Pamster,

I am really sorry to hear that your son is going through such a hard time right now. You are going through it right along with him. I have been there. My daughter is an adult with Autism. She was aggressive between about age 5 and 9 and at age 10 she started calming down. For some reason with her, after puberty she mellowed out considerably.

I wish I could help but I never knew what to do as she was non-verbal so I was always just wishing I could get inside her head. The one thing that did work for her was Valium. You said Ativan and I think that is similar. You see, when she was that age, Melleril was popular. We also tried Benedryl just to get her to sleep at night. One time when she was bouncing off the walls, I gave her one of my valiums. Yep, I had a prescription....to save my sanity. I took her to the pediatrician and he said, "If it works, great", and gave her a prescription. It was prescribed to her on as needed basis rather than several times a day.

Another thing to look at is Spring Allergies. She always got worse then. You may ask the doctor if there is an antihistimine that he can talk. I don't remember actually seeing the symptoms of allergy, like runny nose, etc, but her bahavior problems always increased in the spring.

I really wish I could help more, but I can you you this, my daughter's behavior did get considerably better.

Judy
(Sally's Mom)