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11-year old with undiagnosed behavior problems
My son will turn 11 in January. He is so out of control, and I am so stressed, I've thought seriously about having both of us committed.
Before he was born, I knew something was wrong. He never (ever!) stopped moving in the womb, and was very aggressive kicking (I had bruises). As a baby, he never slept more than two hours at a time. He ate three times as much as normal babies, and lashed out with arms and legs all the time. I have another child and have been around many babies, and let me tell you, his behavior was far from normal. His pediatrician was baffled but didn't see a big problem.
As a toddler, he was frequently aggressive, and very slow to talk in sentences. He never (ever!) was still, even when sleeping he moved around a lot. He would get up two or three times at night to raid the refrigerator of anything he could get his hands on, usually sweets. He'd eat a half-gallon of ice cream at one sitting. Once he ate an entire birthday cake (one of the big sheet cakes). This persists, even now.
At the age of about 3, I began to talk with doctors about ADHD. He was diagnosed with this and put on a variety of meds at 4. The only one that helps a little is ritalin, which he still takes.
At 5, he began to rebel against school. He had a terrible kindergarten teacher. I would face a physical fight every morning to get him on the school bus. His principal eventually came and dragged him every morning, and on several occasions, he was injured by my son. This spread to daily life, for about a year and a half, I could not control him. He also would get "crazy"...singing, screaming, bouncing off the walls (literally). Then, it spontaneously stopped. During this time, the docs tried him on half a dozen drugs and diagnoses, including conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and -get this- the fact that we were poor.
For the last 5 years, Bobby has been hyperactive, had problems in school, had social interaction problems (he has few friends because of his bizarre behavior), and been occasionally violent...maybe once or twice a week.
This year (age 10), he suddenly snapped one day and tried to beat me up. Neither of us knows why. Since then, he's been impossible to live with.
He is violent 3-5 times a day. This alternates with him doing things like racing back and forth, running into walls, pinching himself, singing loudly off-key, parading around naked, flapping his arms (this particular behavior reminds me very much of autism, which incidentally was one of the diagnoses at age 4 which was thrown out because he usually communicates just fine). He swears, he defies anyone telling him to do anything. All this alternates between him being a perfectly sweet, loving child, and him being asleep. It doesn't follow a pattern, but we usually see all 4 behaviors 3 or 4 times a day, sometimes more. Sometimes, in an hour we see all of this.
1. He's crazy: screaming, singing, flapping his arms.
2. He's aggressive: hitting, kicking, swearing, throwing
3. He's asleep or curled up in a fetal position, unresponsive or acting like he's exhausted
4. Perfectly normal BUT when he's like this, he will talk your ear off. He's an expert with an opinion on everything, which he will be happy to tell you about. However, he may forget what he was talking about mid-stream, or even switch topics without even realizing.
He also obsesses about things in the past, such as his cat, who died when Bobby was 3, or things his sister did to him years ago, even events that happened when he was a year or two old.
He's paranoid (everyone's out to get him, or staring at him, or whatever today's paranoia is), he's suicidal, tries to run away, impulsive.
He claims he does NOT hear voices or anything the docs can attribute to schizophrenia and related illnesses. However, he has had two visual hallucinations during his aggressive episodes: he sees bright lights for a period of several minutes.
One of the current docs has diagnosed manic depression, and we've tried risperdal, depakote, seraquel, and zyprexa, all with little effect but the depakote, which in a rare reaction nearly killed him). The other current doc says he has plain-old depression, and tried effexor (which made him homicidal), and then said no, he has psycho-motor seizures and we're currently trying neurontin, which does nothing for him at all.
Like I said at the beginning, I'm about to have a psychotic break myself.
Does anyone else out there have a child like this? Anyone have suggestions for things we might try? Might a dx of borderline personality disorder be more appropriate? His symptoms match a lot of what the DSM IV says about that disorder.
Thanks for any help anyone can give.
Kathi Sharpe
Before he was born, I knew something was wrong. He never (ever!) stopped moving in the womb, and was very aggressive kicking (I had bruises). As a baby, he never slept more than two hours at a time. He ate three times as much as normal babies, and lashed out with arms and legs all the time. I have another child and have been around many babies, and let me tell you, his behavior was far from normal. His pediatrician was baffled but didn't see a big problem.
As a toddler, he was frequently aggressive, and very slow to talk in sentences. He never (ever!) was still, even when sleeping he moved around a lot. He would get up two or three times at night to raid the refrigerator of anything he could get his hands on, usually sweets. He'd eat a half-gallon of ice cream at one sitting. Once he ate an entire birthday cake (one of the big sheet cakes). This persists, even now.
At the age of about 3, I began to talk with doctors about ADHD. He was diagnosed with this and put on a variety of meds at 4. The only one that helps a little is ritalin, which he still takes.
At 5, he began to rebel against school. He had a terrible kindergarten teacher. I would face a physical fight every morning to get him on the school bus. His principal eventually came and dragged him every morning, and on several occasions, he was injured by my son. This spread to daily life, for about a year and a half, I could not control him. He also would get "crazy"...singing, screaming, bouncing off the walls (literally). Then, it spontaneously stopped. During this time, the docs tried him on half a dozen drugs and diagnoses, including conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and -get this- the fact that we were poor.
For the last 5 years, Bobby has been hyperactive, had problems in school, had social interaction problems (he has few friends because of his bizarre behavior), and been occasionally violent...maybe once or twice a week.
This year (age 10), he suddenly snapped one day and tried to beat me up. Neither of us knows why. Since then, he's been impossible to live with.
He is violent 3-5 times a day. This alternates with him doing things like racing back and forth, running into walls, pinching himself, singing loudly off-key, parading around naked, flapping his arms (this particular behavior reminds me very much of autism, which incidentally was one of the diagnoses at age 4 which was thrown out because he usually communicates just fine). He swears, he defies anyone telling him to do anything. All this alternates between him being a perfectly sweet, loving child, and him being asleep. It doesn't follow a pattern, but we usually see all 4 behaviors 3 or 4 times a day, sometimes more. Sometimes, in an hour we see all of this.
1. He's crazy: screaming, singing, flapping his arms.
2. He's aggressive: hitting, kicking, swearing, throwing
3. He's asleep or curled up in a fetal position, unresponsive or acting like he's exhausted
4. Perfectly normal BUT when he's like this, he will talk your ear off. He's an expert with an opinion on everything, which he will be happy to tell you about. However, he may forget what he was talking about mid-stream, or even switch topics without even realizing.
He also obsesses about things in the past, such as his cat, who died when Bobby was 3, or things his sister did to him years ago, even events that happened when he was a year or two old.
He's paranoid (everyone's out to get him, or staring at him, or whatever today's paranoia is), he's suicidal, tries to run away, impulsive.
He claims he does NOT hear voices or anything the docs can attribute to schizophrenia and related illnesses. However, he has had two visual hallucinations during his aggressive episodes: he sees bright lights for a period of several minutes.
One of the current docs has diagnosed manic depression, and we've tried risperdal, depakote, seraquel, and zyprexa, all with little effect but the depakote, which in a rare reaction nearly killed him). The other current doc says he has plain-old depression, and tried effexor (which made him homicidal), and then said no, he has psycho-motor seizures and we're currently trying neurontin, which does nothing for him at all.
Like I said at the beginning, I'm about to have a psychotic break myself.
Does anyone else out there have a child like this? Anyone have suggestions for things we might try? Might a dx of borderline personality disorder be more appropriate? His symptoms match a lot of what the DSM IV says about that disorder.
Thanks for any help anyone can give.
Kathi Sharpe
Has your son been checked for tempral lobe epilepsy if not ask it mightshow up a very good reason for the behaviour my son has adhd and is undergoing tests for epilepsy for the same behaviors and symptoms as your son hope this helps
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Dear Ms. Sharpe,
A number of reasonable conclusions have been reached in an attempt to understand your son's condition. However, his treatment does not seem to be organized around a coherent, unifying understanding of what is occurring with him.
Your information indicates that, in all probability, no single explanation or diagnosis will be forthcoming. Your son's behavior and emotional states indicate that he may well display some neurobehaviral disorder (e.g., Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder), a mood disorder (e.g., Bipolar Disorder), a so-called Axis II condition (i.e., aspects of his personality or character that may be fairly enduring, as opposed to conditions which have identifiable onsets and courses), and possible neurological disorder (e.g., seizure disorder) and psychotic disorder.
In my mind the best course of action now is to have your son admitted for inpatient psychiatric evaluation. Under stable and secure conditions, such an admission would permit a thorough diagnostic study, including psychological testing and psychopharmacological evaluation.
A number of reasonable conclusions have been reached in an attempt to understand your son's condition. However, his treatment does not seem to be organized around a coherent, unifying understanding of what is occurring with him.
Your information indicates that, in all probability, no single explanation or diagnosis will be forthcoming. Your son's behavior and emotional states indicate that he may well display some neurobehaviral disorder (e.g., Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder), a mood disorder (e.g., Bipolar Disorder), a so-called Axis II condition (i.e., aspects of his personality or character that may be fairly enduring, as opposed to conditions which have identifiable onsets and courses), and possible neurological disorder (e.g., seizure disorder) and psychotic disorder.
In my mind the best course of action now is to have your son admitted for inpatient psychiatric evaluation. Under stable and secure conditions, such an admission would permit a thorough diagnostic study, including psychological testing and psychopharmacological evaluation.
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