorder, OCD, psychotic disorders and simply behaviorally handicapped. He got medicated with everything from Ritalin to Tegretol to anti-depressants. We had family therapy; nothing seemed to help. Finally Steve was seen by someone who had exprience with AS. Things started to make sense after that.
Life got better. Not perfect mind you, but the change in how we handled Steve improved his opinion of himself. No more talk of suicide and the self destructive behavior went away. He tried to go to college and was not successful (although very intelligent, he lacks the wherewithal to manage long term assignments like research, term papers etc) but he got trained in data entry and other computer skills and accounting and now has a great job he loves and an employer who appreciates his skills and his work ethic. I owe a huge debt of thanks to our states Rehab services for the training and support Steve got. He's learned how to drive and bought himself a car.
Although I have known of this site for awhile and have access to a support group for parents of AS children I never felt the urge to join. I am not by nature a joiner. I never felt the need for support. I do fine on my own blah blah blah. It never occurred to me that I might be a resource for someone else (maybe Steve isn't the only Aspie in our family).
So here I am.
21 Jan 2007, 7:05 pm
