"I feel normal" said my 9yo DS today!

[youarewinning]

And no, not normal as in like everyone else "normal" as a response to how he's feeling (we are working on emotions)

Turns out "sad" and "happy" seem to equivocate extreme feelings - and when I said so he's happy then as nothing is bothering him he repeated no he felt normal.

I'm not really entirely sure where to go from here - cue helpful suggestions

We have been discussing using an emotions board for him to show me how he's feeling - which we then discuss when he's ready. He wants a 'normal' emotion. How on earth do I do that?!

Sorry, I haven't come up with a solution for this. My Dd is 13 and everything is 'normal' or 'ok' we have worked on emotion boards lots but she doesn't get to grips with it.

Oh polter! I knew you'd have a visual equivalent with an analogy! My DS loves trains so I'm sure I can invent something train like to do the same.
We used makes of cars for the catastrophic scale you told me about.

obviously centred around what DS considered a great car you couldn't even touch down to something worthy of a scrap heap! yep - if it's really disastrous it's a scrap heap car.

Makeacuppa - I usually get 'fine' so normal is progress! Would be great if fine really was fine but I get no pre warning when fine turns into breakdown because everything is shite!

Marking my place for later. Have to go and try settling ds now.

I have taken to replying to 'fine' with "fine good? Or fine bad?" If it's fine good ill get "it's fine" if it's fine bad I get"well................." and I regret asking!

I've clearly not helped!!!' I must pull my finger out and do more. He's just finished a therapeutic story writing group where they've introduced the idea of using objects to represent feelings so I really want to carry it on.

Eg a spring for wound up tight! Elastic band for pulled in different directions!

Claw - I understand you have a lot on ATM. Hope DS settles soon.