Author Archives: carl

>Brain Damage and the Child.

> Met with the Child Psychologist. Somethings I was told weren’t a huge surprise, some things made me sad. Our son needs placement at Manchester House. he presents as someone who has suffered traumatic abuse in his life. She said that from reading his case history, she doesn’t believe that the abuse is real, though it appears real to… our son. Our son is afraid of a number of things. First, he is afraid that we are going to kick him out of our family. Second he is afraid that someone is going to kill him. His response to confrontation is a reflection of that. It is called fight or flight. Even the slightest confrontation is seen by him as a threat to his life. This also explains his assaults on the furniture and other violent behavior both at school and at home. Our son was telling the doctor about

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>Value of Family

>What value do you place on the family unit?  When it comes to a child with mental disability, after you have done everything humanly possible to work with the child, is it giving up to let someone else take on the challenges of raising him or her to adulthood? We are faced with the dilemma of placing our son in a residential setting for part of his life.  If it isn’t our failure as parents that caused this outcome, then why do I feel like a failure?  Ultimately, I guess it is about what is right for the rest of the family.  It doesn’t make the decision any easier.  But in the end, we do have other children that we love and value just as much as him.  In my mind, the decision has already been made, it is just a matter of when the placement begins.  I have to

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>Asking for help

>Can’t force someone to ask for help.  Can’t force them to accept help.  Today one of our other kids asked for help.  I actually said thank you.  So we can start getting the other kids to therapy for help with dealing with the things that surround David. Tweet #fighting4answrs