Matthew
"New Developments"
2004
page 2

"Here We Go Again"

Matt goes from doing wonderful to having a few problems dealing, to "OH MY GOD"!   In the snap of your fingers he became horribly violent and suicidal.  He would just snap into an uncontrollable rage where he wanted to kill everyone....then he would snap out of it just as quickly.  Though at this point he would immediately realize what he had done and then turn all that rage and now guilt, in on himself.  Just two of the things he tried was to climb over the wall of the second story of the school and to lock himself in the truck in the middle of summer.  No need to go any further, you get the idea of what was going on.

By the time the second "serious episode" happened, where he hurt his aide and me, I just took him out for a few days and then found a psychiatrist (yeah, those things I hate with every fiber of my being) who could shed some light on what was going on.

I can never tell you what a relief it was when the psychiatrist knew right away what was going on and told me that it wasn't uncommon.  Actually it was very common, it was just that most never realized what it was.  He said that Matt had "officially" entered puberty, his body chemistry had changed and that all this violence and suicidal tendencies were a result of him having an adverse reaction to the medications that he was on since the body chemistry change.

Sound easy?  Actually, it was.....a simple med change was all it took.  Well, not quite, we had to implement a LOT of modifications to relieve stress for a while to give him time to adjust and work back into the swing of things.

"The Meds"

And hello Geodon.  Geodon is in the same family as Risperdal, but this one worked and worked wonderfully!!  I noticed at first that his hands would shake all the time, but opted for the lesser of the two evils and took the hand shaking over the violence.  But turns out the hand shaking was only temporary, after a few weeks that stopped.  The Geodon has been wonderful for him, he calmed right down.....was like the Matt I knew again.   Right now, he's on the Geodon and half of the dose of the Adderall XR that he was on.....this didn't all happen in a day.  It was done over about a month or month and a half.

I guess I should point out, that during all this time, I was at the school.  All day, everyday from the time the second bad episode happened.  He had become so violent and unpredictable that I needed to stay with him to help out.  It was about 2 weeks after we put him back on the lessened dose of adderall that I stopped going......and he's doing great!

"Where We Are Now"

I no longer go to the school with him, in fact, within the last few weeks he has started walking into the school without me. (I would have to walk him in to his aide, he wouldn't go into the school by himself or with his sister)  He is still maintaining A-B grades and is happy at school.  He now uses a processor for those times when the writing is just too much, spends very little time in his "private room" (a very small room that was converted to his own private room when class got too much for him where he could go to relax and do his work there, complete with blanket, massager, weighted vest, table and chairs) other than to eat lunch.  He still can't handle the cafeteria, so he goes to his PR to eat.

Things are much better now.....til the next thing comes along.  :-)  But that's ok, we'll make it through that too.