An Education Into The Brain

First let me get my girl out of the way.  She runs and the therapist says to let her.  For her it is safety.  She usually stays on the street right here.  And that is fine.  Where it becomes challenging is when she goes to a neighbors.  The neighbors think they are doing a good thing, but what they are doing is rewarding her anxiety behavior.  They give her a snack.  They let her play with kids, pets, etc.  They tell her what a bad situation it is. And she has been manipulating that now.  We can see it.  So the therapist did warn her about the girl who cried wolf one too many times.  I don't know if that sunk in or not.  But we will take it one day at a time.

Now the boy is a whole different scenario.  Since he was exposed to a lot of heroin before he was born...that heroin changed his brain.  His brain is smaller than a healthy brain.  It does not have all the groves and niches.  So it it was stretched out it would have a lot less surface space than a healthy brain.  The left side and the right side may not have gotten all the connectors in place.  And his hippo campus is enlarged and rules his world.  The hippo campus is leftover from our caveman days and was for instinct and survival.  Fight or Flight.  So my little man is always in a state of fight or flight.
The plan is to now up therapy.  We will be going two days a week and seeing a home person once a week.  We are going back to the psychiatrist, because we both agreed it may be time for some meds.  And we will work from there at level 3 services and see.
We did take a positive that I had noticed.  Since we started therapy he has not thrown stuff at me.  He has not put any new holes in walls or doors.  He still grabs my hair but I noticed the last time...he was just holding it, not pulling.  He and I talked about it and he does that so I won't leave.  So besides my haircut we are going to work on a new plan there....but not one where he has a choice.

Then she asked about Christmas.  The donors to the Children Center buy tons and tons of gifts for the holiday and anyone who is a client is welcome to partake.  Well my first inclination is no we are okay.  And then I reminded myself to get out of my own way.  Sometimes it is not about me.  So the therapist is going to start shopping the gifts as they come in and find some things for the kids.  Amazingly enough the little man was our hard one.  He has no passion other than nerf guns and we aren't doing that. Part of his brain tells  him to not get attached to anything because he will lose it.  And isn't that sad.
We had some positives.  And it was a good meeting.  And I hope it goes well in our next step.