the trouble with the psychologist in the house

i diagnose everything. when something is off with people i meet i always wonder why. it just how i think. it is automatic. i do it with me, i do it with others, i do it with pepe.

luckily i don't have any experience assessing and treating children, and have only basic knowledge of childhood disorders and appropriate treatments. nonetheless, i still worry about pepe. i worried about autism when he was younger and he spent time alone playing. that passed. i worried about color blindness. that passed. more recently i think about oppositional defiant behavior, since pepe is so antagonistic, easily upset and irritable, has such difficulties with transitioning. but then i tell myself that other times he is so sweet and pleasant and polite and affectionate. like last night, when we were playing propel, and he hurt my stomach when propelling... he immediately started kissing me and hugging me and telling me that it is going to get better. and he never really tantrums for more than a couple of minutes, and gets it when i give him 2 choices, that i mean it.

i also think about ocd, when pepe "undoes" things, like if i help him open the door, he closes it and goes back and opens it again...and of course, this could be, like we said, pepe's independent stubborn spirit.

so when pepe's teachers asked me whether i'd like to talk to the schools psychologist about pepe's difficulties with transitions, i was very happy bc i can also bring up these concerns. working with patients with mental illness makes me very sensitive to these issues, very understanding and very protective.

of course will blog about it...