Alisonlg
New Member
Well, we were on day 4 of post-psychiatric hospital discharge and the meltdowns started back up again. :::: That didn't take long. So, while husband was on difficult child duty, I decided to go up to difficult child's room and try something.
I cleared out his main closet, which is of a pretty decent size, and vacuumed it and then I put a large bean bag chair in there. I got a really soft blanket and put that in there as well and the closet has its own light and light switch. Well, by the time I had finished, difficult child was being really unstable in the livingroom, so husband brought difficult child up to his room and I tried to re-direct him so we wouldn't have to restrain him and I introduced/explained the "special room" to him.
In the psychiatric hospital day program and in the psychiatric hospital, they always advocated that the kids "take space" by basically giving themselves a time out in a separate area whenever they were angry, which our difficult child is not capable of doing because he really gets too worked up that he ends up in the quiet room. So, I was sort of going off a combination of the two concepts here.
I told him that I created this space just for him and that he was welcome to hang out in it at any time. That it had it's own light and it's own door, so any time he needed/wanted to escape from us or his brother (his brother is a big trigger for him), he could come here. Of course, he said that his brother could just open the door, so I told him maybe we could replace the doorknob with one that would lock. I then told him that he could bring in a book or just lay down with the blanket and relax and take some space. He could have the light on or off, the door open or closed. I even told him that if he wanted to paint the walls in there a special color we could go pick out paint at the hardware store one of these days!
Well, wouldn't you know he got right in there and layed down on the floor with the blanket and I asked him if he wanted the door open or shut and he said shut. I told him he was welcome to open the door and rejoin us at anytime and he came back downstairs calm and collected within minutes!!!!! IT WORKED!
I think he found comfort in the close four walls. I think it may have felt safe and familiar and special. (Is it bad that all I kept thinking was "now if only the walls were padded and the door had a lock?")
I just hope he makes use of it. He had several meltdowns today, but luckily he was somewhat redirectable and he was able to recover from them. He *was* unsafe (hitting himself in the head and throwing things at us), but they weren't *as* terrible as the ones right before our last admit ::knock on wood:: Of course, he hasn't re-entered school yet- that's tomorrow YIKES! and he hasn't started his day program yet- our in-take meeting is Tuesday YIKES! And husband is away on business until Wednesday night YIKES!
Wish me luck!
I cleared out his main closet, which is of a pretty decent size, and vacuumed it and then I put a large bean bag chair in there. I got a really soft blanket and put that in there as well and the closet has its own light and light switch. Well, by the time I had finished, difficult child was being really unstable in the livingroom, so husband brought difficult child up to his room and I tried to re-direct him so we wouldn't have to restrain him and I introduced/explained the "special room" to him.
In the psychiatric hospital day program and in the psychiatric hospital, they always advocated that the kids "take space" by basically giving themselves a time out in a separate area whenever they were angry, which our difficult child is not capable of doing because he really gets too worked up that he ends up in the quiet room. So, I was sort of going off a combination of the two concepts here.
I told him that I created this space just for him and that he was welcome to hang out in it at any time. That it had it's own light and it's own door, so any time he needed/wanted to escape from us or his brother (his brother is a big trigger for him), he could come here. Of course, he said that his brother could just open the door, so I told him maybe we could replace the doorknob with one that would lock. I then told him that he could bring in a book or just lay down with the blanket and relax and take some space. He could have the light on or off, the door open or closed. I even told him that if he wanted to paint the walls in there a special color we could go pick out paint at the hardware store one of these days!
Well, wouldn't you know he got right in there and layed down on the floor with the blanket and I asked him if he wanted the door open or shut and he said shut. I told him he was welcome to open the door and rejoin us at anytime and he came back downstairs calm and collected within minutes!!!!! IT WORKED!
I think he found comfort in the close four walls. I think it may have felt safe and familiar and special. (Is it bad that all I kept thinking was "now if only the walls were padded and the door had a lock?")
I just hope he makes use of it. He had several meltdowns today, but luckily he was somewhat redirectable and he was able to recover from them. He *was* unsafe (hitting himself in the head and throwing things at us), but they weren't *as* terrible as the ones right before our last admit ::knock on wood:: Of course, he hasn't re-entered school yet- that's tomorrow YIKES! and he hasn't started his day program yet- our in-take meeting is Tuesday YIKES! And husband is away on business until Wednesday night YIKES!
Wish me luck!