richeller

Does anyone have any experience with the attitude towards children with such problems as ADD/ADHD and bipolar??? Is the general view that Italians are conservative when prescribing medication or are they dishing out pills left right and centre??? Where do the Italians sit globally with mental health attitudes?

Lorna at Vicenza

I have an Italian girlfirend (one of two after 18 years and she did live in Canada for 5 years) ...
anyway - her son has ADD and hyperactivity -officially diagnosed and not just an idea or a thought that he night have this.

He previously had a speech therapist as he stuttered a bit owing to the fact that his brain was running ten times faster than his mouth and he literally could not get his words out fast enough when he was a bit excited or dying to tell a tale or story. That has been cured.

He also had a kind of mobility one on one course to better his coordination skills and to get him to think a little and slow down - I remember the mum talking about ball catching games and building towers with bricks and doing simple jigsaws etc.

He has also been seen by a child neurologist several times who has also spent a lot of time talking with the parents and explaining how they can help him at home and the best tactics to use etc etc.

The child has never been on any kind of medication nor has any been offered - don't know if this might be because his case maybe is not considered "extreme".

He has now finished his second year of normal primary school. His child neurologist even set up a meeting with his class teachers and headmistress to talk through his problems and difficulties with them and to make them understand how best to look after him and teach him without getting him flustered or worse - making him feel slow infront of his classmates.
It takes him a little while to grasp a new concept but when he does he's okay. In the future when the level of work gets more difficult he can if necessary be asigned his own free supplement type of teacher to help him learn new stuff.

I have to say that my friend has been a marvel and spent so much time and patience teaching him things and working things out with him and sitting with him to make him do a slow thinking kind of game for at least 30 minutes per afternoon......and trying to keep her patience and only shout for really important reasons. Of course she has slipped up a few times and screached at him but so does every mum.

I looked after him for 8 hours the other day and whilst he is by no means a naughty, disruptive or maniuplative child it is true that he cannot stay still for more than 20 minutes - and only then if watching a cartoon that really grabs his interest - even then he moves quite a lot. He has little phases of near obsessions. His first one was tractors and diggers and he could even tell you the make of any tractor driving past you on the road. Then it was dinosaurs and he knew the name of every one of them and most times the length of them as well and if they were carnivors or not. The he moved onto whales and sharks.
After litening to him the other day me and my daughter have realised that his latest mini obsession is dogs !!
His Mum takes him to the library a lot where he can get lots of books on the topic of his latest craze and now that he can read by himself that keeps him busy and fairly quiet for a while. I discovered whilst he was here that Animal Planet channel worked well for a bit of quiet time.

That's about all I can say and don't know if it might help or not.

lisajhb

Yes, a neice on my hubbys side was diagnosed a while back with what I have understood to be ADD, in a clinic in sardegna. They however live in sicilia. I dont know what advise they were given , but she was prescribed the infamous ritalin. They were then told that you cant actually get it in italy. Is that true? anyway, in the end, my parents in law drive through to switzerland once in a while, which for them is 20 mins down the road, where they somehow get the medication through someone they know who knows someone who works in a hospital. No questions asked kind of thing!!

Lorna at Vicenza

is she ever going to come back and read answers to her post ???

jdr

That is one of the wonders of the web unfortunately, it would be nice to get recognition for your help though. ;-)

phoebeluton

she's away at the moment! i'm sure she will reply when she gets back

Lorna at Vicenza

cheers - it wasn't a slur anyway .... just bone idle curiosity

Patty

Have to say that after reading up on ritalin and hearing lots of parents stories I really don't know if I'd ever give my kid this medication. My middle child was labelled as mild ADD and I read up alot about this condition and came to the conclusion that I would rather stay away from this type of medication. Thats just a personal thing - I don't like conventional medicine anyway and......hey its a free world and we are free to choose what we prefer.

Lorna at Vicenza

and how old is your middle child now patty ? and is probably getting through life adequately without Ritalin am I right ?

Patty

Yes quite right (apart from the little blip with the train ) but really - if I'd listened to the so-called experts, he would have been labelled at an early age. I just wasn't prepared to accept that - I know my child and I know that he sees life in a different way to others - but he is a lovely, genuine and warm-hearted boy - he drives me to desperation but he really is a love and although he struggles at school ( how surprising .....the schools here are So good ) he has so much to give and a lovely personality - okay so he's not Mr Academic - but he's just him !

Lorna at Vicenza

good on ye !!!!!!!!!


You must have done a brilliant job on him .......... and as I'm writing this I can at the same time hear myself criticising all the yanks for all their applause to all and sundry for every tiny little bit of life that I have recently criticised ......... and I still do - if it's just talk for the sake of it ............

but we Brits limit ourselves to one heartfelt comment and not three whole paragraphs of "well done you - gimme a five" !!!!


Round and round the Mulberry bushes but I think you know Pats what I'm saying .... well done ..... without all the decorations !

lisajhb

Yes Patty I second that. Its soooo easy to be influenced by the experts. I accept that there are kids out there who do have problems, and as to why these problems seem to be escalating, well thats another thing all together...anyway, mild ADD. what the hell is that supposed to mean anyway?! he was probably a little lively and immature when they "diagnosed" the little chap. He would have than been labelled and put in a box for the rest of his school days and he would have grown to look at himself as being a problem. Thats not to say of course that its ok just to let kids who struggle at school sink or swim. But I think that at times they go overboard, in the uk that is.

MrsTeapot

Lorna,

You seem to have issues with posters who don't reply within your own set time limits, as you did recently here:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...=541974&page=2

Some of us have busy lives. You clearly do not. Each to their own.

Lorna at Vicenza

excuse me but I have never said anything about having issues with anybody on here.


"cheers - it was not a slur but just bone idles curiosity" is not an issue and neither is wondering when you would come back to check replies to your post after it was you yourself that said you weren't getting many answers to your thread - that had been diverted from original topic.

And whilst I am now having my very first issue - don't presume to know anything about my life when I did my utmost to help you.

I think you may need to sweeten your tea.

MrsTeapot

Lorna,

You are referring to the wrong part.

I wrote:

"Well if no-one knows the answer to my question (there must be some holiday home owners on this part of the site, surely?) then can someone tell me about taxes to pay on holiday homes in Italy. I don't mean community charge for rubbish etc.

I would be very grateful.

Many thanks"

then you wrote 7 days later:

"It still has to be seen if Mrs Teapot will come back and read the new info posted here.

She wasn't very happy with us the last time she was on-line but neither are we all acountants or tax experts. Hopefully she'll check in again soon."

Er, where was I angry? Not at all. I was asking for more advice and was grateful for it. I'm too busy to be posting on here every day. 7 days is not long in cyber space or the real world.

It would be nice not to be accused of being angry and not replying in a particular timeframe. That is all. I happened to notice you made a similar comment on this very thread towards another poster.

I've diverted this thread enough now.