Crystal72

New Member
My 11 years old asperger son is getting more and more aggressive lately. He is only seen by his psychiatrist once a month. He is on adderall XR 20mg and zoloft 50mg.

I totally understand challenging authority figure, manipulating, unremorseful is part of the asperger. But as parent we have our limit as well especially when we have to deal with it alone.

We got him a cellphone before school starts and set rules with him. He broke it within minutes of having the phone. We took the phone away from him and reminded him of the rules and he broke it again.

He almost punched me in the mall, he manipulate his 5 years old brother and he shoved his sister

Therapist are everywhere but I want to know how do I know if they are specialize in kids we have?
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
Sorry you are having such a hard time. Have there been any changes in his life lately (medications? friends?) that might explain the behaviors? Is he under the care of a child/adolescent Psychiatrist? Have he ever had a neuro/psychological examination to fully identify his issues?

Yeah, I know, alot of questions but it makes a difference in how we'll "see" the problems and try to lend a helping hand. Alot of us know how much stress you are under...been there done that! Hugs. DDD
 

Crystal72

New Member
It's the cellphone and the Facebook page. I found out he ran up 1000 text messages in two days, mostly used on harassing people's. I went into Facebook to check his activity and found out he has been harassing people too. Cyber bully is a crime right? I tried to talk to him but he got aggressive.

He is seen by his child/adolescent psychiatrist and I just left him a message too.
 
T

TeDo

Guest
Not sure if this applies to you but stimulants have a tendency to make Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) aggression worse. I know it did in our case. You might want to check that with your psychiatrist. If he isn't seeing a Child or Adolescent psychiatrist, I would switch to one. There is a website I have found a website (will PM you with the site once I find it again) where I can look at the "specialties" the various professionals deal with. You might not want one that specializes in any one area because they tend to focus on THAT diagnosis and leave the rest "in the dust".

I agree with DDD's suggestion to have a neuropsychologist evaluation done. Looking at your sig ADHD, ODD, and Disruptive Disorder are all pretty much part of the Asperger's so I would question the diagnoses.
 
T

TeDo

Guest
Sorry, we were posting at the same time. Do you think the psychiatrist is doing a good job as in listening to you and your input? If not, it might be time to find a new one.
 

Crystal72

New Member
Why should we question the diagnoses if it's all part of asperger? Sorry I m confused.

He had his neuropsychologist done in 2009-09 and I was told that if I want to re test it should be 3 years after that date?

He was on strattera but it doesn't help anything
 
T

TeDo

Guest
Questioning the diagnoses can prevent inappropriate medications and issues they can present in a person with Asperger's. I have also found that inaccurate diagnoses, especially with schools, can cause huge issues. My son carried the ODD diagnosis for three years and we had school personnel that used the typical "heavy-handed no tolerance" approach they always use for kids with ODD. When the diagnosis was changed to Asperger's and the ODD diagnosis was dropped completely, the school refused to handle situations differently and ended up getting difficult child so depressed the psychiatrist pulled him out of school for the remainder of the year. Needless to say, difficult child is attending a totally different school this year. It wasn't fair to my difficult child.

There are other ADHD medications out there that are not stimulants. Strattera is only one of them and there are kids that don't respond well at all to it. It has to do with the chemical make-up of the drug. It might be worth a shot to switch to a different non-stimulant and see if the aggression improves as well as the "harassing".
 

jennd23

New Member
If you have insurance I would start there. Call them and explain what you are looking for. They usually have a hotline that is supposed to specialize in that. If they can only provide a list of therapists, just start calling and explain what is going on. I called a few and one receptionist told me that she doesn't usually work with kids like him and we might have better luck looking for someone else. No matter the diagnosis, you can get started in therapy and calling around to figure out who would be a good fit. Just explain the behaviors your seeing and if they are used to dealing with it. Good luck!
 

keista

New Member
You said that he was making harassing texts. What was the content of these texts? Did he know the ppl he was sending them to? Were they on his friend list or are they total strangers?

Aspies often seem to be harassing/annoying when in reality it's a deficit of that social skill. They just have difficulty understanding/accepting that others aren't interested in the things they want to talk about. With intensive social skills therapy and maturity this can ease up.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Why should we question the diagnoses if it's all part of asperger? Sorry I m confused.

Yes, its confusing, but here's a brief split...
If a person has Aspergers or anything else on the autism spectrum, the symptoms and issues will include things that look like ADHD, etc. But these kids have all of the ADHD stuff plus a whole lot more - social issues, for example.

It is possible to be no where near the autism spectrum, and still have ADHD. (that's me)

So... if they are treating the ADHD diagnosis, and you're really dealing with a lot more complex diagnosis, then all the interventions are probably not going to work - because trying to fix symptom X is going to cause you problems with symptom Y and so on... You and the docs have to be dealing with ALL of his needs as ONE package.

This is why you would pursue an evaluation for Aspergers or Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)... to get the bigger-picture defined, and therefore to start on a different intervention path.

Think of it in more usual medical terms... if I have a headache, I take an over-the-counter pain killer, and can use any of a number of them so I use the cheapest - but if my daughter takes the same medication for HER headache, it gets worse - because hers isn't just a headache, she gets migraines, and there's only one pain medication that helps her. My headache is like ADHD, and hers is like Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)/Aspie... If that helps any.
 

Crystal72

New Member
But he was diagnosis as asperger's by the psychiatrist that specialized in autism evaluation. He is basically asperger, ODD, ADHD
 

Crystal72

New Member
You said that he was making harassing texts. What was the content of these texts? Did he know the ppl he was sending them to? Were they on his friend list or are they total strangers?

Aspies often seem to be harassing/annoying when in reality it's a deficit of that social skill. They just have difficulty understanding/accepting that others aren't interested in the things they want to talk about. With intensive social skills therapy and maturity this can ease up.

You got it totally right. A group of strangers he calls friends that he found online and classmates. Keeps on going on and on despite they told him to leave them alone.

I totally understand that's his deficit of social skill. I just need that one therapist that know how to work with aspie
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
If he is Asperger's, then the psychiatrist cannot give him the ADHD or ODD dxes... as in, the way dsvm is written, Asperger's overrides ALL the other dxes. He might be trying to note that the current primary issues present similar to ADHD and/or ODD... but you need to treat the Asperger's diagnosis as the "real" diagnosis - and yes, he needs WAY more help than he is getting, and YOU need way more support, too. Aspie kids THINK different, and you have to learn what that means and how to work with it...

I'm not an Aspie expert - but many of the parents on the board are... and repeatedly, we hear them saying that the "normal" approaches for dealing with ADHD - including stimulant medds - just DO NOT WORK.
 

Crystal72

New Member
If he is Asperger's, then the psychiatrist cannot give him the ADHD or ODD dxes... as in, the way dsvm is written, Asperger's overrides ALL the other dxes. He might be trying to note that the current primary issues present similar to ADHD and/or ODD... but you need to treat the Asperger's diagnosis as the "real" diagnosis - and yes, he needs WAY more help than he is getting, and YOU need way more support, too. Aspie kids THINK different, and you have to learn what that means and how to work with it...

Omg tell me about it!!! Only you guys understands.
Is there medication for asperger's
 
T

TeDo

Guest
No there is no medication for Asperger's. Some are put on medications to help with the Aspie anxiety over transitions, etc but there is no medication to "rewire the brain" so to speak. If you haven't read the Explosive Child yet, you really should. It was trying Dr. Greene's technique that helped me understand HOW my difficult child thinks so I can explain and handle things in a productive way. What makes total sense to him is WAY off base with me. That is where most of our conflicts came from. You can't exactly change how he thinks but I made a real effort to figure out how my difficult child thought. It took work and patience but we are in a wonderful place now.

Sorry about the mix-up with Concerta. I have no experience with it but have heard someone else mention it as an alternative to Strattera so I assumed it was also a non-stimulant.
 
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