stevenpiziks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stevenpiziks) wrote2009-02-26 10:16 pm
stevenpiziks) wrote2009-02-26 10:16 pm
Sasha and PTSD
We've been trying to find another counselor for Sasha for a while. He saw one for about a year quite a while ago, but she went on maternity leave and never came back. Over the last few months, he's been showing more and more signs of stress and difficulty, and we decided he had to see someone again.
We found one guy who didn't work out. His version of counseling was to give lectures in psychology. Some of what he said was useful, but it wasn't what Sasha needed, especially since he spent only about 10% of the time letting Sasha talk. The other 90% of the time he talked to me or Kala. He never saw Sasha alone. So we ended it with him.
Wednesday Kala took him to another counselor, who seemed to work out rather better. Kala said he responded well to her.
"Was he ever diagnosed with PTSD?" she asked at one point.
"Not formally," Kala said. "But we kind of suspected, and so did his other counselor."
"Huh," she said. I'll diagnose him right now. He has PTSD."
I knew that insomnia, sleepwalking, audio hallucinations, and difficulty concentrating are symptoms of PTSD, and Sasha experiences all of these. But Sasha has another habit, has since I've met him: he asks me to speak for him.
One of the most common things I hear from him is, "Dad, tell Mom about that thing that happened," or "Ask Mom if I can use her computer," when Kala is sitting right there. He'll ask me to tell his teachers things for him as well, usually when they're standing next to us. I put this down to a strange version of shyness or low self-esteem, but it turns out this is a common symptom of PTSD in young people.
So now we have to see how best to treat it.
We found one guy who didn't work out. His version of counseling was to give lectures in psychology. Some of what he said was useful, but it wasn't what Sasha needed, especially since he spent only about 10% of the time letting Sasha talk. The other 90% of the time he talked to me or Kala. He never saw Sasha alone. So we ended it with him.
Wednesday Kala took him to another counselor, who seemed to work out rather better. Kala said he responded well to her.
"Was he ever diagnosed with PTSD?" she asked at one point.
"Not formally," Kala said. "But we kind of suspected, and so did his other counselor."
"Huh," she said. I'll diagnose him right now. He has PTSD."
I knew that insomnia, sleepwalking, audio hallucinations, and difficulty concentrating are symptoms of PTSD, and Sasha experiences all of these. But Sasha has another habit, has since I've met him: he asks me to speak for him.
One of the most common things I hear from him is, "Dad, tell Mom about that thing that happened," or "Ask Mom if I can use her computer," when Kala is sitting right there. He'll ask me to tell his teachers things for him as well, usually when they're standing next to us. I put this down to a strange version of shyness or low self-esteem, but it turns out this is a common symptom of PTSD in young people.
So now we have to see how best to treat it.