In response to an email

I wrote this in response to an email and then thought it might be helpful here, too:

Technically, I think Asperger’s is defined by brain activity. We could not afford the brain scan, but the doc was used to interviewing kids with the disorder and said Jon was definitely Asperger’s but not an extreme case. The diagnosis included ADHD. I often wondered how you can have hyper-focus with inability to focus, but apparently it’s a common combination.

The reason AS kids are so emotional is because there is too little (or was it too much?) blood flow to the frontal lobe. This is the emotion center of the brain and why we often refer to teens as needing a lobotomy. Ha!

The other center of the brain is the Singlet. I don’t remember now if it was too much or too little blood flow, but it was the opposite of the frontal lobe. There might be some more info at the doc’s website…Dr. Klindt.

This part of my research was done some time ago. I still have a binder on it, but I’m not sure if the research has been updated.

Most people have blue/green brain scans with a little yellow, orange and maybe some red. AS kids have mostly red, with a little yellow and orange, and then some blue and green. Their brains are ‘hot zones.’

Remember the nutty professor? He missed his wedding because he was so focused on his experiment…that’s Asperger’s! He really loved her and wanted to marry her but he was so absorbed in what he was doing. It was hard for her to understand.

The thing about Asperger’s that makes it so hard for society is that it is a broad spectrum. You can have a mostly normal person with a few oddities, or you can have a child who is nearly defined as Autistic, and can hardly communicate. On the continuum, Jon is to right of center, more normal. Diane’s Jonah is to the left of center, perhaps, but I’ve seen him in his more normal states.

Dr. Dobson indicates that boys have a hormone shift somewhere between 6 and 8. This makes sense to me, observing Jon. His worst time was between those ages. And Jonah seems to be following that pattern as well. And now Jon is 13…he’s doing well, but it is still a daily struggle. Not anything like it was back then, though. I just keep wondering, what will happen when the next hormone shift occurs?

Perhaps I am not the only reason we stopped eating meat with hormones in it…maybe God led us into this for Jon, too.

If you research ODD, however, they had a website a long time ago with a list of 10 things on it. If you had 8 or more symptoms, you had ODD. Jon had all 10. He still tends to oppose everything I request, require or in any other way ask of him. If I can reason him into it, he accepts it. If I can help him come up with the idea himself, that is WAY better.

http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/children_with_oppositional_defiant_disorder

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/oppositional-defiant-disorder/DS00630/DSECTION=2