Some catching up
By Sissy15
@sissy15 (12575)
United States
June 11, 2026 3:14pm CST
A lot has happened to me this year, good and bad. I've been reflecting a lot on this past year, some good and some bad. I haven't posted much, partially due to the mylot issues I was having, and partially due to genuinely being busy and tired.
My son had a rough year with a lot of mental issues and also getting every illness going around this past year, and he missed a lot of school, but somehow he stayed on top of his grades. He kept his grades up and did some amazing things academically this year. He did very well on all of his finals. He has never done well in math, but this year he completely rocked it. Ohio state testing in math, and my son usually scores below basic or barely at the basic level, which means he is underperforming in Math, but this year he tested in the accomplished section. That means not only is he performing where he should be, but above where he should be. It often means he scored in the top 25% of his class. He doesn't even see the big deal in it, but going from the bottom of your class in scores to the top of it is such a big accomplishment.
He has been doing choir for the past 5 school years, and he loves it. His choir teacher loves him and says that he can now sing both tenor and bass. He made the chorale, which is a step just above tenor/bass, which he was currently in, and said he had the highest score in his class, which, granted, he had a very small class, I'm still super proud of him. He has been trying out for solos, which he never would have done previously. He hasn't gotten the solos because there are some extremely talented singers in choir, but I'm proud of him for even trying. He wasn't upset he didn't get the solos, but was proud of himself for trying. He has made so many strides this year, despite all of his struggles. I hope he remembers that.
We have done a lot this year as a family, too; we've taken a lot of day trips, our favorite of which has been the Mansfield Prison. I'll have to do a travel blog at some point to talk about our various trips. We typically travel very cheaply. I can even post about that at some point. I always scout out places that are free or cheap and ways to save money. We do occasionally splurge, but not often. We are a family that has found we also like things that are not quite as busy and have started finding places more out of the way and less busy. We usually travel around Ohio, but sometimes will do a bordering state.
2 people like this
2 responses
@sissy15 (12575)
• United States
21h
Thank you, and I was extremely worried about his mental health, and we are currently doing things to help him get better. We have seen some major improvement now that he has started medication, but I'm still incredibly cautious. They actually think he has ADHD related anxiety and depression, which we always figured he had ADHD, but they never wanted to test for it before when we initially got his sensory processing disorder, and up until recently, we thought he was doing OK, but he wasn't telling us everything for fear of being a burden. We made sure he knew he was not a burden, that it's ok to not be ok, and that he needs to be honest about everything. He is now seeing a therapist at school who also works with him in the summer and has a therapist for medication, who wants to potentially get him diagnosed with ADHD so we can get him everything he needs. My son's biggest issue is that he cares so much about others he holds everything in so he doesn't hurt them, which has been a large part of his problem. He's learning he can talk about things and get help. He begged me for medication, and I was hesitant at first because I know some of those side effects can be terrifying, but so far so good. I'm still super cautious moving forward with them, but so far they have been helping. It has been so nice to see him genuinely happy.
My family are those people who don't believe in mental health issues, and seem to struggle with the idea of people needing medication for things like depression. My mom never saw me struggling when I was a kid, partially because I didn't tell her I was, because I knew how my family was, my son, knew I would do whatever it took to help him, but hated the idea of it hurting me, but I told him it hurt me more knowing that he was struggling and I couldn't help because I didn't know about it. He has been better with communicating going forward. He was struggling so much mentally and somehow still coming out on top academically. I told him I'm in awe of him. I want him to always know how proud I am of him and never feel like he has to hide things from me. I'm far from the perfect parent, but his mental health means a lot to me.
2 people like this
@sissy15 (12575)
• United States
18h
@AmbiePam I honestly don't think my parents would have done it. I feel like my mom especially is in denial that these issues exist. I love my parents, and they have been great to me in so many ways, but they were raised old school and don't seem to believe anxiety and depression are things that exist. They think you can be depressed or anxious, but that it's not something you just have for your entire life. My mom is a textbook case of anxiety and ADHD, but would never admit to it. I was hesitant to put my son on it just because of how scary the side effects can be, but I figured we could try it because if there was even a chance it could help him, I wanted that for him. To this day, I am still not on medication. I've learned to manage and don't want to struggle with finding the right medication. Had I had it when I was younger, I think it would be a different story. I'm almost positive I have ADHD myself, but I never got diagnosed and have just learned to deal with it. Girls were rarely diagnosed with ADHD back in the 90s because they based the diagnosis on symptoms boys had. Boys tend to be more physically hyperactive, whereas girls are typically mentally hyperactive, and girls usually learn how to mask better than boys. There are a lot of things I'm realizing now that weren't normal back then. I feel like had we had the information then that we have now, so many of us may have been able to get the help we needed sooner or just at all.
2 people like this
@JudyEv (382104)
• Rockingham, Australia
14h
Well done to your son. He is an amazing child but won't be a child for much longer I guess. We always look for attractions that aren't likely to be crowded.
