This made me think. I would love to hear everyone's diagnosis story. How and when did you find out you were moving to Schmolland? Anyone else want to share your story?
I'm still reading the thread from the beginning but I found this one and thought I'd throw mine out here.
My DS10 was born 4 weeks prematurely after losing 40% of his blood volume when his cord tore from his tummy and then the placenta abrupted (kid got a double whammy). He was on a vent for the first hour of his life but because he had been without o2 for 17 minutes before they could get him on the vent, he was likely going to be blind, deaf, severe cp, and cognitively impaired. Two years later he was a more or less normal kid, although he had quirks about food, loved staring at fans, and would only be held long enough to nurse. When he turned 2 he became this hellion that could never be consoled or placated. He cried every time we left the house, he never slept, and he was easily frustrated. I took him to the ped and she said it was the terrible twos. So we waited. At 3 I asked her about ADHD. She said lets wait and see a little longer.
When he was 4 I gave birth to a 6 week early premie who couldn't hold his temp or his weight after birth...but could breathe. DS began throwing even worse fits, would hit and hurt anyone he could get his hands on, he would destroy things, and I was miserable. I did some research on Autism and felt like he was a spectrum kid. So back to the ped who dxed him with ADHD and gave us a referral to a developmental ped.
The developmental ped said it wasn't a spectrum thing but bad parenting.
Recommended we get counseling, try some anti depressants on him for the anxiety, and work with the behavior mod. I went home even more depressed and resentful of the kid.
Six months later he is running away in school, hiding under furniture, barking at people and having to be restrained by school personnel so he couldn't flee. So back we went to the developmental ped. Saw a nurse practioner and she increased the anxiety meds and the adhd meds and we waited. A few months later we went to WDW and while we were in the room napping DS got a hold of my mother's leatherman tool (it was in her purse) and cut his hands all up. They were superficial cuts but, bled nonetheless. Oh and he ran away one day too and it took us 45 minutes with MK security to find him. He was happily wandering around Frontier Land all by himself.
We got back home, I took him straight back to the nurse practioner, cried to her and told her she had to fix him. I started telling her why I thought he was autistic and she saw the light. She gave me a screening form and it was blaringly obvious that he was on the spectrum. So we went for a huge battery of psych tests and 2 months later we had our dx.
I thought I would be happy with my dx because now i knew what it meant. I had read the new books on Holland and thought I could handle it. I'm a special ed teacher, how hard could this be.
yeah well, that soon turned to more depression and angst for me and I'm still lving that.
He is now on concerta (no holidays for him), Risperdone, Clonidine, and Zoloft. He's not great but he's better. It took almost 4 years to get the dx but we now have it and are learing better to navigate the terrain. Unfortunately, I have it stuck in my head that it should be easier for me since I can do it with other people's children. Its not.
I am finding so much strength from this thread. I can't believe how much of your stories sound like mine. I've spent all my planning time today reading...laughing, almost crying, and the like.
Hi Johnny! Welcome to Schmolland! I am quite sure that we accept dual citizenship here (since you mentioned the UK)
I also love the x files! My sister has a completely non-verbal son, too, who is 12. I watch how hard that is! I hope you stay around and share some of your UK advice!
Amazing what "understanding" does to people and situations!
guess thats one of the drawbacks of the internet but every parent with an ASD child understands the thread completely!
but not about that!!!
I think we need an official seal for our ID cards! 
