Adhd and fears

Try this article
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~gifteduc/resources/articles/mendag2.html
(Guidelines for Handling the Dark Side of Emotional Sensitivity in Gifted Children — yea, I know, small comfort that that sensitivity is a sign of giftedness)

Sue, I will do that and that is not the first time I have heard this.
When she was six she came home and wanted to do an egg
experiment. I told her look and see if we had any eggs. She did
and I left the room. Ten min. later when I returned she was crying.
When I asked her why? She said she started thinking about how
happy she was to have eggs. Then she wondered how many children
in the world did not have any eggs. From there it just snowballed
into a hour of… Can we adopt the poor children? To I’ll give them
my stuff. Which she packed into 5 bags and asked me to mail
them to the children who live and eat in the dump. The
doctor felt it also had to do with her giftedness. It does get
confusing Thank you

my 10 year old son is also very sensitive to others pain. He faints at the mention of invasive medical procedures or injuries. His fourth grade teacher showed a film which included a person who broke his back diving. My son fainted. He told me later that he could feel as if his back is breaking. Later in the year the teacher mentioned her husband is diabetic and must inject inuslin. That was enough for my son, out he went. This summer, my younger son had to have a cavity filled. My older son woke up at midnight, unable to sleep because he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He went to the bathroom and collapsed and cracked his head on the bathtub. So, as you can see, this is a problem many children have. He was not diagnosed with ADD but I think he may have a mild case of it. He is bright, but not gifted.

my 10 year old son is also very sensitive to others pain. He faints at the mention of invasive medical procedures or injuries. His fourth grade teacher showed a film which included a person who broke his back diving. My son fainted. He told me later that he could feel as if his back is breaking. Later in the year the teacher mentioned her husband is diabetic and must inject inuslin. That was enough for my son, out he went. This summer, my younger son had to have a cavity filled. My older son woke up at midnight, unable to sleep because he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He went to the bathroom and collapsed and cracked his head on the bathtub. So, as you can see, this is a problem many children have. He was not diagnosed with ADD but I think he may have a mild case of it. He is bright, but not gifted.

I am not an expert but doesn’t she have sensory integration issues in the autism spectrum? This may explain her extreme responses to uncomfortable situations…Perhaps in time she can be de-sensitized to things that are upsetting to her.

I work with one child who is a gifted high funtioning child with autism. Just the other day he wanted me to remove the expression wrinkles on my forehead! I kid you not, I sometimes will wrinkle my brow when I am trying to figure out something he said rapidly. So now I have to make a very conscious effort to keep my face expressionless without wrinkling my forehead so he doesn’t get upset…Gee to be 20 again with youthful unwrinkled skin but I am way past that and I have wrinkles..

I would love to say this but I’m still waiting for testing. It is what
I think it looks like….

You certianly have a very sensitive child!!! Mine does not
pass out but to tell you the turth I wish she would sometimes

Greetings,

It sounds like most of your children are younger than mine but my now 15yo dd has gotten better with this sort of thing. She used to have full out hysterics with other people’s injuries but no longer does. She also has a vomiting phobia (hers and others) but it’s not so severe now. I think basic maturation has contributed to these improvements so I hope your children will handle it better as they get older also.

Blessings, momo

I wasn’t going to respond to this post until I read someone else mention SI and spectrum disorders. Kelly, When I read your post it sounded so much like my son! The hopping up and down and arm flapping are key characteristics of ASD. That doesn’t mean your child is autistic. Many people believe that ADD and ADHD are at the bottom end of this spectrum which includes things like pervasive developmental disorder, aspergers syndrome and autism. The more I read, the more it seems to me that a lot of kids have a variety of symptoms from across the board and almost defy categorization or diagnosis. My son shows symptoms of ADHD, but physical hyperkinesis is not the greatest of his problems. He also walks on his toes in circles, flaps his arms when excited, rages, demands sameness and consistency, and has other symptoms from this selection. It might be something for you to look into.

After doing much research and (because he wasn’t classically fitting into any diagnostic category) not much help from our pediatrician, we worked with dietary intervention. He had always been casein free (no dairy) for asthma, but when we also took out gluten the results were miraculous. If his symptoms (the emotional lability, arm flapping, walking in circles, etc.) were at a 7 before, after changing his diet they’re at a 1. He is more comfortable and better able to handle himself in social and emotional situations. There is a lot of information out there, for some evaluation type checklists you Dr. Rimland from the Autism Institute has a good one available on line.