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i am a mom of of a autism child

my child is 6 years old and has autism he head bangs his head all the time is there any meds out there to stop him from doing it
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1705346 tn?1349992206
#4: (Continued)
So to explain how an overload occurs on a system that can use that much power at once: Imagine that the brain processor is a box with many doors and that thoughts are water flowing in one door and out another door.  Now imagine that doors open with water flowing into the box, but the brain can't open enough doors fast enough.... the box quickly becomes flooded with water!  Thus too many thoughts cannot be sent through Autistic processor fast enough, and the processor becomes flooded with bio-electricity which builds up to levels much too high for the system to handle.... it must disperse those electrons and free up the processor!  Therefore opening only two doors with water rushing through will cause super efficient thought processing abilities - but too many thoughts cannot be processed, because you end up with to much water coming in and not enough doors open to let it back out!  When it comes to any kind of electricity it can be dispersed from a free standing environment by knocking it off the connector, idk where it goes from there.  So that is how i would describe my experience of brain overload, and the tremendous pain of hurting deep inside as the electricity begins short-circuiting and collecting in a huge mass in one place, and the smashing effect simply disperses the all the electricity off that one spot, relieving me from the huge deep pain inside!

But.... if your worried about his brain being permanently damaged.... i used to smash my head so hard i would see white flashes on my eyes, and several times knocked myself unconscious at older ages..... but see how well it still functions!  i don't recommend hitting it that hard... those times was when i was mad at someone else or something else and i just didn't know what to do, so i ran head long into a wall, and got my frustrations out that way, kind of equivalent to a dashboard hit at 50mph - and still no permanent damage!  i think it means i is thick headed lol

So ask around for a professional who may know something about helping with this problem.  And that, based on personal experience it's either just a "Technical Tap" for the brain to reduce electric stress, or an action of angry emotional display; sometimes even a protest against the brain's limits and wanting to hurt it for being dumb.

A lot of the causes can be alleviated through reducing sensory stress loads and providing extra nurture and care i.e. the cuddling.

Basically you want to replace anxiety with comfort and understanding!  Perhaps that will help, i hope it helps somehow, as like i said, i is not a professional, and only explain things based on my own first hand experience and perceptions of how i understand things in the world.  But just so you don't has too much anxiety over the behavior- he probably doesn't hit his head as hard i used to, and i suffered no known ill effects from it!  Also i outgrew that behavior, the older i got, the less often.  By 15 and above your looking at one to three times a *year*  Past age 25, none!

All i had to do was recalculate my life to run at my own speed, and limit how much input my brain has to handle at once.  As well as, the bigger i got the more load my brain could handle at once.  Probably the biggest reason it went away for me, is that brain grew in capacity and didn't overload as much.

i Hope my posts is Helpful =)
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1705346 tn?1349992206
#3: (Continued)
Try to go through a dialogue, perhaps even one sided, and explain to him how special and wonderful he is, let his ears hear it, and his tummy feel it with your arms around him... Try explaining to him how he just needs to be patient with his mind, not to try doing too much at one time.  You may have to teach him to do what i did, just ignore outside pressures and keep things at his own speed.  Being that you're his mother you could explain to others that he requires very limited stimulation's, and if they over stimulate him then he's likely to bang his head as a result or act out in other ways too!

i has learned through personal life that Autistic brain is easily overloaded, and it usually doesn't take in a lot all at once - it's more of a narrow focused electric system, specially suited for extreme focus on a single task.  The Autistic mind can focus so hard on a single task that it often finds imaginations and inventions everyone else missed!  This is most often seen in Autistic children who stare at one thing intensely.  i has a wonderful ability inside my brain i can't even explain: i can stare so hard at a water fountain until my brain will slow down the water as i look at it- and i can watch each and every droplet floating through mid air!!!!!!  idk how it does that, but it's intense singular focus that puts all the brain's power into one single focused task.  And once everything else is blocked out around me, it's as if time slows down, and i see more than i ever saw at normal speed!!!!!  And yet, attempting multi-tasking instantly overloads the whole system!!!!!!

Most Autistic people seem lost in crowds, and cannot function at all in conversations; because the brain won't process all that, usually they go off alone and stare at something rather unusually intense.  What you see is a person who has a mind specifically designed for scientific research and development - that ability is entirely useful when focusing on a single problem, so intensely that all the brain's imaginative power is applied to one single task, and they often come up with the solutions!!!!!  i've often heard that Albert Einstein was actually an Autistic person, and that is why he was so good at math; he put all his focus and imagination into solving a single equation at a time!

IF your son outgrows the Classic Autism like i did, he could become a very very intelligent scientist!  i recently formed my own theory of time based on universal logic's: everything rotates, everything orbits... why is there a set speed to it all- why does light only go so fast.  After fully focusing all my brain's power on just one thing, it occurred to me - round balls spinning on a spinning surface would have a set spin rate based on the spinning surface.... so IF the entire universe rotates, it would then govern all objects in motion - therefore this rotation could be called Time - because it determines the speed and direction of everything that rotates - and if you move at a speed faster than the universe is rotating, beyond the speed of light - you will get flung out of the universe like a rotating ball off a record player!!!!  So my theory finds that time is a force just as gravity is a force, and time is what determines the speed and motion of everything inside the universe!  Therefore: there is no such thing as time travel: because now is only now - what was will never be again - you cannot reverse the rotation of the universe - and even if somehow you did everything would be the same, but in the opposite rotating direction!!!!  Based on my singular focus of thought: Time governs the speed of all things that rotate within the universe, causing every sphere to rotate at a constant speed unless affected by another force of propulsion: which causes seasons, days and nights; which add up to years - and it is the force that keeps us in motion from birth to death; providing the force of gravity within the universe!  Time is a force of the universe that governs the speed of rotating bodies, thus governing the days and seasons of our lives, we live in time, because the universe is always in motion and the worlds are moved and governed by the rotational force and governing of time which generates gravity and holds the whole universe together!  And that is my self-held theory of what Time actually is - because i have the ability to place all of my brain's processing power into a single thought and imagination!
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1705346 tn?1349992206
#2: (Continued)
Back in the old days they used to have what was called "A Technical Tap"  When the television built up too much static and the screen became fuzzy, you would walk over and hit the side of the TV and the fuzz would clear up, because the shock knocked the extra static off the TV components..... and that's basically how i see head banging as alleviating an over stimulated brain.... a good enough jolt will dissipate the electricity inside and bring the load back to manageable levels again, where the person can begin thinking again - because there's room for electrical impulses to be sent down the nerve wires again!

Try my advice on limiting the amount his brain needs to process around him, which will lessen the electric load on his brain wires and keep his processor from being overloaded.  The computer is based off of the brain.... understanding how a computer works will help you understand how your child's mind works!

i would explain it like this: your child is six years old, but his brain may only be able to handle the amount of processing of a two year old or even a one year old.  To understand that Use this Example: Let's say your child's age represents Windows 7, but his onboard processor is designed for Windows 3.1 - assuming you could actually run those - what you would have is all the features of Windows 7, but at the speed of Windows 3.1  So, even though a person like myself is extremely intelligent and can function quite well, i don't know if your son can or cannot; but even for me, i can do all the intelligent things like a Windows 7 computer, just at the limited speed and load handling capacity of a Windows 3.1 processor!  With Autism you pay very very very close attention to your child's speed at learning something, figure out the comparison; so he may be six, but he may only be able to process the amount of information an infant does before becoming overloaded.  Most babies cry when overstimulated - however, seems like most Autistic's rather beat their heads instead of crying.

Try to get in touch with a professional who specializes in understanding this situation, if you can do that.

Based on his mental development, if he learns to develop his higher thinking like i did by age 15, then the head banging should go away with time.

i would that there was something that can be done, but have not seen anything anywhere!  Most of the time you can't even hold them, because it just adds more stimulation.  The only thing i can say is this.... i beat my head from age 3 to age on up to rare occasions to age 25, finally got it completely under control, so far lol, no incidents in years ...... i show *no* signs of any permanent damage or harm; and i don't know how to relieve the electric stress inside the brain any other way!

Unless you can find a specialist with a fancy device for doing that; only thing i can think of is reducing his intake of stimulation.  And do this when he's calm and can be touched without further over stimulation:

IF he will let you.... gently pull him into your arms and lap and hold him really snug, and just keep saying over and over very soft and soothingly - "It's Okay."  If you cuddle him, you'll pull him back to his senses faster, because you alleviate the sensory overload issues through comfort and reassuring!  IF you can touch him without making it worse!

One thing i hear much of is ....  you can't baby older children .... "cuddling" to me, isn't babying, it's a human need during stress ..... not to be rude or anything with reminders; but going back to 9/11 you see on camera full grown adults "cuddling" each other.

So, yes, i say, you can cuddle an older child in the midst of their emotional, mental, or physical distress; and it will enable them to cope and recover faster.  So.... when he does that, you're not babying him, you're supplying a natural human need - warm, reassuring touch and affirmation that care is there, a place of safety is there, and the moment of calamity will pass over.  When you're all alone somewhere and you're really really scared - what do you want most - isn't there a longing for someone to just hold you really really tight, if you just had some giant arms that could hug you really really tight!  To me, age is irrelevant, it's a human need; and providing that to any child will boost their emotional stability inside themselves!  If during the event he won't let you, because it may just make it worse and more over stimulating, then make some time when he's Okay to hold him and cuddle him, and assure him that he has a safe place in your arms! :)
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1705346 tn?1349992206
#1:
Due to comment limits, and my inability to type a simple, small anything haha, i will have to post my response in pieces, hope that's okay, cause i can't see taking anything out and having it fully expressed - i didn't really know what to say at first, and i still don't really, i not a professional of some sort.... but no one has replied yet, so, i didn't want you to feel neglected......so, i was born undiagnosed with Autism Syndrome Disorder (ASD)  No one knew anything until i was 13 yrs old; because my fascination with noise caused me to learn how to mimic sounds, which lead to my mimicking words, which then caused me to learn how to make talking words by age 6!  Once i could talk and go to school, nothing was ever handled after that - just got spankings and instruction for everything i couldn't perform effectively.

However, my whole childhood was littered with strange peculiar things, that i often wonder why no one addressed these.  i was either punished with spankings, or they were completely ignored.

The *only* thing i know about head banging is from an older 7-8 and above, i don't remember why i did that at 3 yrs old; but above i did it when i was mad, upset, or frustrated.... the behavior went away with age for me, as i learned other less painful ways of expressing my emotions.

9 outa 10 times i was very stressed out because my sensory processor could only take so much stimulation before my brain became overwhelmed and i don't understand why, but banging my head against walls and doors was my way of expressing the pain deep inside my head, and in a slight way, my own display of my hatred towards my brain for not working right, like everyone else.

The older i got the more i understood about limitations, and instead of bashing my brain for being inadequate, i learned to be more patient with it and ignore other people's demands of me, and run my life at my own sloooooooow speed.  On average it takes me 5 minutes to perform a 1 minute thinking task.  Doing a normal every day task can sometimes be a thirty minute procedure - so when the teacher would say do a test, or Mommy wanted the dishes done or vacuuming - my sisters could be done in 5 or less minutes - rude as it may seem, i learned to ignore my Mommy's disapproval and get things done in 30 minutes to an hour, i also learned to not care what school people thought if they complained about incomplete tests and assignments.  For me, by the time i was 10 yrs old i found being spanked was faster to recover from than a headache!  i simply purposed within myself to take no care of anyone else and what they wanted of me; i like me and i don't mind my sloooowness, because trying to be like others overwhelms my mind's capacity and causes me a strange inner electric stress - kinda basically like having my brain's current short-circuit really bad, which hurts a lot, and so i beat my head against things because i didn't know what else to do..... it hurts inside my head when my brain shorts out from stimulation overloads.

From, Only, personal experience, alone: you may try slowing life down around him and limiting his stimulation to what you would allow an infant to be exposed to i.e. light, sound, motion, interactions.... everything a brain has to process - reducing the load may end the short circuits and cause the brain to not hurt so much inside.

Does he more often: not bang his head?  If it's less often, than more, he could be getting overloaded and it hurts his brain and he bangs his head - idk why, i still don't comprehend the logic of that; but i began doing that at 3 yrs old, so there wasn't really much logic to anything i did then.  i just know i did that throughout childhood because of too much brain stress and stimulation's.... sometimes i would be oversensitive for some unknown reasons and TV at normal volume would be picked up for me like it was at jet engine volume.... and my head would throb in pain, and especially any kind of flickering lights - especially classic florescent bulbs!!!!

i think maybe somehow the blast on the brain maybe scatters and discharges the overloaded brain electric currents; because i do remember feeling much much better and calmer after a really good bashing.... knowing what i know about electricity and that the brain has it's own bio-electricity, when the nerve wires become overloaded the cells can no longer send impulses out, the brain is rendered unable to think, and so the speed of head and sudden stop into wall, perhaps causes electricity particles in the brain to be flung off the nerve connector endings - which big words short simply means: the load on the brain's electric system is relieved!  That's an overcomplicated attempt to explain the possible cause for the behavior in the first place.
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