Personality disorders in general are exceptionally difficult to treat, and narcissistic personality disorder is the most difficult. Honestly, it's tough to get a solid diagnosis too. I'd say that most of us who are speaking of our experience with these things are talking about patterns of behavior in people that have probably not been formally diagnosed or treated.

This is my experience. Often the narcissist comes to believe the lie is the truth. Their brains are in the practice of twisting the facts to protect the ego. It's what makes getting at the actual truth more tricky.

Well, once again there are homework assignments that seem to be sitting in someone's box there 🙂 Will check on it again after the holiday.

This is very exciting!

We have dealt with a lot of teen anxiety/depression through the years here. Honestly, it's likely going to be rough for a few years. It sounds like you are absolutely doing the right thing by trying to get the right combination of professional help. It is so very difficult to get that part in place. As far as school, you will just do the best you can. Something to consider if your state laws allow is block scheduling. Just do one subject at a time. It might be useful to have frequent help from a kind/friendly tutor for certain problematic subjects, whatever they might be. If it is possible to lower the stress of a subject, do it. Videos, reading for history is just fine, There will likely be a need for a lot of hanging out nearby to keep her going. Accept that the situation is not perfect, but you are dealing with chronic illness. It is what it is.

Congrats! One of my older ones carefully consdered Calvin for engineering, and visited once after acceptance. It's a really great option.

I'll add one more anecdote: Alaska's Delta spike began in mid-June, as our population was moving outside for our brief and beautiful summer. It peaked in September and declined steadily (and continues to decline) as the weather cooled and people moved inside.

Is the "abrasive social outcast" phrase a quote, or a paraphrase? If the conversation above went exactly as described above, I would document, and take it to someone higher up in the organization. This does not sound like someone who should be working with youth.

Agency work is typically not a good fit for new grads, because they don't have the experience to think on their feet, and hospitals are hiring agency nurses because they are short staffed. They don't have the experienced staff available to oversee the new nurse. I graduated during a nursing shortage back in the late 80s, and even then it was difficult to find a nurse residency/internship, and ICU jobs were also hard to come by. The search for that sort of thing is what took me to rural Alaska, which I was freer to do because I was young and unencumbered. Certainly not everyone is free to take off. I'd suggest looking in med-surg, assisted living, surgical centers for work for now. That's where I see our local new grads getting initial experience, before they move on to additional schooling or other work.

Just for the record, since I just wrote about this, understimulation was/is definitely not the case for my daughter, either before or after the pandemic. In her case, the initial breaking point seemed to be a rather intense engineering project that required multiple all nighters and mental overload. She has always been exceptionally physically and mentally active.

My then-college student developed what appeared to be motor tics suddenly (like seemingly overnight) in her junior year. She is not social media/online gaming enamored at all. She was eventually diagnosed with functional neurological disorder (info at fndhope.org usually, though it looks like the website might be down at the moment), and I've come to realize that it is relatively common, and takes many forms, which can include paralysis/seizures/blindness. In retrospect, I realize that my now-deceased mother had a form of it. It's poorly understood, but certainly stress reactions are part of the equation. We found an excellent program in Michigan, and she learned to control the reaction. It was quite disabling up to that point though. She had to have accommodations from disability services to have a notetaker in class, and had to have extra time for exams. She had to give up playing keyboard in the band that she loved. Driving was tricky. She can do those things again now, but the problem is always just under the surface.

With my older two, there were still visits occurring late in April. This one might play out that way, though she already seems to be leaning toward a school. Interestingly, it was one that did not appeal to her at all initially. But they have been so attentive and personal that it seems to be winning her over.

This seems like a much more relaxing process for you this go-around! Congrats to your son! 🙂

Princeton is recommending that their international students remain in the US over the holidays in case travel becomes restricted. As of yesterday, they made exams remote.

Pfizer booster Monday evening. They are pretty available here, just a matter of same day scheduling at Walgreens. Sore arm and headache Tuesday morning, slight fever and chills Tuesday evening. Most of that is resolved as of Wednesday morning.

I grew up in Atlanta. I don't sound at all Southern now, but pick it up easily when I return. I am one of those people though that tends to pick up accents wherever I go.

Oh, I wasn't clear in my response: my cousin is a prof at NC State, not App :-)

Update: we did eventually get both tests back! It was odd though, and not typical of our Derek Owen experience through the years

My cousin is a forestry prof there 🙂 Mine did a few NC schools because we have family there and her sister is at Duke for grad school. She is hoping for further up the East Coast but there are many things to consider, of course.

Yep! Targeting an app toward a young adult reader is probably wise.

Mine is in at App State too. Not her top choice at the moment, but we are still fairly early in the process of figuring this out!

Excellent examples, of parents wanting to use the college apps to share their story as educators 🙂 Locally, I see people doing something similar with the public homeschooling charter schools when asked to turn in work samples. The school really just want a page of something to show a potential auditor from the state, but the creative parent wants them to sit through a half hour video of the child explaining a concept. The educational effort itself is fantastic but bureaucracy tends to need the evidence of the outcome simplified 🙂 The colleges are sorting through thousands of apps, and the people doing the sorting are not necessarily the most philosophical of people either. They are just getting the job done. It does sound like the provided form from the school in question is poorly designed. I would be annoyed filling that thing out too, especially if it doesn't lend itself to cut and paste.

This is my experience as well. And it's interesting, because parents recognize the behavior when the kids are mis-reporting something the parent said ;-)

It's a silly infraction. Sounds like her response was goofy too (though I tend to question teens' reporting of conversations in those types of situations.) However, it's probably not a bad thing for him to feel uncomfortable in the moment.

Great news! Glad to hear he has the option to go (or not!)