The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) will be released in May. Yahoo is featuring first-person stories from Americans who are diagnosed with some of the most common mental health disorders in the United States. Here's one story.
FIRST PERSON | We were at dinner with friends when my then-13-year-old son, Noah, blurted out a totally tasteless demoralizing joke about Mexicans. We were at a Mexican restaurant, and one of our friends was Mexican. Confused, Noah sees his younger sister looking at him like he has three heads, and I am mortified. Everybody else is dead silent, trying to pretend that elephant wasn't in the room.
Noah does not categorize people into ethnic groups; they are all just people. His information is not derived from common knowledge; rather, he notices details, then puts them together to infer. He saw other kids laughing at this joke at school, hence it must be funny, and he likes to be funny.
I do applaud his effort. It is not easy for him to engage. If he's going to end up with his foot in his mouth, it's better with us than in the wild. We continue to learn from these things. He is intelligent and receptive, which means he is willing and able. With understanding and intervention, at 15, he is thriving with a bright future ahead of him.
The most perplexing thing to me prior to Noah's diagnosis at 9, was that this sweet, loving boy did not act in a way that reflected his own moral values. He would dramatically overreact to situations that other kids seemed to take in stride. And there was this other odd behavior...
It wasn't until I saw an Oprah episode on autism, in which I saw a child prancing around on his toes flapping his hands wildly, just like Noah, that I knew he had autism. The problem was, at least in the Nashville area, it wasn't easy finding a doctor who understood autism was a spectrum disorder (and neither did I), with the same core issues, but varying degrees of functionality. I was told by his pediatric neurologist that he just wasn't "bad enough" to be autistic.
I started to have concern that he might have a brain tumor. It wasn't until we were paired with a doctor who introduced us to Asperger's Syndrome that everything made sense. With the DSM-5 induction this month, Asperger's will no longer be recognized as a stand-alone disorder. It will simply be an Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Noah will be classified in the highest functioning of this category.
If the elephant in that room could talk, it would say there is a reason for my behavior, but it is not an excuse. Please understand I did not realize how wrong [that joke] was. If you could just explain to me what I did wrong, I would like more than anything to make it right.
Learn more about Noah's experience with Autism Spectrum Disorder:
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