PDD-NOS stands for Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified and is a real grey area for me as someone who is new to the world of autism spectrum disorders. I don’t read the newspaper in the morning, instead I read blogs. One of the blogs that I regularly read is Ballastexistenz over on the autistics.org website. Yesterday morning she published a great post entitled “What PDD-NOS officially means.” It is an informative post and I wanted to share it with the readers of my blog.
Ava has a diagnosis of autism (also known as autistic disorder) but during one of the meetings with the psychologist who just did Alexander’s testings she told me that she could diagnose Alexander with PDD-NOS. Evidently he fit the criteria for PDD-NOS but she felt that an anxiety diagnosis was more accurate. We are to come back in six months if the issues don’t resolve after we do play therapy and then at that point she may make a PDD-NOS diagnosis. Do I want to hear that? No, not really. However a diagnostic label doesn’t change who my son is. Now that I have a better idea of why a PDD-NOS diagnosis is usually made I am more comfortable with one, should it come to that point.
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My son has been tested and evaluated for a year. They too at first gave me a diagnosis of Anxiety disorder but this week we went back and they diagnosed him with PDD-NOS. I have thought all this time that he had aspergers, and now I dont really understand the difference. I can’t seem to get a clear answer. Is that because children with these diagnosis are all so different? I am also wondering about medication options. They recommended Zoloft but I am scared of that. Any ideas??
Hi Lisa. I have an appointment for my son Bryan tomorrow. After 6 years of PDD-NOS etc etc we are considering medications. He is 8.5 years old and really starting to struggle in school. The doc thinks adhd meds will have him jump out of his skin because of his high anxiety but I am kind of afraid to begin that slippery slope of trial and error. Sometimes I think we will just except Bryan as he is….but then I remember my personal Zoloft experience. I suffered from anxiety and depression most of my life. It wasn’t until the year prior to having Bryan in 1999 that I sought medication for my issues. I had begun severe panic attacks and finally tried Zoloft at my docs urging. What a miracle for me. For the first time in my life I felt comfortable in my skin. Really, I was 30 years old at the time and never felt so relaxed and happy inside. I have remained on medication since except for a brief time a couple years ago. I missed several doses and was “ok” so I just went off of it. It wasn’t until about 9-12 mths later that I was severely depressed again and extremely anxious. So, I went back on medication and here I am today. Life isn’t perfect I still have some down days and feel anxious sometimes but it is manageable now.
I will post later with what transpires tomorrow. Maybe that will help you figure things out too. This is such a roller coaster…stay strong.
My daughter of three was just diagnosed ADD, ADHA, PDD and Bi-Polar Disorder. As the Crisis clinician stated, “Your daughter is what we call overloaded”. This is my youngest. I also have a daughter of 14 with Down Syndrome and is hearing impaired. My son is just 11 and he has Asperger’s/ADHD.
Here we go again!
Thanks for the comment Kimberly – best wishes to you as you begin this jorney again with your daughter.
Hi, Nice post
, im blogging about autism, can we exchange link?
You are such an encouragement. I am writing a paper on Autism and I think I just needed to step back a bit and see it as not just a disorder, but a life. Thanks=]
~Gillian~
my 2-1/2 grandson was officially tested today for autism. came back in the spectrum, but probably mild, and more testing in a couple of days. I kind of knew this was in the air, since I have been a medical transcriptionist for 20 years, but right now I am just heart sick and so frightened.
Hugs to you Cynthia. I remember those first few days and weeks post-diagnosis very clearly. However I reminded myself that my child was the same person they were before I had a diagnosis and that now I was more empowered to meet my child’s individual learning needs. And that is exactly what I did.
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