Mental Health

[MarkInTheStands]

Thanks everyone for the support.

Yeah my goal for this year is under 100 then next year I think it is going to be plastic surgery to fix all this dangling skin

 

[hineyrulz]

Good going @MarkInTheStands

I like your posts.
.
I swing about 12 kilos. Close to bottom now.

You must be bigger than Ryan Morgan.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

You must be bigger than Ryan Morgan.

I don’t understand the joke but it cheered young rusted up.

 

[hineyrulz]

I don’t understand the joke but it cheered young rusted up.

You swinging 12 kilo's, impressive.

 

[Stevie]

Wait. You guys are Facebook friends and not with me?!!!

 

[Stevie]

I have a presentation to my senior leadership team on Wednesday down in Melbourne and I’ve dropped into the panic zone about it to the point it’s ruined my entire weekend.

This is a good chance for me though to really push myself and try to separate the the imposter syndrome feelings and face it.

It’s the most bizarre feeling I present to national team all the time yet this gets in my head?

My headspace has been amazing the last 6 months or so but just goes to show, if you have these feelings it’s a marathon not a sprint to living with it.

I’ll continue to share just in case someone else gets benefits from chatting about this stuff.

 

[RustedonEel]

I don’t understand the joke but it cheered young rusted up.

I'm sure if you searched Ryan Morgan on here you'd get some clues

 

[hindy111]

I have a presentation to my senior leadership team on Wednesday down in Melbourne and I’ve dropped into the panic zone about it to the point it’s ruined my entire weekend.

This is a good chance for me though to really push myself and try to separate the the imposter syndrome feelings and face it.

It’s the most bizarre feeling I present to national team all the time yet this gets in my head?

My headspace has been amazing the last 6 months or so but just goes to show, if you have these feelings it’s a marathon not a sprint to living with it.

I’ll continue to share just in case someone else gets benefits from chatting about this stuff.

I stopped smoking the flower a month ago .Not that I did for long. Few months perhaps

Now just having a gummy at 7pm for the last week.
I've been sleeping 8hrs a night every night the last 5 nights. It's like a miracle.
I'm unsure if it's the gummy or the fact I haven't worked for almost a month and had a few good roots recently. Also haven't drank in 2 weeks. Not that I drink much. Maybe 5-6 a week but staying away from alcohol for a while.
I'll give in a month and then stop the gummies if sleeps fine

 

[the phantom menace]

Sounds like a combo of all of the above...

 

[Stevie]

I stopped smoking the flower a month ago .Not that I did for long. Few months perhaps

Now just having a gummy at 7pm for the last week.
I've been sleeping 8hrs a night every night the last 5 nights. It's like a miracle.
I'm unsure if it's the gummy or the fact I haven't worked for almost a month and had a few good roots recently. Also haven't drank in 2 weeks. Not that I drink much. Maybe 5-6 a week but staying away from alcohol for a while.
I'll give in a month and then stop the gummies if sleeps fine

Yeah thats awesome. I find my sleep is wonderful now, its such a relief. You genuinely feel like a different person with crap sleep.

 

[Eelementary]

Please excuse the upcoming rant, but I'm frustrated, angry, and I need to vent.

As you may know, my son is on the autism spectrum.

We were able to get NDIS "support", who demanded that we get an independent psychiatric evaluation, to get him a proper diagnosis, before they can provide any semblance of support- $3,000 later (out of our own pockets, mind you), we finally get a diagnosis...

The psychiatrist - who was unable to get anywhere with our son in their face-to-face meeting, because he went completely non-verbal, his under a chair, and stimmed to soothe himself for the 90-minute session - initially gave a diagnosis stating that he was not on the autistic spectrum, despite witnessing the behaviours I just described.

The psychiatrist advised that our son was not on the spectrum.

We pushed, and fought, for the psychiatrist to try a different approach.

The psychiatrist eventually relented, sent us, and his daycare, a questionnaire, and we each filled it out, and returned it to the psychiatrist.

Three months after receiving the completed questionnaires, the psychiatrist diagnoses our son as a level 1 on the spectrum - the lowest level.

Now, the NDIS is saying he does not need support, as he is "only at level 1".

For context, in the past 7 days:

- our son threw one of his chairs at my face, which hit me in the eye, because we are asking him to stop jumping on the lounge;

- has been throwing chairs, hitting teachers, and throwing toys at his daycare friends, to the point that the teachers are saying that his peers are afraid of him;

- our son threw himself on the floor, and cried for 4 consecutive hours, screaming, because we had previously praised his good behaviour (he was really well-behaved, so we thought we would tell him how proud we were, and all that did was trigger him to start screaming, and crying);

- when trying to communicate with him, he goes completely non-verbal, refusing to answer questions, or tell us what he needs, to the point where he throws his dinner on the floor, refuses anything else to eat, and then at 9pm, cries that he's hungry, and will only eat fruit;

- he has repeatedly hit, and yelled right in the face of, our two-year old daughter.


We have tried to "bribe" him with treats/toys ("if you're good, you get a treat/toy"), we have tried to shower him with a lot of affection, we have tried to be stern, we have tried to ignore him, we have tried to take things away (eg: certain toys he likes, and put them in a temporary jail)....

Nothing works, and now they are saying they will remove their support, because he's not a level 2, or higher.

I am truly worried that he will get kicked out of daycare, and I am also very concerned at how he will handle school without support.

I don't know what to do.

 

[Soren Lorenson]

Please excuse the upcoming rant, but I'm frustrated, angry, and I need to vent.

As you may know, my son is on the autism spectrum.

We were able to get NDIS "support", who demanded that we get an independent psychiatric evaluation, to get him a proper diagnosis, before they can provide any semblance of support- $3,000 later (out of our own pockets, mind you), we finally get a diagnosis...

The psychiatrist - who was unable to get anywhere with our son in their face-to-face meeting, because he went completely non-verbal, his under a chair, and stimmed to soothe himself for the 90-minute session - initially gave a diagnosis stating that he was not on the autistic spectrum, despite witnessing the behaviours I just described.

The psychiatrist advised that our son was not on the spectrum.

We pushed, and fought, for the psychiatrist to try a different approach.

The psychiatrist eventually relented, sent us, and his daycare, a questionnaire, and we each filled it out, and returned it to the psychiatrist.

Three months after receiving the completed questionnaires, the psychiatrist diagnoses our son as a level 1 on the spectrum - the lowest level.

Now, the NDIS is saying he does not need support, as he is "only at level 1".

For context, in the past 7 days:

- our son threw one of his chairs at my face, which hit me in the eye, because we are asking him to stop jumping on the lounge;

- has been throwing chairs, hitting teachers, and throwing toys at his daycare friends, to the point that the teachers are saying that his peers are afraid of him;

- our son threw himself on the floor, and cried for 4 consecutive hours, screaming, because we had previously praised his good behaviour (he was really well-behaved, so we thought we would tell him how proud we were, and all that did was trigger him to start screaming, and crying);

- when trying to communicate with him, he goes completely non-verbal, refusing to answer questions, or tell us what he needs, to the point where he throws his dinner on the floor, refuses anything else to eat, and then at 9pm, cries that he's hungry, and will only eat fruit;

- he has repeatedly hit, and yelled right in the face of, our two-year old daughter.


We have tried to "bribe" him with treats/toys ("if you're good, you get a treat/toy"), we have tried to shower him with a lot of affection, we have tried to be stern, we have tried to ignore him, we have tried to take things away (eg: certain toys he likes, and put them in a temporary jail)....

Nothing works, and now they are saying they will remove their support, because he's not a level 2, or higher.

I am truly worried that he will get kicked out of daycare, and I am also very concerned at how he will handle school without support.

I don't know what to do.

Brother, you need to get in touch with a disability advocate to give you a hand. Start here www.da.org.au and/or here aass.org.au
Please feel free to PM me if you want to chat. My business is NDIS, I’m far from an expert in children with Autism as most of my clients are adults with mental health related disabilities, but I still might be able to give you insights into the process or where to turn.

 

[Eelementary]

Brother, you need to get in touch with a disability advocate to give you a hand. Start here www.da.org.au and/or here aass.org.au
Please feel free to PM me if you want to chat. My business is NDIS, I’m far from an expert in children with Autism as most of my clients are adults with mental health related disabilities, but I still might be able to give you insights into the process or where to turn.

Thank you - we will try that.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Please excuse the upcoming rant, but I'm frustrated, angry, and I need to vent.

As you may know, my son is on the autism spectrum.

We were able to get NDIS "support", who demanded that we get an independent psychiatric evaluation, to get him a proper diagnosis, before they can provide any semblance of support- $3,000 later (out of our own pockets, mind you), we finally get a diagnosis...

The psychiatrist - who was unable to get anywhere with our son in their face-to-face meeting, because he went completely non-verbal, his under a chair, and stimmed to soothe himself for the 90-minute session - initially gave a diagnosis stating that he was not on the autistic spectrum, despite witnessing the behaviours I just described.

The psychiatrist advised that our son was not on the spectrum.

We pushed, and fought, for the psychiatrist to try a different approach.

The psychiatrist eventually relented, sent us, and his daycare, a questionnaire, and we each filled it out, and returned it to the psychiatrist.

Three months after receiving the completed questionnaires, the psychiatrist diagnoses our son as a level 1 on the spectrum - the lowest level.

Now, the NDIS is saying he does not need support, as he is "only at level 1".

For context, in the past 7 days:

- our son threw one of his chairs at my face, which hit me in the eye, because we are asking him to stop jumping on the lounge;

- has been throwing chairs, hitting teachers, and throwing toys at his daycare friends, to the point that the teachers are saying that his peers are afraid of him;

- our son threw himself on the floor, and cried for 4 consecutive hours, screaming, because we had previously praised his good behaviour (he was really well-behaved, so we thought we would tell him how proud we were, and all that did was trigger him to start screaming, and crying);

- when trying to communicate with him, he goes completely non-verbal, refusing to answer questions, or tell us what he needs, to the point where he throws his dinner on the floor, refuses anything else to eat, and then at 9pm, cries that he's hungry, and will only eat fruit;

- he has repeatedly hit, and yelled right in the face of, our two-year old daughter.


We have tried to "bribe" him with treats/toys ("if you're good, you get a treat/toy"), we have tried to shower him with a lot of affection, we have tried to be stern, we have tried to ignore him, we have tried to take things away (eg: certain toys he likes, and put them in a temporary jail)....

Nothing works, and now they are saying they will remove their support, because he's not a level 2, or higher.

I am truly worried that he will get kicked out of daycare, and I am also very concerned at how he will handle school without support.

I don't know what to do.

Tough situation, feel for you.

Interestingly right now, I am listening to the Conversations hr on ABC where they are interviewing Briana Blackett:

Carer story - Briana

Briana’s story

www.carersnsw.org.au

 

[Gronk]

Please excuse the upcoming rant, but I'm frustrated, angry, and I need to vent.

As you may know, my son is on the autism spectrum.

We were able to get NDIS "support", who demanded that we get an independent psychiatric evaluation, to get him a proper diagnosis, before they can provide any semblance of support- $3,000 later (out of our own pockets, mind you), we finally get a diagnosis...

The psychiatrist - who was unable to get anywhere with our son in their face-to-face meeting, because he went completely non-verbal, his under a chair, and stimmed to soothe himself for the 90-minute session - initially gave a diagnosis stating that he was not on the autistic spectrum, despite witnessing the behaviours I just described.

The psychiatrist advised that our son was not on the spectrum.

We pushed, and fought, for the psychiatrist to try a different approach.

The psychiatrist eventually relented, sent us, and his daycare, a questionnaire, and we each filled it out, and returned it to the psychiatrist.

Three months after receiving the completed questionnaires, the psychiatrist diagnoses our son as a level 1 on the spectrum - the lowest level.

Now, the NDIS is saying he does not need support, as he is "only at level 1".

For context, in the past 7 days:

- our son threw one of his chairs at my face, which hit me in the eye, because we are asking him to stop jumping on the lounge;

- has been throwing chairs, hitting teachers, and throwing toys at his daycare friends, to the point that the teachers are saying that his peers are afraid of him;

- our son threw himself on the floor, and cried for 4 consecutive hours, screaming, because we had previously praised his good behaviour (he was really well-behaved, so we thought we would tell him how proud we were, and all that did was trigger him to start screaming, and crying);

- when trying to communicate with him, he goes completely non-verbal, refusing to answer questions, or tell us what he needs, to the point where he throws his dinner on the floor, refuses anything else to eat, and then at 9pm, cries that he's hungry, and will only eat fruit;

- he has repeatedly hit, and yelled right in the face of, our two-year old daughter.


We have tried to "bribe" him with treats/toys ("if you're good, you get a treat/toy"), we have tried to shower him with a lot of affection, we have tried to be stern, we have tried to ignore him, we have tried to take things away (eg: certain toys he likes, and put them in a temporary jail)....

Nothing works, and now they are saying they will remove their support, because he's not a level 2, or higher.

I am truly worried that he will get kicked out of daycare, and I am also very concerned at how he will handle school without support.

I don't know what to do.

I am sorry to hear that mate. It sounds like you are lucky to have @Soren Lorenson in your corner.

For what it's worth, I have a friend who also works in the profession. He is an academic and works for Spectrum AU et al in the field of education of children on the spectrum (and in particular savants). He does not work at the coalface like Soren, but if you become even more desperate, reach out.

 

[Eelementary]

My wife, and I, just got off the phone with the NDIS, and they've told us that they're halving the funding we have available, because a level 1 autistic spectrum disorder does not qualify for the funds that we were initially allotted.

So, our options are:

(1) Spend another $3,000 getting an independent assessment, see if they diagnosis changes, and submit that to the NDIS [this feels a bit off; we would be hoping that he is diagnosed with a more severe level than 1, which seems off to me]; or

(2) Suck it up, and offer him what support they can offer, which to be quite frank, is not much at all.

The NDIS Behavioural Therapist has been working with our son for 6 months, and gotten nowhere because - and I quote -, "He goes totally non-verbal, shuts down, gets traumatised, screams, and is not present."

But apparently that is not a big enough signal that this poor 4.5-year old boy needs help, so they are withdrawing funding.

I am speechless.

 

[Gronk]

My wife, and I, just got off the phone with the NDIS, and they've told us that they're halving the funding we have available, because a level 1 autistic spectrum disorder does not qualify for the funds that we were initially allotted.

So, our options are:

(1) Spend another $3,000 getting an independent assessment, see if they diagnosis changes, and submit that to the NDIS [this feels a bit off; we would be hoping that he is diagnosed with a more severe level than 1, which seems off to me]; or

(2) Suck it up, and offer him what support they can offer, which to be quite frank, is not much at all.

The NDIS Behavioural Therapist has been working with our son for 6 months, and gotten nowhere because - and I quote -, "He goes totally non-verbal, shuts down, gets traumatised, screams, and is not present."

But apparently that is not a big enough signal that this poor 4.5-year old boy needs help, so they are withdrawing funding.

I am speechless.

Dumb question to follow: in the different world of say, personal injury claims, an insurance company will send the Claimant (the person who was injured at work or in a car accident etc) to their specialist to determine a level injury or perhaps even permanent disability. Quite often, those specialists skew their findings so that they are favourable to the insurance company. The source of the constant flow of income. Was the Psychiatrist offering a LV1 diagnosis on Ele Jnr an NDIS mandatory visit or was he/she your unfortunate pick ?

 

[Eelementary]

Dumb question to follow: in the different world of say, personal injury claims, an insurance company will send the Claimant (the person who was injured at work or in a car accident etc) to their specialist to determine a level injury or perhaps even permanent disability. Quite often, those specialists skew their findings so that they are favourable to the insurance company. The source of the constant flow of income. Was the Psychiatrist offering a LV1 diagnosis on Ele Jnr an NDIS mandatory visit or was he/she your unfortunate pick ?

Not a dumb question at all (though I do work on the field of personal injury, and don't agree that the independent doctor skews the findings in favour of the insurance companies - it's actually the other way around, where claims that reasonably should not be open, are forced to remain open, because an independent specialist sided with the worker).

The psychiatrist we saw was from a panel of NDIS psychiatrists.

They're supposed to diagnose based off the DSM-VI; however, I'm not sure that they did.

I mean, this psychiatrist observed Eele Jnr going totally non-verbal, flapping his arms, and hiding under a chair, and refused to entertain the idea that he is on the spectrum - because there was, and I quote, "insufficient evidence to support an ASD diagnosis."

I'm not psychological expert, but I suggest that a neurotypical child will not flap their arms, pace the room vigorously, go totally non-verbal, and hide under furniture, to avoid talking.

The saddest part is that my wife, and I, don't know how to interact with our own son - yesterday, he had a great day. He was happy, well-behaved, and his usual self.

So, we decided to thank him for being such a good boy - this triggered a meltdown that lasted for 4 hours...four hours of screaming, furniture throwing, hitting, biting, scratching, crying...

I don't know how to talk to my son, and I'm not getting support from an organisation that is supposed to be there to help.

I can't fathom how difficult his life is at the moment - and Mummy, and Daddy, have no clue how to help him, and the people whose job it is to help are pulling away.

 

[Gronk]

Not a dumb question at all (though I do work on the field of personal injury, and don't agree that the independent doctor skews the findings in favour of the insurance companies - it's actually the other way around, where claims that reasonably should not be open, are forced to remain open, because an independent specialist sided with the worker).

The psychiatrist we saw was from a panel of NDIS psychiatrists.

They're supposed to diagnose based off the DSM-VI; however, I'm not sure that they did.

I mean, this psychiatrist observed Eele Jnr going totally non-verbal, flapping his arms, and hiding under a chair, and refused to entertain the idea that he is on the spectrum - because there was, and I quote, "insufficient evidence to support an ASD diagnosis."

I'm not psychological expert, but I suggest that a neurotypical child will not flap their arms, pace the room vigorously, go totally non-verbal, and hide under furniture, to avoid talking.

The saddest part is that my wife, and I, don't know how to interact with our own son - yesterday, he had a great day. He was happy, well-behaved, and his usual self.

So, we decided to thank him for being such a good boy - this triggered a meltdown that lasted for 4 hours...four hours of screaming, furniture throwing, hitting, biting, scratching, crying...

I don't know how to talk to my son, and I'm not getting support from an organisation that is supposed to be there to help.

I can't fathom how difficult his life is at the moment - and Mummy, and Daddy, have no clue how to help him, and the people whose job it is to help are pulling away.

Astonishing.

 

[Rocket man]

My wife, and I, just got off the phone with the NDIS, and they've told us that they're halving the funding we have available, because a level 1 autistic spectrum disorder does not qualify for the funds that we were initially allotted.

So, our options are:

(1) Spend another $3,000 getting an independent assessment, see if they diagnosis changes, and submit that to the NDIS [this feels a bit off; we would be hoping that he is diagnosed with a more severe level than 1, which seems off to me]; or

(2) Suck it up, and offer him what support they can offer, which to be quite frank, is not much at all.

The NDIS Behavioural Therapist has been working with our son for 6 months, and gotten nowhere because - and I quote -, "He goes totally non-verbal, shuts down, gets traumatised, screams, and is not present."

But apparently that is not a big enough signal that this poor 4.5-year old boy needs help, so they are withdrawing funding.

I am speechless.

I know of someone who is a psychologist who work in the school system.
Assessing children who could be on the spectrum.
Psychr

Please excuse the upcoming rant, but I'm frustrated, angry, and I need to vent.

As you may know, my son is on the autism spectrum.

We were able to get NDIS "support", who demanded that we get an independent psychiatric evaluation, to get him a proper diagnosis, before they can provide any semblance of support- $3,000 later (out of our own pockets, mind you), we finally get a diagnosis...

The psychiatrist - who was unable to get anywhere with our son in their face-to-face meeting, because he went completely non-verbal, his under a chair, and stimmed to soothe himself for the 90-minute session - initially gave a diagnosis stating that he was not on the autistic spectrum, despite witnessing the behaviours I just described.

The psychiatrist advised that our son was not on the spectrum.

We pushed, and fought, for the psychiatrist to try a different approach.

The psychiatrist eventually relented, sent us, and his daycare, a questionnaire, and we each filled it out, and returned it to the psychiatrist.

Three months after receiving the completed questionnaires, the psychiatrist diagnoses our son as a level 1 on the spectrum - the lowest level.

Now, the NDIS is saying he does not need support, as he is "only at level 1".

For context, in the past 7 days:

- our son threw one of his chairs at my face, which hit me in the eye, because we are asking him to stop jumping on the lounge;

- has been throwing chairs, hitting teachers, and throwing toys at his daycare friends, to the point that the teachers are saying that his peers are afraid of him;

- our son threw himself on the floor, and cried for 4 consecutive hours, screaming, because we had previously praised his good behaviour (he was really well-behaved, so we thought we would tell him how proud we were, and all that did was trigger him to start screaming, and crying);

- when trying to communicate with him, he goes completely non-verbal, refusing to answer questions, or tell us what he needs, to the point where he throws his dinner on the floor, refuses anything else to eat, and then at 9pm, cries that he's hungry, and will only eat fruit;

- he has repeatedly hit, and yelled right in the face of, our two-year old daughter.


We have tried to "bribe" him with treats/toys ("if you're good, you get a treat/toy"), we have tried to shower him with a lot of affection, we have tried to be stern, we have tried to ignore him, we have tried to take things away (eg: certain toys he likes, and put them in a temporary jail)....

Nothing works, and now they are saying they will remove their support, because he's not a level 2, or higher.

I am truly worried that he will get kicked out of daycare, and I am also very concerned at how he will handle school without support.

I don't know what to do.