Mom of a SPD 20 year old college student

by Susan
(Ashland, Oregon)

I'm so glad to have found this forum after 15 years of searching! I'm the mother of a 20 year old beautiful, bright, sensitive and very socially awkward college student. She was diagnosed back when she was 5 yrs. old and there wasn't much information back then. What I'm appalled at is how mean people still are to her. Because her disorder is not evident physically, none of her "friends" believe her when she tells them that her hyper-sensitivities are part of a disorder.

She has been bullied her whole life and has entertained suicidal thoughts. She has terribly low self esteem. She would rather have friends who treat her poorly, than no friends at all! It breaks my heart! One of her teasers is gay. One of her teasers is obese. No one would dream of teasing them about either of their issues. Why do they think it's okay to relentlessly tease her?

She's at a breaking point once again! I feel helpless. I would love to have some resource that succinctly describes the social aspect of SPD so that she can hand her so-called 'friends' a description of what she's dealing with and shut them up once and for all!