Knowing people with mental disorders of any kind can have more of a negative effect on you than it does on them. How can that be, you might ask. The cause is fear, frustration, worry and guilt – all negative emotions that the sufferers of the mental disorders don't seem to display very often, if at all.

Remembering Which is Which

I've always had trouble remembering to do certain things when they need to be done. In my early twenties, I learned to write every task down on a pad of paper and cross each task off as it was completed. At the beginning of each new day, I would tear off the top sheet and transfer the incomplete tasks to a new page and add to as the day progressed. It was back then when I was told I had CRS disease and what it meant. I was not amused but looking back, I laugh at myself all the time.

I don't have as much trouble remembering things as I did, partly because I've learned to use humorous word associations. One example is using "old timer's disease" in place of Alzheimer's Disease because I would never be able to remember it otherwise. I just recently read an article about a TV show that used "assburger syndrome" in place of "Asperger Syndrome" and I now have a new word association embedded for the rest of my life.

That article is what inspired me to write this and while I'm trying to keep everything in a light-hearted tone, I assure you I've dealt with all of the negative emotions I described.

My Son's Learning Disability

My younger son, Jon, is 24-years old and attending a nursing college here in the Philippines. He doesn't get the best of grades, but he's passing. It would never have been possible had we not sought out the reason for his mental problems as early as we did.

Jon learned to walk at 9-months of age. He didn't learn to talk, however, until he was more than 5-years old, while I was deployed to the Middle East as part of Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Just prior to the deployment, I had him tested for anything and everything which may have caused him not to talk. I don't remember what the tests were, but they found nothing wrong with him.

While Jon was in Kindergarten and the first grade of elementary school, his teachers noticed he couldn't keep up with his classmates. After a parent-teacher conference, we took him to see a child psychiatrist of some kind who specialized in neurology. After many weeks of consultations, the conclusion was made that his neural synapses hadn't grown as fast as a normal child. After another parent-teacher conference, Jon was put in a learning disabled program that he participated in throughout all of his elementary and high school years. I was surprised to see him graduate with his peers.

During the early years, I felt guilty that I had passed some bad genes or something to my son. I was sure it was my fault. I consulted with doctors to make sure it wasn't something like Asperger Syndrome, a form of Autism, since he seemed to be a video game addict at an early age, much more so than anyone I had ever known. He's still addicted to video games, but at least I know he's somewhat normal. Those with Asperger Syndrome have trouble socializing. Jon was just the opposite and was annoying about it. I simply can't describe it in any other way.

As Jon has aged, my worries and fears have all but dissipated. I still get frustrated with some of the things he does, which doesn't make sense to anyone but him, but these incidents are few and far between now.

Friends and Alzheimer's Disease

A friend of mine, who I used to communicate with regularly (before moving to the Philippines in 2006), had a mother with Alzheimer's Disease but was never officially diagnosed with it – her condition started before Alzheimer's Disease became widespread public knowledge. Perhaps it had something to do with some of her escapades. She took some kind of medication which kept her calm and stable. If she failed to take the medication (whether intentional or not) she would do odd things like visiting neighbors in the nude while forgetting where she lived.

Until the facts surrounding Alzheimer's Disease were highly publicized, many people where simply called senile. From what I understand, senility as a natural condition doesn't exist and has been used as a term frequently used to describe certain old age conditions for which no known diseases can be ascribed to.

So far, and as far as I know, no one in either my family or my wife's family has ever suffered from anything that could be called senility. Of that I'm thankful and I can only hope that I manage to retain all of my mental faculties until the day I die.

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