Re: School and Aggressive Behaviors

[Guest guest]

Fransel,

I'm so sorry that you and your family have to go through this. My ASD son is

16, and I have been working with elementary age autistic children for eight

years. Ive seen some children (including mine)go through some difficult things.

Unfortunately, Ive never seen aggression go away after implementing a behavior

med. Ive seen sedation and confusion which can make the child easier to control.

Eventually, tolerance builds and the problem was not fixed.

More recently, my son calmed down quite a bit in impulsive reactions when I

started giving him Bacopa monnieri, a chinese herb. I am taking it too. I would

say it calms anxiety and makes thinking clearer, and faster. At first I ordered

it from Eccological Formulas, but I found an herbal supplement called

" ThinkWell " at my local Wegman's. " ThinkWell " contains phosphatidylserine,

bacopa monnieri, gotu kola, and vinpocetine. I'd compare it too a mild

ADHD/anti-depressant drug. (Like Lexapro and Adderral together, but without the

jittery, stimulant feeling.)

Another thing I do when things get bad, is I allow my son to withdraw into

computer land or video game world. This gives me a break and helps him focus on

something outside of his agitation. He doesn't play violent video games, just

repetitive tetris like games. I guess you can say it is a stim, but it calms

him and allows me to relax. He is safe and not getting into trouble. When he

was younger, the stim was usually a video involving music or written text

(sing-a-long songs). As horrible as it looks to outsiders, I would let him do it

for hours if that was what he and I needed. Sometimes you have to give up

" normal " living for awhile to survive a crisis.

Jen

PS This sounds like PANDAS. Don't be afraid to try the antibiotic. Yeast makes

you drunk, strep makes you psychiotic. I'd take drunk over psychiotic anyday.