Posted on 04/11/2005 6:28:41 PM PDT by neverdem
Poe was a poor kid, orphaned at three or four,dependent on charity. He attended University of Virginia and West Point and willfully flunked out of both. The guy responsible for his estate detested him, burned massive amounts of papers after Poe's death and spread rumors of degenerate personality, which secured his reputation forever.
She was sick when she was little and has lots of brain damage.
The doctor's thought she had skipped any damage because she walked and did so many things on time, except for talking.
They were very surprised when they did an MRI and she had lots of brain damage.
She can talk now (at 8), but it's a struggle. Lots of people don't understand her. However, she is doing well academically in spite of her speech delays.
"i'm still pretty quiet though and don't like large groups. some people just are that way."
Exactly! And there are plenty of us that are the same way.
"i wonder how these wizards would diagnose a young emily dickinson"
Agoraphobic as an adult. Could not leave her house.
The disorder described in this article is such that, without effective treatment, the children will grow up to be adults who can't hold down even the simplest job, and will therefore become dependent on taxpayer support (unless you're suggesting we should just let them starve). And the therapy and medication described here consists primarily of informed assistance from parents and teachers, and a generic drug which is very inexpensive.
Having taught preschoolers for many years, I can agree with your observations. Studies show that extremely shy people have a much more negative and hostile view of the world, beginning in childhood. Before seeking professional help, parents can try helping their children by trying these approaches.
1. Giving their child many and varied experiences outside the home but always staying at the child's side.
2. Placing their child in a preschool with very small classes and being there for the first day (or the first month) until he has adjusted. Gradually the parent should be able to leave for longer and longer periods until he can survive on his own. Make sure the teacher never forces children to participate.
3. If parents can't find a sympathetic teacher who will sensibly and gently let the child be himself, they should start a play group in their basement. There's no substitute for home schooling.
Interesting. Thanks for the ping.
Like me. I was a great student but I hated everything to do with socialization as a child. I was depressed from the age of 5. Chronically wetting myself in class, which only increased my humiliation. I had loving parents but they thought it was just shyness. I missed a LOT of days of school. I was in intermittent therapy for agoraphobia as a teenager, but it was already kind of late. Didn't graduate. I've never held a job even as long as a year, most didn't last a week due to fear. I have bipolar disorder and receive social security, but the social anxiety really kicks me in the butt. Some days I can't answer the door because of the anxiety.
I want some semblance of a normal life someday. I hate medications, doctors and I want to work. I liked working, it was the people and the depression I couldn't handle. I actually love people, I'm just scared to be around them. Walking down the street I get so anxious if someone is approaching. I usually don't leave the house.
However, I've been like this for so long, and been socially messed up since I was a small child. I don't know where to start to be better. I do wish I'd had treatment as a child.
I agree, my youngest son was like this and I have a feeling that I was too. I just remember how frightened I was in any social situation and would still rather blend into the woodwork. When I told his kindergarten teacher that he wouldn't talk she was alarmed and gave me a lecture. I said he was fine and if he ever felt secure in the classroom he would talk. As he went through school, his teachers loved him, he did as he was told and didn't talk much. As he matured he grew out of it but I never treated it as a disability but as a choice he made for himself.
Bump for later.
I'd like to put a plug in here for Dr. Howard Liebgold's course on getting rid of social anxiety (and phobias and OCD) at the Kaiser HMO in Vallejo, California. (You don't have to be a Kaiser member to take the course; it just costs a little extra.) If you are anywhere near the Bay area and have some sort of anxiety disorder, his 10 week course is the best investment you can make in yourself! His cure rate is MUCH better than the majority of therapists. He also has a course targeted specially for kids. You can read an article about his work at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2001/12/30/CM99668.DTL, and his web site is at http://www.angelnet.com/class3.html.
And no, I am not getting any money or anything for singing his praises. I just got my life back, that's all.
"Hey! This f'n oatmeal is lumpy!"
Of course his parents are overjoyed and hug him and ask him why he has never said anything.
And the kid replies: "Everything was OK until now...."
That's the plan either way. Such people vote - or more specifically, their family members do, along with professed social advocates. The more, the better, since it's all very convenient to validate psychiatry and reward liberal aristocrats.
I don't doubt true nutcases; someone once told me he believed he was "teleporting through dad's wallet in his pants' rear pocket to another dimension..." Once he started medication, the delusions ceased.
I'll grant you this particular case, if you insist. This is a bigger issue I have with all of science. I was trained in the cult of peer-review format, where science is pure and numbers don't lie. Then I met some psychology majors, who thought they were scientists. Then I met political science majors, who thought they were scientists. Then I met graduate students, who thought they were god. Then I observed politics, and the whole social scene, and now I'm convinced it's nothing but dogs lying cheating and killing each other in a never-ending power struggle of competing interests and basic value differences. (My profile alludes to this view, in very light tones...)
It's because EVERYTHING seems to be a syndrome nowadays. Psychology seems to be all about diagnosing people who 20 years ago would have been a little weird but would grow out of it. Now it's "we must fix the problem TODAY!"
Even paranoids sometimes have people out to get them.
That, and the fact that we are bombarded with ads from drug companies.
>>only need a loving Mom and Dad. <<
I'm not the poster who said that.
I said that what she needed was to be taken out of the situation, i.e. school.
Has anyone looked into how these kids who are NOT medicated do in life?
Anyone do research on how many children who were not given meds did in adulthood??
My hubby is one of them. He still is not a talker. But he is a CIS manager and has learned through behavior modification to deal with people.
A medication is sometimes needed. I never said it wasn't. I have a problem with the use of SRIs as a cure all. Especially for kids.
>>So, shyness can literally save your life.<<
That was my point exactly.
My older daughter was a cling-on kid. She smiled sweetly but would not talk to anyone. All the moms who wanted me to dump her in a daycare so they would have someone to work out with or go to Bible Study with, told me to just put her in there and she will get used to it. USED to it?? Why?
Now she is almost eight and a bubbly happy kid. Ready to play with all children and polite to adults.
Maybe the problem is that we are shoving kids out the door before they are ready. We didn't do this for hundreds of years with our children. Maybe there is a reason.
BTW, please read this from the article again...
"Dr. Black said. "After three weeks on Prozac, she started talking in school." (Dr. Black said that he had been a paid consultant for Eli Lilly, the maker of Prozac, and for SmithKline Beecham, but that the pharmaceutical industry had not financed any of his research.)"
No conflict of interest here.
Wow!
God Bless your daughter!
I'm glad she got the help she needed and all parents should seek medical attention for problems.
She is the perfect example of parents who do the right thing!
SAD is a real diagnosis. However, the drug companies using it to boost their sales is wrong. The Canadian tv show "The Fifth Estate" did an expose on SmithKline using it for more sales....
"The company hired a public relations firm, Cohn and Wolfe, to help them. The PR firm dreamed up the “imagine being allergic to people” ad that never mentioned SmithKline or their drug."
As my boss used to say, if you look hard enough you can find yourself on every page of the DSM (diagnosis guide).
That is part of the problem. Those who are really sick, know it. Many people are looking to be sick and many more are looking for a solution to their kids.
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