I haven’t talked about Tyler in a while, mostly because I’ve been too upset to write about what has been going on with him.

If you don’t already know, Tyler has been diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome and OCD. Lately his tics have really been apparent at school and at home. One of the girls who sits by him at school told him to “stop it”. He mostly fits in at school but I worry as he gets older the other kids will notice the tics more and he will be made fun of.

Tyler was also having trouble concentrating in school, having trouble completing his school work, and forgetting to do the routine, simple stuff he’s been asked to do since school started. He’s also been waving his arms and humming and singing. We met with his teacher and some others on his IEP (Individualized Education Program) team and we came up with a behavior chart where Tyler must get a certain amount of plusses throughout the school day and he’ll get a treat. Tyler has been responding wonderfully to it. That makes me feel good because if he had something like ADHD he wouldn’t be able to do the things on the chart.

Lately Tyler has also been having really bad anxiety. Both Grant and I suffer from anxiety too. About two weeks ago he began hearing clicking noise in his ears. I told him I could make my ears “click” too and it was nothing to worry about. But as time wore on he started to really become anxious, to the point of tears. He asked me, “Why are things so hard for me?” He also worried about where you go when you will die and he told me “I worry that if I touch your head it will roll off your shoulder”. I explained to him what anxiety was and we should do some deep breathing to help him calm down but he didn’t want to do it. I told him there was medicine for anxiety and he said, “I want to take it”.

Yesterday we took Tyler to the pediatrician for his ears and the doctor said it was just congestion and she gave us liquid medicine and told Tyler it wasn’t serious. We are hoping now that Tyler knows that he will be less anxious as Grant and I are reluctant to medicate our child for psychiatric problems.

I have a lot of guilt because I transferred my mental illness to Tyler. I can only hope it doesn’t get any worse.

Tyler loves tae kwon do. Here he is with me after just getting his green belt.