Husband Denial of Sensory Disorder

by Valerie
(North Texas)

I too, have a husband who denies that our daughter (7) has this disorder. It might stem from the fact that since she was 4 I had taken her to doctor after doctor. I finally was referred to a great Psychiatrist who asked me a lot questions about my daughter. She decided it was depression, anxiety and possibly even bipolar. She prescribed risperidal, lexapro and told me to give her Bendadryl as needed for extreme agitation.

That was after she started kindergarten and was hurting other kids and I was getting calls from the school about her behavior problems.

We are still seeing the same psychologist, which he has no problem with , but he will always make comments about how the doctors will always tell you what you want to hear, in other words, the diagnoses must be what you tell them you think it is.

We recently (thank God!) were referred to a great therapist who mostly works with autistic kids, but definitely noticed some sensory issues with my daughter, who is not autistic, but shows very many red flags of sensory integration disorder.

My husband has been no help in this, and when I try to explain to him what will trigger her and not to tease her and such, he has no interest in it. He will still tease her, which really sets her off and makes her feel bad, and also my mother will tell my daughter that she could control all of her reactions if she just tried hard enough!

I don't even send my daughter to spend the night at my parents house anymore because my mom is so hard on her and makes her cry and doesn't "get it"

My daughter tells me every day about how the kids at school are mean to her and she wishes she was never born and doesn't think she deserves to eat or have a family.

I am setting up a meeting between my therapist (the autism specialist), my parents and my husband so that maybe she can explain it all better than I can and just maybe help them to realize how different they need to react to her. It all breaks my heart that no one understands and defends my little girl the way that I do.