re: Does your kid have "blackouts?":

Quoting TheCoopersKnitWitch:" And I'm thinking that's it's too. That he just gets to that point where there's no turning back and ... [snip!] ... factor. Sometimes he is just so anxious he can't function. And I'd hate to have him go through life not knowing what's wrong ."

That is what it sounds like too me , dose he see a psychologist yet? That would be helpful I think.

I know how he feels my anxiety got to the point that I could not leave the house, I mean walking out the door whats impossible. I eventually got some help and they way they had me do it(now I was an adult and did not have any other issues) was mostly exposure therapy.

The Dr made me force myself to do the things that I was most anxious about. It was hard and very scary but it worked. I don't know if this is the same way they would treat this is children. But I really think a Psychiatrist who specializes in children would benefit your LO. Maybe you should give that a try.

I hope he gets this under control because then the whole family can feel better

Quoting applelove:" That is what it sounds like too me , dose he see a psychologist yet? That would be helpful I think. ... [snip!] ... your LO. Maybe you should give that a try. I hope he gets this under control because then the whole family can feel better"

His anxiety is making sure everything is in order. Thanks to the autism, everything has to match, and I'm thinking he's getting overly anxious when things don't match up the way he wants them to. And he wants to out do everyone.

He was seeing a psych about a year ago, but she started double billing us. Canceling our appts and then billing us for them anyways. And then we went to I think a psychiatrist? The ones who can prescribe meds, and what happened with that is that when we couldn't get the medication he didn't call us back to talk to us. And so I called the pedi in an emergency and said, "We're out of meds, we can't afford these, can he stop cold turkey?" and the doc informed me that the meds he is on, is a blood pressure med, and stopping cold turkey could cause a massive blood pressure spike. Extreme high blood pressure.

This freaked me out because high blood pressure to me = heart attack(probably not in him but you know what I mean) and his psych wouldn't call us back! It obviously was not important to his psych the meds it was more about getting us in for an appt(he wanted us to make an appt and not talk over the phone). So we stopped seeing him.

now he's on medicaid, and so my husband took the sheet from the school psych on counselors, and well that was a month ago, I never received it. So I have to call and get one sent home with him today. If I can get my daughter off the phone. But now we're eating lunch. hopefully afterwards.

What you are saying sounds like OCD to me... I am no Dr and know nothing about this stuff in children. But for an adult when your anxiety about how things are arranged or match ect is overwhelming that is OCD. I have it also.

Is that something that runs in you family? I am not sure if that is something that is hereditary or not. I tell you I took meds for my anxity and OCD and it was amazing the change in me

But again I am sure when dealing with a child things are different. When is the next time you go to the dr?

Do you know much about OCD? If you do n't then Dr Phil did an episode and so did that show Taboo about it. The shows are eye opening and helpful for people who don't understand it. The shows also highlighted the people with the most extreme cases. People who have OCD are worse when they have more anxiety... if that makes since. So anxiety and stress trigger more OCD

Quoting applelove:" What you are saying sounds like OCD to me... I am no Dr and know nothing about this stuff in children. ... [snip!] ... cases. People who have OCD are worse when they have more anxiety... if that makes since. So anxiety and stress trigger more OCD"

I do know a lot about OCD. Unfortunately his uncle suffered from it until he died last year.

So naturally when Jacob showed signs of it, I fought for a long time to see if it was OCD, but they told me that kids his age can't have OCD, because they don't really know what it is. And they classify the signs and symptoms as autism and not OCD.

Weird, but we tried.

He used to wash his hands for hours on end just for fun when he was 1. It was weird, and he continued to do it. Now it's all about matching, lining things up, making sure everything is perfect. Everything gets eaten in a proper order, everything is routine. But they classify this as autism in kids this old.

We are careful to keep the "what has bugs and what doesn't" away from him. Apparently this is how his uncle was diagnosed, they taught him about germs in school and he came home and would tape plastic bags around his hands to keep germs from getting on him. His uncle was 7 when he was diagnosed.

Quoting TheCoopersKnitWitch:" I do know a lot about OCD. Unfortunately his uncle suffered from it until he died last year. So naturally ... [snip!] ... home and would tape plastic bags around his hands to keep germs from getting on him. His uncle was 7 when he was diagnosed."

the ocd symptoms in autisic persons are similar to but not the same as true ocd. I have read several cases of older persons w/autism spectrum disorders being misdiagnosed w/ocd for decades because autism disorders werent understood at the time.

Quoting 6 blessings so far....:" the ocd symptoms in autisic persons are similar to but not the same as true ocd. I have read several ... [snip!] ... w/autism spectrum disorders being misdiagnosed w/ocd for decades because autism disorders werent understood at the time."

That's pretty much what all the psychs said when they went with the diagnosis of autism. That if he had true OCD it would show much worse later on.