I am really beside myself with my son these days, he's been really acting out badly. At school two weeks ago he took a cane from another student and hit a teacher over the head with it. The same day he hit another one in the eye, and he's also ripping up clothes and even a pair of shoes. He's really having a hard time and so are we trying to deal with it all. We're supposed to move in May to a great place I think will make a huge difference in all our lives. But that doesn't help us with the right now unfortunately.

Right now he's been really aggressive and it's so hard to deal with. I just wanted to share a little about how it's been, those of you who remember us and know us from BT will be glad to know that we got some blood work done and NO signs of hypothyriodism or diabetes, and he's losing weight, so things on that front are good, it's just his behavior that is really been rough. I think the hardest thing is when he hurts me and run away laughing, I can't get him to give him a time out and it's really frustrating me. *sigh*

We're still working with a behavior analyst and all but it's not really having any effects. I wish there were something we could do that we're not already doing to help get this under control. But anyway, thanks for listening.

Long to help but I need to know your son's age.

(((Pamster)))
Left you message elsewhere. Every time I read of sudden changes or increased aggresson like this, I have to wonder whether it was the medication or medication interactions that was drawing it out. Children grow. His weight is changing, whether that's up or down. It might be just a little change in the balance of the doses compared to weight change that tips things off balance. Plus some of our children who are on autism spectrum can be extremely sensitive to certain medications or changes. I'm not saying to put it all down to that, but it was a biggie here for causing irritability and aggressive behaviour outbursts.

That was just how it seemed to work here for my son when he was little. Things would go smoothly for a long time and then everything seemed to fall apart. I really feel for you. I know how tough it can be. I think your son is 10? but not sure. 10 was difficult age for my son. He's doing well now. Hang on there.

Yup he's ten Lara. I sure hope he gets better soon, it's been so tough dealing with this, He's throwing shoes and boots at me and still acting out. We used to go out with my mom on the weekends but with him acting like this we just can't, it upsets her too much to see him like this and I completely understand since I am HER baby, seeing him hurting me like this really gets to her. I have to go for now because he's just absolutely on the warpath this morning.

I did get the message elsewhere Lara, thank you for caring so much, it really means a lot to me.

Hi Pamster,

It's not uncommon for kids on the spectrum to demonstrate increased aggression as testosterone starts surging, which can happen around age 9 - 10. Even if you don't see any obvious signs of pubertal development, a lot is happening behind the scenes before the hair & whatnot are evident.

While many folks have had success with biomedical approaches in autism, if aggression is severe in most cases medication is required -- sometimes temporarily (in biomed), or long term, if conventional treatment is undertaken.

Best wishes.

Thanks for the well wishes SnooZQ, I really appreciate it. And the words of wisdom about his hormones, that is what the neurologist said at our appt monday. His p-doc has decreased his abilify because of suspected Akathisia and we're looking at just over a week of him being on the decreased dosage.

It's getting better then it was last week. He's been so restless and not wanting to sit down that I have to wonder if he really did have Akathisia. It seems like he might have had it and it's getting better, but who really knows? We don't go to see the p-doc again until April but that's not so far away.

We have been using fish oils and B12 with some good results, but that's as far as we've gone, no special dieting other then low carb dieting for awhile but that was also for seizure control, or attempted seizure control. He still needs medication for that. I am feeling a little less stressed today because he's calming down somewhat from how he was this morning, but all last week it was terrible.

I knew puberty wasn't going to be a picnic but sheesh it's definitely going to be a bumpy ride if this is any indication. Thanks everyone for the moral support, I really feel better having posted about it. It's been awhile since I posted I know, but I wanted to reach out to you all here and see if you had any advice.

We've seen it havily at work right now too..... And my son's have gone through it within the last week also. Funny thing is this....they are also congested and had a cold as the behaviors got better. I really ponder is the agitation was really more because he was tired and wasn't feeling good. We talked about hospitalizing Zach (and I work at the mental health hospital)...he was that out of control. He was assaultive to staff at the store, the gym, his friends at school, us at home, impulsively running in front of cares.....last weeks sunday through thursday. Now life is back to normal. I did do some 0.5 mg of Ativan just to get through it. But now it's all back to normal.


Good luck, take care of yourself.

So far so good this morning, but it's a long way to get through the day. I am sorry your kids were having major aggression too cckids, I have a question though, does your p-doc give you avitan for them? I haven't had that for Jackie and wonder if it might not help him when he's really melting down and going through this horrible time with weaning off the abilify and topamax. Topamax weaning hasn't started yet, but it will in a couple of weeks I think.

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)

Hi Judy,

Your post made me feel better, I thinkwe're going to be able to hang in there until this blows over. I feel a lot better having a small break while he's back in school. We just started him on singular for allergies because he sounded congested but he wasn't sick and we remembered he used to take zyrtek and so I asked for the rx for it again and the insurance declined it so they substituted the singular for it. I think it's helping, another issue that has been brought to our attention is that he's getting his twelve year molars! So I gave him some ibuprofen this morning and hope he feels better for school, I will have to see if he needs more when he gets home though, I know how bad things always got when he's teething. I will be grateful when these come in all the way.