My autistic son is out of control. What do I do
“I need some advice. My autistic son, is entirely out of control, no matter what we do, we cant get him to stop knocking his own teeth out, kicking his grandmother, whom has a lot of health issues, making himself throw up, hurting himself, hurting his brother and fighting with parents. My head is spinning, we have tried community mental health with no success, I have him enrolled with Easter seals but not for another 3 days.
Does anyone have any experiences with taking your child to an emergency room? If so, can you tell me, what all happens? Thanks in advance for any help and support.”
You have to get to the heart of the problem. Is your son in need of more stimulation than is currently in his environment? Some kids on the spectrum crave MORE stimulation and will do hurtful things to themselves and others to get that sense of pain or pressure. The opposite is also true–Gavin may need less stimulation than what is currently in his environment. Reduce noise, reduce visual stimulation (blank walls, no decorations, no color except maybe green, which has shown to be very calming even to people who are neurotypicals), reduce smells (does Grandma wear too much perfume?), etc.
Taking him to the E.R. will result in two things–either the doctors will ask to place your son on a 72-hour observation hold and then send him back home with you, or the police and CPS will be called to undermine your parental authority because a doctor thinks you can’t handle your kid and you don’t know what you are doing. Neither of these options resolves what is actually going on with your son, and you have to figure it out by either reducing or increasing his stimulation. It’s often best to reduce stim first, because increasing stim in an already overstimmed child could result in some very dangerous situations. Only after you have attempted to create a “padded, quiet room” at home should you attempt to increase stimulation, slowly, to see if that helps instead.