Remember that line from Roger Rabbit...
"I'm not bad... I'm just drawn that way."
That is how I feel about my Elijah!
He tries his hardest to be good,
to make good choices,
he wants to be in control of his mind and body,
he wants to be build trust with people...
but his brain chemistry just is not drawn that way.
Through trauma, through neglect,
through experience
and some DNA
(that we have no answers for)
his brain chemistry is drawn differently then the average person.
We have recently gone through neurotransmitter testing
with Elijah.
We received the results and have learned more about
brain chemistry -
wow!! wow!! wow!!
(there's a lot of big words! haha!)
For now let's just say that Elijah's brain is not firing correctly.
His right brain does not speak to his left brain.
He is high in dopamine with a build up of Norepinephrine
which is his fight or flight response,
and low in serotonin which is his calming response.
He has many other imbalances too -
like no Vitamin D!!
Crazy that my boy who loves being outside
has no trace of Vitamin D!
There are other cofactors that are missing in Elijah's chemistry,
we will be adding 6 supplements to his diet
to help build up these elements
and pray that his body responds and is re-teachable
to these supplements.
We are incredibly thankful to have found this doctor,
who truly understands brain chemistry in the child from hard places.
We pray that this new information will help Elijah
grow and succeed into the person he so badly wants to be!
And yes, we plan to have all of our kids tested,
and I'm thinking this should be a requirement for newly adopted kiddos
and wow!!
How cool would it be if they did this in the foster care system!
Ohhh that would be wonderful!!
4 comments:
Isn't all of the new neuroscience info fascinating?! I love it! I'm glad you were able to get some new info and I hope that it will be the beginning of some understanding and healing for you all.
Also, my youngest had a severe Vit. D deficiency when he joined our family, which (thankfully) was able to be corrected. The int'l ped. was surprised at the severity of his deficiency, so I knew it was something.
Thank you so much for sharing this! It is really helpful to know! Do you know the name of the test or Dr. So I can recommend it to other adoptive families! Thank you so much for being open about this!
Thank you so much for your willingness to share this! So happy you are learning more and more about Elijah! What was the name of test or doctor (neurochemist?) you went to, so I can recommend it to other families! God bless you!
Does insurance cover this type of testing? What do you ask for or what type of doctor requests this?
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