I have been venting alot about my difficult child....and it's the same darn stuff over and over and over. And difficult child's logic that makes it all OK....and her complete lack of motivation to change anything. And her absolute refusal to take medications, or cooperate with therapy. UUGGHHH!!! I know that so many of you can relate to that feeling of banging your head against the wall and getting nowhere with these kids.
As you may remember, difficult child has managed to pluck out all of her eyelashes. She also still wears a ton of eye makeup....but it looks very strange because she puts on dark, heavy eyeshadow, thick black eyeliner...and then leaves a little "gap" at the edges of her eyelids. It's very weird looking...
And even though she denies it - it must bother difficult child a lot. I found her agenda (in which she is supposed to be writing down homework, but isn't...that's another story) and here and there on the calendar she has written in "Stop Picking Eyelashes!". So stopping the picking and pulling seems to be one of her goals.
Yesterday was her appointment with the psychiatrist. In the psychiatrist's office, I was seated across the room from difficult child and watched difficult child as she spoke to the doctor. She was pulling the hairs out of her head one by one. She would reach up, feel around a moment, find a hair, twirl it around a finger and then *pluck*. She was doing this continuously as she sat in front of the psychiatrist.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
Finally, I spoke up and told her that the psychiatrist might be able to help her with the hair-pulling thing. psychiatrist was immediately interested and had all kinds of questions for difficult child.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
How long have you been pulling your hair out? he asked.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
"O" said difficult child "I stopped pulling out my hair years ago. It's not a problem."
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
I told her that we've been sitting there watching her pull out her hair as she sat in the chair for the last fifteen minutes.
Reach--twirl....
"What?"
You've been pulling out your hair the whole time we've been in the office.
"O" explains difficult child "Those were just the hairs that were annoying me."
So doctor asked her all kind of questions about pulling her hair and picking out her eyelashes and chewing her fingernails down to little nubs.
And, (sit down for this one)
difficult child
asked
for
help
!!!
She talked to psychiatrist about whether there were any medications that might help her stop picking and chewing at herself. psychiatrist talked to her about how she was non-compliant with medications in the past and how could he be sure that she would follow instructions now and he wasn't going to write her a script if she wasn't going to take the medication correctly.
Well, difficult child had to convince him that she was serious AND she promised up and down to take the medications as prescribed.
I almost fell out of my chair!
Then, on the way home - difficult child wanted me to stop and get the script filled right away!!
I am stunned!
(Insert sound of angels singing)
husband could not believe it either. He was absolutely speechless.
Dare we hope that difficult child is finally motivated to cooperate with something???
As you may remember, difficult child has managed to pluck out all of her eyelashes. She also still wears a ton of eye makeup....but it looks very strange because she puts on dark, heavy eyeshadow, thick black eyeliner...and then leaves a little "gap" at the edges of her eyelids. It's very weird looking...
And even though she denies it - it must bother difficult child a lot. I found her agenda (in which she is supposed to be writing down homework, but isn't...that's another story) and here and there on the calendar she has written in "Stop Picking Eyelashes!". So stopping the picking and pulling seems to be one of her goals.
Yesterday was her appointment with the psychiatrist. In the psychiatrist's office, I was seated across the room from difficult child and watched difficult child as she spoke to the doctor. She was pulling the hairs out of her head one by one. She would reach up, feel around a moment, find a hair, twirl it around a finger and then *pluck*. She was doing this continuously as she sat in front of the psychiatrist.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
Finally, I spoke up and told her that the psychiatrist might be able to help her with the hair-pulling thing. psychiatrist was immediately interested and had all kinds of questions for difficult child.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
How long have you been pulling your hair out? he asked.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
"O" said difficult child "I stopped pulling out my hair years ago. It's not a problem."
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
Reach--twirl--*pluck*.
I told her that we've been sitting there watching her pull out her hair as she sat in the chair for the last fifteen minutes.
Reach--twirl....
"What?"
You've been pulling out your hair the whole time we've been in the office.
"O" explains difficult child "Those were just the hairs that were annoying me."
So doctor asked her all kind of questions about pulling her hair and picking out her eyelashes and chewing her fingernails down to little nubs.
And, (sit down for this one)
difficult child
asked
for
help
!!!
She talked to psychiatrist about whether there were any medications that might help her stop picking and chewing at herself. psychiatrist talked to her about how she was non-compliant with medications in the past and how could he be sure that she would follow instructions now and he wasn't going to write her a script if she wasn't going to take the medication correctly.
Well, difficult child had to convince him that she was serious AND she promised up and down to take the medications as prescribed.
I almost fell out of my chair!
Then, on the way home - difficult child wanted me to stop and get the script filled right away!!
I am stunned!
(Insert sound of angels singing)
husband could not believe it either. He was absolutely speechless.
Dare we hope that difficult child is finally motivated to cooperate with something???