DS Deals With Change (NOT)

DS has not taken his father's being in the hospital very well. He has been nervous and manic for the last day. We had a major explosion last night and a smaller one today. Then he said he didn't want to go back to school because of his Dad. If I thought it would do any good I'd keep him the extra day or so, but not only do I think it could hurt, I don't know how I'd get him back to school with DH laid up. Can't make that long (nearly 3 hour) drive with DH needing someone to help him for the first couple of days. I don't feel comfortable taking DS on the train into Big City to meet the folks from school who will be taking him back, so I'll drive him in. More control that way. A friend has offered to come along if I feel I will need her. I'll call in the morning if DS is truly off the wall. I'm also giving him some extra meds to calm him down. Worked like a charm this evening. Poor kid just couldn't handle the anxiety over his Dad. "Normal" folks can deal with their emotions, autistic people don't really know how to deal with them so they will sometimes act out like this when they are upset over something. Combine that with the fact that DS is also Bipolar, and so his emotions are more on the surface than other people's you can have a volatile situation at a time like this.

The last time DS was up for a visit the return day was a disaster. He suddenly became afraid to go back to school. He was scared to do Long Division of all things. His anxiety attack was so severe that they had to come up from school to get him. Now with autistic people when you do something you set a pattern. So he is also thinking that if he acts like that again (totally wild by the way tore the house apart during the anxiety attack) he can get them to pick him up. Fortunately I was able to short circuit that little idea. Scary, to say the least.

Life with DS is hard but I adore him anyway. He is really a great kid under it all and when he is not yelling, or rambling endlessly about cartoons he is a pleasure to be around. He is sweet and caring and very affectionate. But when he turned 13 his impulse control seemed to really leave him. He doesn't have as much of it as he once did. School has helped a great deal, they have worked wonders with him. But take him out of the environment and out of the structure and you get problems. I really need to sit with the psychologist who works with DS and get some ideas on how to handle his visits better. They need to be more successful than they are. If DH is not available to take him back to school by car, or back to the pick up point in Big City we have major problems. I don't know what the answer is but I have to come up with one before the Christmas break. Or at least the beginnings of one.