Idiosyncrasies

Every man had his own quirks and twists" (Harriet Beecher Stowe).

When Corey, my soon-to-be 15 year old, moved in with my family almost two years ago, he brought his clothes, a few books and movies, a zillion little ‘toys’, a list of different diagnoses, and a bag full of medicine to help with those diagnoses. To me, Corey seemed a little quirky indeed, but I struggled to come to terms with the fact that he needed 5 different medicines to address that quirkiness. Because I also have two daughters – Ashley and Jessica – who have significant medical issues and who do require a lot of different medicines to help maintain their healthiness, I had a difficult time seeing a relatively ‘normal’ child who almost never got sick needing so much medicine. So, I made appointments with the types of doctors he had been seeing before joining our family - a neurologist, a psychiatrist, and a pediatrician - to have him evaluated.

The results of the visits, the testing and the evaluations revealed that Corey was quirky and perhaps a little ADHD. So, the meds were dumped and Corey began his life with a lot less fogginess and fewer labels. As with my other children and myself (I’d hate to see what meds I would be prescribed if I were to visit the doctors that Corey saw before joining my family), we accept and even celebrate our quirks, and that makes all our lives much less stressful and a lot more interesting.

Loraine Ali, a mom who also celebrates her child’s quirkiness has written an article which appears on msnbc.com. It’s a great read and I suggest all parents of quirky kids take a look…