It's Time Once Again For A New Doctor
When your mental health services are provided at an institution of higher learning, the goal of the Psychiatry department is to train new professionals.
It is for that reason that every two years, we get a new fellow in child psychiatry to provide treatment for Game Teen. Yesterday, we met our third doctor. Game Teen has been receiving treatment from the same facility for just over four years new, so he was due to meet another one.
Once again, we appear to have been matched with someone who has a very good understanding of the issues that Game Teen has. Additionally, she just completed a fellowship on the adult psychiatry side-so she and his previous doctor knew each other (apparently very well.) I don't know and can't really ask, but I suspect that this new doctor assumed Dr. N's patient load.
Other than talking to him in a sing song tone when she first met him, I am happy with her. She had some really good insights on why he's been so bad this summer, agreeing with my assessment that lack of routine is a major contributor. We told her about his behavior at scout camp, and his eating issues.
The upshot of this visit?
I learned that Aspies, for the most part, cannot process time in the usual manner. Punishment of more than a week is ineffective because he doesn't KNOW how to recognize the passing of time. This was a clearer explanation than I've ever heard before.
He seems a lot heavier than he did at the beginning of the summer, and we discussed the gluttony issues. I lamented the fact that it's nearly impossible to feed the rest of the family without bread for sandwiches, that I'm going to end up buying locks for both fridges and the pantry as soon as funds allow. She felt that this was probably caused by his medications, and we'll look into changing them up a bit once we're back into a school routine.
She asked if his behavior is better when he has a decent night's sleep, which segued into the fact that despite my best efforts to bring the boys back to their school bedtime hours, he's been up until midnight some nights, laying in his bed and humming or grunting. For this, his medication for sleep has been increased, and may be increased again.
Ed and I have suspected that his OCD medication is losing efficacy, based on the length of time he's been taking it (over 8 years now) and the weight gain (which was only 5 pounds-seems like more). Apparently, Strattera is also used to control OCD, so she's thinking that perhaps an increase in the Strattera AND Luvox might help him control his obsessiveness much better.
We're scheduled back in six weeks. While the faces change, the approach really hasn't. For Game Teen's sake, I'm glad.
It is for that reason that every two years, we get a new fellow in child psychiatry to provide treatment for Game Teen. Yesterday, we met our third doctor. Game Teen has been receiving treatment from the same facility for just over four years new, so he was due to meet another one.
Once again, we appear to have been matched with someone who has a very good understanding of the issues that Game Teen has. Additionally, she just completed a fellowship on the adult psychiatry side-so she and his previous doctor knew each other (apparently very well.) I don't know and can't really ask, but I suspect that this new doctor assumed Dr. N's patient load.
Other than talking to him in a sing song tone when she first met him, I am happy with her. She had some really good insights on why he's been so bad this summer, agreeing with my assessment that lack of routine is a major contributor. We told her about his behavior at scout camp, and his eating issues.
The upshot of this visit?
I learned that Aspies, for the most part, cannot process time in the usual manner. Punishment of more than a week is ineffective because he doesn't KNOW how to recognize the passing of time. This was a clearer explanation than I've ever heard before.
He seems a lot heavier than he did at the beginning of the summer, and we discussed the gluttony issues. I lamented the fact that it's nearly impossible to feed the rest of the family without bread for sandwiches, that I'm going to end up buying locks for both fridges and the pantry as soon as funds allow. She felt that this was probably caused by his medications, and we'll look into changing them up a bit once we're back into a school routine.
She asked if his behavior is better when he has a decent night's sleep, which segued into the fact that despite my best efforts to bring the boys back to their school bedtime hours, he's been up until midnight some nights, laying in his bed and humming or grunting. For this, his medication for sleep has been increased, and may be increased again.
Ed and I have suspected that his OCD medication is losing efficacy, based on the length of time he's been taking it (over 8 years now) and the weight gain (which was only 5 pounds-seems like more). Apparently, Strattera is also used to control OCD, so she's thinking that perhaps an increase in the Strattera AND Luvox might help him control his obsessiveness much better.
We're scheduled back in six weeks. While the faces change, the approach really hasn't. For Game Teen's sake, I'm glad.
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