row_33 Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 12 minutes ago, Johnny Hammersticks said: Of course. I think you’re missing my point. I feel that there has always been a “range of normalcy” with respect to an individual’s level of comfort in social situations. I work with children, and I see less tolerance for typical human differences. I feel that many children who are perhaps a little “shy” are often times quickly identified as having a mental health condition and put on meds. I don’t have any CDC stats to support this, but I would suspect that the prevalence of individuals diagnoses with SAD has exploded over the past 20 years. Just my subjective opinion as a mental health professional. we have an empathy test on OTW that tells me I'm definitely Aspberger if I score under 40..... i can't top 26 in honestly answering it... and I don't deny i have some splashes of it as I work with numbers and not with people... people peddling drugs and the new thing will want to entrap everyone they can get their hands on, it's all about developing your individual freedoms and preference no matter how sad and bad this can foreseeably turn out.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Hammersticks Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 (edited) 12 minutes ago, row_33 said: we have an empathy test on OTW that tells me I'm definitely Aspberger if I score under 40..... i can't top 26 in honestly answering it... and I don't deny i have some splashes of it as I work with numbers and not with people... people peddling drugs and the new thing will want to entrap everyone they can get their hands on, it's all about developing your individual freedoms and preference no matter how sad and bad this can foreseeably turn out.... I guess it boils down to a couple things. Are you functional in your everyday life, and are you content with your social competence/experience? Often times I will be consulting with a parent who has concerns over their child’s social skills/shyness. If I don’t see very obvious signs/symptoms of anxiety I will ask the parent “How does Johnny feel about this?” Parents are often shocked by this line of questioning. Some kids are completely content with only having one or two friends, and are completely functional in most other facets of their life. It is the parents who want to change them. Again, getting back to the notion of a “range of normalcy” with respect to an individual’s desire for social interactions. I know I’m viewing this through my narrow lenses as a school mental health practitioners, but I see parallels with SOME adults I know who are being treated for social anxiety disorder. Edited July 26, 2018 by Johnny Hammersticks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaoulDuke79 Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 52 minutes ago, Johnny Hammersticks said: No disrespect intended, but isn’t this the normal human experience? Does anyone really enjoy weaving through large crowds of strangers? I don’t have social anxiety, but I also dislike going to crowded amusement parks, Fairs, school functions with the kids. For the sake of friendly discussion, does anyone else think that normal human shyness, social reticence, and sensory hypersensitivity has become increasingly over-pathologized? FTR...not being dismissive of anxiety disorders. I work in the mental health field, and I know for a fact that many people suffer from a legitimate chemical imbalance which causes them to experience organically caused mood disorders. I would venture to guess that it probably is, but if you were to ask my 7 year old her opinion of the park, the crowds would be an afterthought. I think as we mature social interaction becomes more burdensome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 25 minutes ago, Johnny Hammersticks said: I guess it boils down to a couple things. Are you functional in your everyday life, and are you content with your social competence/experience? Often times I will be consulting with a parent who has concerns over their child’s social skills/shyness. If I don’t see very obvious signs/symptoms of anxiety I will ask the parent “How does Johnny feel about this?” Parents are often shocked by this line of questioning. Some kids are completely content with only having one or two friends, and are completely functional in most other facets of their life. It is the parents who want to change them. Again, getting back to the notion of a “range of normalcy” with respect to an individual’s desire for social interactions. I know I’m viewing this through my narrow lenses as a school mental health practitioners, but I see parallels with SOME adults I know who are being treated for social anxiety disorder. i have nothing against your comments, you are clearly more involved in the day to day of this stuff, I'm hopefully having some kind of chat with you, i like your posts on here and you have a good concern about this important topic... i have a professional number-crunching career and have seen many hampered by this kind of thing, myself included in the worst years....it often leads to destructive behaviour by men in their late 40s and they ruin everything and everyone who is unlucky enough to have them around a few friends are going through the ropes of having their very normal son not be declared a social misfit just because he can't sit there at a desk for 6 hours when the teacher is a total bore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fadingpain Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 17 hours ago, /dev/null said: Corgis are the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 9 minutes ago, Fadingpain said: Corgis are the best. Australian Shepherds, but they eventually start herding me around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fadingpain Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 16 hours ago, stuvian said: I have a tendency toward paranoia which is exacerbated by the dynamics of my workplace Have you considered getting out of the combat chopper piloting game? Too much time in a combat zone will do that to you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Jack Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 1 hour ago, RaoulDuke79 said: We went to an amusement park last weekend, and I didn't really find it enjoyable. It's just so crowded. You're constantly weaving in and out of people trying to avoid bumping into them, struggling to find a place to sit when you get a bite to eat. It's more burdensome than fun to me. MMy wife was surprised that I like going to NYC in December to check out the sites, because I generally don’t like crowds. I told her my main reason is I can elbow and shoulder check people and no one seems to care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Hammersticks Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 7 minutes ago, row_33 said: i have nothing against your comments, you are clearly more involved in the day to day of this stuff, I'm hopefully having some kind of chat with you, i like your posts on here and you have a good concern about this important topic... i have a professional number-crunching career and have seen many hampered by this kind of thing, myself included in the worst years....it often leads to destructive behaviour by men in their late 40s and they ruin everything and everyone who is unlucky enough to have them around a few friends are going through the ropes of having their very normal son not be declared a social misfit just because he can't sit there at a desk for 6 hours when the teacher is a total bore. Yes, I’m just looking to have a friendly discussion about this, and I appreciate your input. I don’t claim to know everything about everything related to anxiety/social challenges, but I do have a great deal of real life experience here. WRT your friends struggling with how school personnel perceive their children, I deal with this almost every single day. It goes both ways. I didn’t mean to just point the stinky finger at parents. Again, this notion of a range of normalcy, to me, has real value in determining a course of treatment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fadingpain Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 30 minutes ago, Johnny Hammersticks said: I guess it boils down to a couple things. Are you functional in your everyday life, and are you content with your social competence/experience? Often times I will be consulting with a parent who has concerns over their child’s social skills/shyness. If I don’t see very obvious signs/symptoms of anxiety I will ask the parent “How does Johnny feel about this?” Parents are often shocked by this line of questioning. Some kids are completely content with only having one or two friends, and are completely functional in most other facets of their life. It is the parents who want to change them. Again, getting back to the notion of a “range of normalcy” with respect to an individual’s desire for social interactions. I know I’m viewing this through my narrow lenses as a school mental health practitioners, but I see parallels with SOME adults I know who are being treated for social anxiety disorder. Something to be considered in your line of work, with regard to the parents, is that most people in this country are f-ing idiots. I mean really dumb people. Consider that 1 in 4 Americans thinks the sun revolves around the Earth. Sounds like you are doing a good job in protecting the kids. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Hammersticks Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 10 minutes ago, Fadingpain said: Corgis are the best. Husky-Corgi mix is the schizz-nit. 1 minute ago, Fadingpain said: Something to be considered in your line of work, with regard to the parents, is that most people in this country are f-ing idiots. I mean really dumb people. Consider that 1 in 4 Americans thinks the sun revolves around the Earth. Sounds like you are doing a good job in protecting the kids. Equally important to me in evaluating my clients and making diagnoses that are supposed to lead to treatment (which is typically a pill), is opining that the child is fairly typical, functional, and happy and should be allowed to be themselves. More often then not, if I defer diagnosis, the parent will come back to school with a prescription pad diagnosis from a medical doctor. Often times after a 15 minute office visit, or sadly, after no contact with the child at all. If a parent wants a diagnosis for their child they typically will get it, eventually. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teef Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 it's weird...i don't mind large crowds. in fact, i enjoy them. i love people watching, and i feel that i can blend in an not necessarily be noticed. the only time crowds annoy me is when i know too many people in them. i just don't want to deal with the conversations. i'm "on" all day, so when i'm not at work, i try to stay a quiet as possible. mvd 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Hammersticks Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 33 minutes ago, teef said: it's weird...i don't mind large crowds. in fact, i enjoy them. i love people watching, and i feel that i can blend in an not necessarily be noticed. the only time crowds annoy me is when i know too many people in them. i just don't want to deal with the conversations. i'm "on" all day, so when i'm not at work, i try to stay a quiet as possible. mvd I think most folks who are in large part known in the community for their occupation can relate to this. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 1 hour ago, Johnny Hammersticks said: Husky-Corgi mix is the schizz-nit. Equally important to me in evaluating my clients and making diagnoses that are supposed to lead to treatment (which is typically a pill), is opining that the child is fairly typical, functional, and happy and should be allowed to be themselves. More often then not, if I defer diagnosis, the parent will come back to school with a prescription pad diagnosis from a medical doctor. Often times after a 15 minute office visit, or sadly, after no contact with the child at all. If a parent wants a diagnosis for their child they typically will get it, eventually. /smh... People always looking for an easy answer through meds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Hammersticks Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 2 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said: /smh... People always looking for an easy answer through meds. In some cases, yes. In other cases, however, some of these people absolutely NEED these medications to function. I will say that the system is set up to make it very easy to be prescribed meds without a comprehensive evaluation; further exacerbating the issue of “people always looking for an easy answer through meds.” They are actually led to believe this to be the case, IMO. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 1 hour ago, Johnny Hammersticks said: I guess it boils down to a couple things. Are you functional in your everyday life, and are you content with your social competence/experience? Often times I will be consulting with a parent who has concerns over their child’s social skills/shyness. If I don’t see very obvious signs/symptoms of anxiety I will ask the parent “How does Johnny feel about this?” Parents are often shocked by this line of questioning. Some kids are completely content with only having one or two friends, and are completely functional in most other facets of their life. It is the parents who want to change them. Again, getting back to the notion of a “range of normalcy” with respect to an individual’s desire for social interactions. I know I’m viewing this through my narrow lenses as a school mental health practitioners, but I see parallels with SOME adults I know who are being treated for social anxiety disorder. What happens if they don't even have one friend. A total fish out of water. Everybody is just totally opposite. Should you move. What if you can't. Asking for a friend. ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Hammersticks Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 Just now, ExiledInIllinois said: What happens if they don't even have one friend. A total fish out of water. Everybody is just totally opposite. Should you move. What if you can't. Asking for a friend. ?? That would depend on the factors involved. Why is this individual completely alienated from their peer group? How do they feel about it? What do they attribute it to? Likely a lot of factors in play. Probably too sensitive to discuss here given that you have posted and “shouted” about your situation. I’d be happy to discuss if you want to PM me. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 22 minutes ago, Johnny Hammersticks said: That would depend on the factors involved. Why is this individual completely alienated from their peer group? How do they feel about it? What do they attribute it to? Likely a lot of factors in play. Probably too sensitive to discuss here given that you have posted and “shouted” about your situation. I’d be happy to discuss if you want to PM me. thanks for your views and your work, seems you are doing something wise and good here 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledInIllinois Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 15 minutes ago, Johnny Hammersticks said: That would depend on the factors involved. Why is this individual completely alienated from their peer group? How do they feel about it? What do they attribute it to? Likely a lot of factors in play. Probably too sensitive to discuss here given that you have posted and “shouted” about your situation. I’d be happy to discuss if you want to PM me. Thank you so much!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiberius Posted July 26, 2018 Share Posted July 26, 2018 1 hour ago, teef said: it's weird...i don't mind large crowds. in fact, i enjoy them. i love people watching, and i feel that i can blend in an not necessarily be noticed. the only time crowds annoy me is when i know too many people in them. i just don't want to deal with the conversations. i'm "on" all day, so when i'm not at work, i try to stay a quiet as possible. mvd Same! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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