Labeling/Diagnosis

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-05-2004
Labeling/Diagnosis
11
Wed, 04-02-2008 - 1:42pm

Just wanted to put this one out there to see how everyone felt.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-28-2007
Wed, 04-02-2008 - 2:05pm

I look at it this way. Is your ds getting the interventions and services he needs without the official dx? (OT, speech. social skills group, dietary intervention etc). If so, then why need the dx.

However, what can he get WITH the dx is the real question. With the dx my two receive the IEP's they need to succeed in school and it looks like we are also entitled to state funding for additional therapies the school doesn't provide and I otherwise could not afford.

I do undertsand the fear of a label, but I think I am just too tired and too beaten down to truly care about the "box. I use the dx to get my boys what they are entitled to Just my 2c.

Dee

Spring sig 2008


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Wed, 04-02-2008 - 2:20pm

Victor has an offical diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome. The way I look at this is I use scholarships to help me pay for college. This puts me in a financial box that says I can't afford to go to school, but there's no shame attached to it. If the label of Asperger's makes it easier for Victor to succeed in school, there should be no shame in that either. He's getting the help he needs right now that will make it so when he goes to college, he won't need as many modifications. I agree with Dee. If your child is getting the help he needs right now sans dx then that's awesome. It's all what works best for your family. While Victor has an official dx, we don't medicate anymore. We've had two psychiatrists who did nothing but change his meds every visit and now Vic is terrified of doctors. It's all about what is best for your child.


iVillage Member
Registered: 09-10-2004
Wed, 04-02-2008 - 3:03pm

My DS has an official dx and I wanted it that way.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-13-2008
Wed, 04-02-2008 - 3:04pm
im going crazy without an OFFICIAL diagnoses, so tired of hearing, "charateristics of". I know without a doubt its pdd-nos, and one psychologist tried to tell me that wasnt a real diagnoses!ahhhhhi feel like screaming most days. forget about it being a label, its not as if your gonnna brand your kid on the forehead for all the world to see. at least thats how i look at it!


iVillage Member
Registered: 05-16-2006
Wed, 04-02-2008 - 5:16pm

My son is definately PDD-NOS---that is what truly fits him. He is fun loving, stims on occasion when nervous, speech is behind, sensory issues but totally aware of who he is and what life is but takes a autsim vacation if I let him off to video games for too long. LOL ---I was very anti-label because I didn't accept he had autism for a LONG time. It's going on 2 yrs this month since he got "tagged". THANKFULLY that label has given him a multitude of extra help he wasn't gonna get with out help via med assistance. We are for the most part a one income family and that is major for us. Our insurance cover NOTHING!!!!!!


I must echo everything Dee said in her post. I feel you might be slightly jaded due to fact you are part of the field. In my opinion a label=help.


Nora

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-23-2004
Wed, 04-02-2008 - 6:33pm
The school wasn't willing to put forth much effort on DS without a dx.


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iVillage Member
Registered: 02-28-2008
Wed, 04-02-2008 - 9:41pm

I'm very much influenced by my own struggle with a chronic condition. As long as I denied that the condition was chronic, I didn't manage it very well and would have relapses. I fought the label for a long time. It wasn't until I accepted that I had chronic depression that I started to manage myself better and went into remission . I don't see my label as limiting me excessively - I need to protect my sleep and manage my stress level - and in fact, I feel like the label frees me to some extent to do what I need to do when I need to do it. I freely admit to other people that I've struggled with depression during my life. I'm not ashamed of it at all.

I'm also influenced by the reading I've done where people on the spectrum expressed great relief to find that they have a condition with a name. They no longer felt 'weird' or 'bad'. It explained their experience of the world and gave them a tribe to belong to. The box felt 'right' to them.

So, I sought out a diagnosis for my son, despite the fact that we were getting all the services he needed, just to know what we were up against. And when I think he's ready, I'll share the diagnosis with him.

That's my two cents worth.

Drea

Andrea, mom to

Graham
Miles
Anson
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-20-2008
Wed, 04-02-2008 - 10:08pm

Well right now I am amidst a battle trying to get DD services. The ONLY way she will qualify is if she has an official DX. I am probably going to have her see a ped psych.


Had she qualified for services, I probably would have taken the "wait and see" approach regarding DX. I think labels can help and hurt. Help definitely if it assists in services, as so many others have said. It can hurt in upper grades I feel, especially in how they view themselves and teasing from peers. But that's only my opinion, and depends on how integrated the school/class is.


Go with your gut. If you feel a DX would be beneficial to your family, that is what is important. If your gut says you're great without it, then maybe it isn't necessary.


Good luck!


Lisa

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-28-2006
Wed, 04-02-2008 - 10:35pm

Well to me I see pro's and con's.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Thu, 04-03-2008 - 6:04am

Well, I'm a social scientist, and I'd read all the 'theory' on labelling and problems etc, which I understand. But I know that for us as a family, and for DS individually, the diagnosis was such a relief. It was like the sun coming out from behind the clouds. Oh! so that's why....was a near constant refrain for weeks. DS is now keen for everyone to know, so that they don't think he's being wierd or rude or naughty (all labels in themselves).


My take on it therefore is that it doesn't help *anyone* - not DS, not us, not his teachers, not his friends, not his family, not his doctors - *not* to have the diagnosis or label, and it *does* help us all to have it. It explains it, and him. If other people have a problem with it, that's (here's the social scientist in me talking!) their problem because of the way in which society stigmatizes difference, that's not DS's problem. Not admitting he has AS wouldn't make his life any easier, it would make it a lot harder. And frankly, I'm his mum, it's my job to prepare him for the world the best I can, and he's better prepared armed with knowledge about himself and how he views the world and how it might be different than other people's views and the kinds of barriers and difficulties he might face and how he might overcome them.


As PPs have pointed out, the diagnosis can also be a passport to help and services, and sometimes the *only* passport (our psychiatrist was quite clear that this, as much as other things, was why she was always keen to provide a diagnosis if she could, and I'm grateful for that.

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