I don’t have a lot of sensory issues, but some. I’m sensitive to loud noise and smells. I’ve been told that I take a normal concern over something and then internalize it to an uncomfortable place. I self talk to myself about what response I “should” have rather than what I naturally do. I make conscious decisions to look people in the eye and then have trouble with the conversation because I’m wondering when is the right time to look away. Over the years, I’ve had to ask my husband what is the socially acceptable response to some things. Being in public can be overwhelming and I generally try to avoid it if I can. Just going to church once with the masks and distancing sent me over the edge and I was crying for two days from the stress of it. I haven’t been back in six months. I am overly stimulated in large packed stores such as TG Max. If I need to get some clothing, I tend to only be able to find stuff in a smaller store like the Loft. I don’t have meltdowns but internalize it —to the point of high stress. I don’t know what is going on with me, but all my life I’ve been like this. My son is mildly autistic (diagnosed) and most likely my dad was. He was just a super awkward person socially and I’m seeing that some things he did were his way of relaxing his brain.

I am starting to wonder if I am on the spectrum. I have wondered for years. Today, I started finally diving into it. I just may be. It would explain my stress levels and my anxiety/depression. This world was already overwhelming to me before Covid. It has become much more so and I’ve retreated further.

I like Seeking Health b complex

Right now, I am grain free and mostly sugar free. It hasn’t helped much other than my eczema went away. Also, my slowly creeping moderate genetic cholesterol problems also went away. I have the sleep wake up/heart racing thing happen almost nightly. I will fall asleep most nights will wake within 5-10 minutes with my heart pounding and having a mild panic. I have to concentrate on my breathing to fall asleep again and calm down again. I wonder how much of this is peri-menopause symptoms. I do take magnesium and when I don’t, I get muscle twitches. I haven’t had any for a while so I feel like my dosage is correct.

My trauma was only since my disabled son was born. I was diagnosed with attachment issues. I watch my adopted daughter who I know has attachment issues and see myself in her. We are amazingly similar in our emotional response. I’m not sure if my childhood was a response to attachment issues, but I remember being a very anxious child.

I am starting to realize that I have been depressed/ anxious most of my life. It’s really manifesting itself now. I have gone through counseling, gratitude journals, exercise paths, Christian disciplines and inner healing, EDMR therapy for trauma, diet...basically, you name it, I’ve tried it. I had trouble with anti-depressants in that the ones I tried gave me weird side effects. The anti-anxiety pill I took made me pretty jumpy. I have trouble with stress. Anything beyond my normal sends me into high anxiety. Honestly, the only thing that keeps me going is responsibility to my family. I don’t find joy in life and have moments of it, but it’s not my normal. I am starting to wonder if depression/ anxiety is my normal and I need to medicate it permanently like I would if I had diabetes. Anyone go down this path?

We are on our second child doing TPS. My ds 10th grade is doing American history, English 3, economics, and algebra 2. My older child has done a bunch of English classes, a science class, and some worldview classes. I wasn’t as impressed with their science classes, but I feel like it makes homeschool high school doable. My ds will continue with an almost full schedule next year.

I guess college guidelines. I don’t want to hamper his chances if he goes that direction. I guess I need to look into state guidelines. Forgot about that one.

I guess I’m trying to go more for his interests instead of trying to fill spots for college admission. Sure, physics is next in the sequence, but he’d rather do a ton of programming classes.

I’m thinking toward next year as some places around here are starting to get kids enrolled already. My ds will be in 11th and already have two lab sciences by that time(chemistry and biology). Can programming be considered a science?

My ds 10th grade is doing four online classes through Potters school right now, a Jay Wile chemistry course (not online), and a construction class (home building) that meets for four hours a week. He’s a decent student and an extreme introvert—on the spectrum a bit. He can be social but would much rather choose to get out of the social altogether. He was in a small high school program last year. He is pretty lax with the course I have him taking. He doesn’t do the quality work that I see him doing online. I don’t know what to do with him next year. He does pretty well with the online classes but hates online and would rather have a teacher in person. His favorite course is the construction class and he wants to do it again next year as they are going to be building a house. That means homeschooling him again. Do I just have him take a full online course again and add science to the mix just so that he does quality work? Also, we have thought about just sending him back to the small high school program that was pretty easy for him academically, but that means he has to give up the one thing he enjoys. We have thought about enrolling him in college classes like his older brother did, but he is a “young” in his maturity. I think he could academically do the classes? Help!

Did they test abnormal bacteria levels? All I know is that the test I had not only tested overgrowth but what would things would stop the overgrowth —what herbs would kill it and what antibiotics would kill it. It also tested good bacteria of which I had none. They couldn’t even grow it on my sample.

Eliminate grains (this includes wheat and corn), eggs, and dairy for sure. ALL dairy. If things don’t improve, try eliminating legumes and nuts. The most prevalent intolerances are eggs, wheat, and dairy. I feel better when I don’t eat grains. If he still doesn’t get better, I would find a naturopath in your area (or not since most are zoom calls right now) and get a stool test. I personally, had all kinds of tests that turned up normal and was declared healthy. I had such gastointestinal pain and no one knew why. I went to a naturopath who gave me a stool test. She found huge issues there.

Go on an anti-inflammatory diet. Amymyersmd.com has some good recipes. Basically, you can eat fruit, vegetables (not peppers, tomatoes, or white potatoes), and organic or grass fed meats. I’ve been on this diet for three months. I am trying to add things back and am finding my eczema flare when I eat something my body doesn’t like. Before, I started healing my gut, I would eat some foods and get extreme painful gas. I looked pregnant. I had my gut tested and it was a mess. Most likely, your son has extreme gut dysbiosis and has become intolerant to a lot of foods. Has he had a lot of antibiotics in the past?

We started homeschooling again because of this issue. My high schooler only “went” to school three days a week the last half of the year. And the work load was a joke. We were lucky this year with the PSAT. My daughter attends a homeschool program that was offering it to siblings of current students along with their high school students. Every public school and private school had limited it to only their students. I can’t even imagine that colleges can consider these scores at all since most students couldn’t even take it. But, watch them do it anyway😒.

My daughter just gets really angry. She is adopted and has always had a huge sensitivity to injustice. She has fought kids in her previous school because of perceived injustice. She’s not just upset, but ready to rip heads off (her words) of people in the books she reads. Volunteering would help, but I need to keep her away from books like these. I also need a curriculum all set up for me. I’ve learned enough about myself to know that’s what works around here.

I’m starting to plan and think about next year. My dd is pretty sensitive to history with wars, dictators, and injustice. She is doing Sonlight this year which includes SOTW 3 and 4. She is getting pretty angry about the injustice of the 20th century. I would like her to learn the Christian history of our nation, but I’m not sure she can handle the negative stuff in our history. Do I just completely skip history next year? If so, is there a good literature program like Sonlight that doesn’t get into history? And no, she would hate their science core.

Ds and I are 50. We adopted our daughter when we were 40 and she was 2 1/2. She’s 13 now and honestly, I’m starting to envy my friends who had kids younger and are done with the day to day kid run thing. I want to have a “new” path aside from raising children. Some of our friends our age have grandchilden. Age really starts to catch up with you. I’m not sad that we adopted, but I really rally wish we could have had children when we were younger.

We donate to our church first. They do quite a bit for our local community. The rest are from personal connections. We have a friend who runs a program for orphanages around the world. The kids who are not able to be adopted due to the country they live in. That’s close to our heart as we have adopted. Except for compassion international, all of our giving is to organizations where we know the person running it.

I have had similar issues to you (insomnia, food baby bloating). I actually took a stool test and found out that I had severe gut issues. 10 out of 10 in severity. I wasn't even able to grow good bacteria. I have been taking Candibactin AR and BR for about a month with a small probiotic. In a few days, I will start a pretty high dose probiotic. I am also on an Anti-inflammatory diet which means little sugar and as many fruits and vegetables I can eat. I have found that since going grain free, my genetic cholesterol issue that was slowly creeping up on me is no longer an issue. It makes me think that grains are not something my body does well with at this point. My eczema is almost gone. I am having a little better time with sleep, but that's still an issue. Apparently healing the gut can take years. A good naturopath should be able to help you. I am also taking a course on bio-diversity that I can pull up if you are interested. Pm me.

Somehow, every year I’ve homeschooled, I get to Thanksgiving and feel like I should be further along in our textbooks. My dd is only on week 14 of her history and lesson 42 of math. I always forget that the semester really doesn’t end until Christmas and possible until January depending on some subjects. We will finish everything by May and always do, but I always get messed up every.single.year. Somehow Thanksgiving screams “half done”! to me and it really isn’t. Anyone else have their brains continually fooling them?

Stopthethyroidmadness.com amymeyersmd.com—she had Graves’ disease which is also autoimmune. Basically, you’re looking at an autoimmune problem and need to address it as such with diet. Also, you may want to consider going gluten free. There’s some school of thought that he thyroid sees gluten as a “source” of thyroid hormones and stops producing as much because it’s in a way tricked by gluten into thinking it has good levels. I have a friend who went gluten free and has almost gotten off her thyroid medication.

Of course! But, I see a ton of women wearing leggings out shopping or doing life all the time!

Anyone not do leggings at all? I used to have several legging type pants back in the early 90s that I wore with tunic sweaters. I had a teen son of a friend of mine tease that I was a “sweater” girl back then when he saw my 90s picture. So every time I try on a pair, I think “sweater girl”. Skinny jeans? Sure! Leggings? Not so much.

We should all stop watching the news and looking at Facebook and Twitter. Be kind to the person in front of you—whomever that may be.