My intro

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone!

I'll try to give a condensed version of our story because it started

several years ago. I wish I had known about this group then. My son

is now 18 and the problems started when he hit puberty. He had

always had some quirks as a child but nothing that interfered with

living. His particular problem is that he thinks that if he sees his

sister (who is now 16) or touches anything she has ever touched,

that he will die. He was in therapy for a couple of years and tried

many medications but now there is none of that. After a session, he

was very upset and refused to go back and the doctor seemed to lose

interest. I think he may have been pushed too far that time and the

doctor's ego let him go because he couldn't get through to him. The

meds only helped to the extent that they reduced the panic attacks

- there were many holes made in the walls during that time. The

panic attacks seemed to have ceased and he hated taking medication

so he won't take them now.

So we live in a house where two people living in it haven't seen each

other in about 5 years - and their bedrooms are next to each other.

My daughter had a glimpse of him the other day - she said " He wears

glasses?? " . Things like that make me see how strange our lives are

and we have been doing it so long, it almost seems " normal " .

About the time he was first refusing therapy or medications, my

husband started having some physical problems and ended up having his

leg amputated. Since the panic attacks had stopped and there was

this new crisis to deal with, we let the therapy and med issues slide.

I should mention that my husband has always been a non-confrontational

type of person so it was always difficult for him to stick to limits

set for my son, but since his surgery, it has been impossible. My

son has used this to his advantage, but no more so than any other kid

would.

The thing that has motivated me to start looking for info and support

again is now he is losing weight. There has always been a mention of

some vague eating disorder but it was secondary to the other problems

so we pretty much let him control his food - he has a fridge and

microwave in his room and has done his own shopping for years.

I think he's getting pickier and pickier about what he eats and is

just not eating enough. He started working at ups a few months ago

(we had been worried he wouldn't be able to find something he was

willing to do) and I know those guys work very hard so a little

weight loss is to be expected but as his mom, he just doesn't look

right to me. I think he's bringing much less food into the house.

This week he also started classes at a local college so there are

many positives here and I don't want to upset that. The changes have

probably triggered whatever is causing the weight loss.

So that's the basics of our story. Thanks for listening.

Betty