March 30, 2010
My oldest son is eight years old. I started noticing that something was really different about him when he was two. He always seemed to have his own game plan. He went to a mother's day out program, Gymboree, art classes, classes at the zoo... he never participated with the group, he used materials in unique ways, he had no desire to connect to other people, though he liked the activity a crowd of people brought. At the age of three he was expelled from preschool because of aggressive behavior. At that time I sought a diagnosis for him. He was labelled PDD-NOS because of his inability to engage, poor motor planning, and purposeless use of language (he mostly quoted lines from movies). I enrolled him in a Special Needs school for children with high-functioning autism. He was happy to be there, but made no progress. I tried another for children with speech/language disorders. They were unable to deal with his behavior. I turned to the public school system. Within a year he was pretty much relegated to isolation, and by first grade he was denied contact with peers, not allowed to attend art, music, PE... and he was terribly depressed, because he desperately wanted to be with other children, but couldn't control himself in their company. By this time, his list of labels included severe ADHD, Intermittent Explosive Disorder, and Impulse Control Disorder-Unspecified. I pulled him out of school over a year ago to homeschool and concentrate on therapy. Our most successful therapy to date has been with a certified DIR specialist. She is amazingly talented and can reach him like no other. He also does Occupational Therapy, Social Skills Therapy, Neurofeedback Therapy and sees his psychiatrist on a regular basis. Lately, we had a huge setback. I have no idea what triggered it. He has lost nearly all ability to focus on anything in our world. His grades have gone from A's and B's to low F's (what little schoolwork we can even get through). He is hearing voices. He is perseverating on killing certain people. He claims that Satan is his master. And when he gets any glimpse of reality, he becomes very depressed and begins self-injurious behaviors. All of his therapists have been shocked to see the sudden and tremendous regression he has demonstrated. His psychologist recognized his dissociative behavior immediately, and for the first time, a psychotic label is being tossed around. There is talk of hospitalizing him or committing him to residential care. I am in shock. I am sick to my stomach. But I am encouraged to have found this site, where I find I am not alone.
September 15, 2011
About a year ago, approximately six months after the onset of psychotic symptoms, my son was diagnosed with childhood-onset schizoaffective disorder. He takes Risperdal as an anti-psychotic, which quiets the voices, visions and talk of killing others. It does not help with reason or impulse control. He takes Trileptal as a mood stabilizer, which prevents prolonged rages, though he is still violent, and will put up a fight until he gets his way. He is also a serious eloper. We have had 13 incidents involving the police in the past year. (I don't call the police until my search attempts have been unsuccessful for more than a half hour, though others have called the police within that time frame after finding him in their pools, on the highway, etc.)
