Saturday, May 8, 2010

A turn for the worse...

Well, I don't know what is going on with Jaymes lately. He is becoming more and more violent, and more and more angry. I don't know if it's the new (not new anymore) meds, or what. Anyone ever heard of kids with autism getting really aggressive on Abilify?

After reading a post on Squid's blog about her son's bout with Abilify, I really think it must be the meds. But whatever it is, it is out of control and it needs to stop.

Every day Jaymes is angrier and more aggressive. Yesterday I wouldn't let him knock over the slide, and instead of losing interest like he would have done in the past, he stood them and bit me. He also slapped, kicked, and scratched hard enough to draw blood. I don't really know how to respond to this, my thought was to stand there and ignore it and let him wear himself out. Problem was, he was really hurting me and I couldn't just ignore it because it was too painful to pretend it wasn't happening.

This is not Jaymes. He has never been aggressive, especially towards myself. He's been known to bite in the midst of a very very bad meltdown, but has never pursued someone around the yard attacking them.

Every time he gets angry, everything in sight gets hurled. He smashes things against trees, he breaks things, he throws toys at his sister, he beats the dogs. He screams so long and loud he turns purple. It's terrifying. If he were a teen, we would be in danger of him hurting himself or us. Thank god he's tiny still. We have got to get him under control though, before he is big enough to really hurt someone.

The plan is to call the psychiatrist Monday, and get him in ASAP to be seen and get this medication stuff figured out. I know that originally, when I'd called to say that Jaymes had been more hyperactive and more irritable, the psych had said she'd never heard of a reaction like that with Abilify... However that post on Squid's blog could be copied and pasted here, with changes to the names and places involved and it would describe what we're going through with Jaymes. I can't imagine that's just a coincidence.

Anyway, here's to hoping everyone survives the weekend with as few injuries as possible. Send happy thoughts out to Jaymes- he needs them.

2 comments:

leah said...

Oh, goodness- I'm sending lots of prayers and positive thoughts your way- I hope you get the cause of this figured out soon. I don't know much about Abilify, but medications react differently with different people. I wonder if you could try a different med to see if that helps?

Niksmom said...

It is very possible your son may be experiencing a paradoxical response to the abilify. That's when it has the opposite of the intended effect. My son has paradoxical response to many drugs which effect the central nervous system.

Good luck in finding the right thing/things to help your son.