Does anyone have any experience in dealing with this? My son has been diagnosed as being depressive at this time we choose not to treat him with meds as his Dr.'s believe it to be situational related vs chemically related. I would just like to know others experiences in dealing with this issue in their life or childrens lives.

Children need to keep things focused outward, as they are naturally selfish creatures. This is natural, but does not need to be encouraged ether passively or actively.

Things such a television and video games are very isolating.

Team and family activities are excellent (board games, going to the park, bowling, out to dinner). So is positive reinforcement.

At his Dr's insistence he no longer has any game systems and or tv in his room.........he still has them but they are in "community" rooms (L.R and P.R) His teacher at school has been "pushing" him more to play wiht other kids as he used to be a very social creature and in the last year has become almost completely withdrawn. We go to the park quite a bit and he gets upset because i have taken to "encouraging" him to attend b-day parties and get togethers that friends of mine with children my son's age have had. He just doesn't seem very receptive and i'm afraid i'm going to make a delicate situation more precarious with my prodding

How old is your son?

he will be 10 in june...........

Withdrawing like that sometimes is a mild form of autism.

Has he been tested for that?

I say keep prodding, after confirming this is what your doctor would support. Maybe set up times where he needs to be social or specific situations where it is expected?

That certainly seems like a fair compromise.

sorry to her that Bethany!! Maybe he is going through a phase and needs more attention .I know you work a lot sweety....best of luck to you and your family..miss are chats

yes he has been tested for everything from adhd to autism.........I wish i could put some other lable on it and say this is the cause of the problem

that is in part what we are attempting to do.......hence "encouraging" him to attend outside functions.......I'm not particularly religious but i'm thinking of enrolling/joining a church and taking him to the kids club that is on wednesday night.

careful not to push him into anything sometimes it backfires where a child will block that person/s out. have more distance with them ...a good way is to play a video game with him to show your interested in what he does then after get him to do what you need..it shows how things can work and your there in both sides of it... say 30 mins of games before the kids club

I hated to bring that up. It is great that it is not that.

You mentioned church activities. Vacation Bible School is fun for the kids - crafts, etc. But..you have to look into them to see what kind of activities they have.

I wish the best for you and your son.

VBS starts in August i belive and am thinking of putting him in Kis club prior so he will hopefully have made friends and be more receptive towards going.

I hve been taking more time to play a vid game or 2 wiht him.......i admitt i'm not much of a competitor and he gets upset wiht me......LOL I have however gotten hi to start cooking with me nad a couple of times he has asked to join so i'm looking at this as a positive sign.....i hope

How about something you and your son could do together that is unknown to you both? A painting/art class, pottery, a sport, swimming...

Sort of an adventure and a good mother son thing too.

I went to a church youth group as a kid for several years and I really enjoyed it.