Annea Report post Posted October 1, 2007 As you know by my recent posts, things aren't good here at the moment.... My 13 yr old DD with A/S has always suffered from lot's of anxiety and meltdowns following school, but today was horrendous. When she got home she immediately went and hid under the bed... when she came out with a bit of coaxing she was so very upset.... She had been in an RE class when the topic was influence and part of the topic was smoking especially passive smoking.... My hubby is a smoker who has struggled several times t give up, he doesn't smoke in te house or around the kids but she was so upset and angry at him because of what she had been told at school.... The more worrying bit though was after she had told me this she started sobbing again, say over and over " everything is wrong, so wrong" this went on for well over an hour and she was struggling to vocalize what she meant..... then she described that she is always worrying about bad things, constantly thinking about the bad things going on in the world,,,, starving kids, poor people, war, etc etc etc.... she told me that she never stops thinking these bad thoughts... she said everhtng that happens esecially good things makes her think of terrible things.... This is something that is so far from my experience with her and it really scared me... At one point I thought she was going to need to be sedated as she was so hysterical, it got so bad my hubby actually put the dictaphone on, as we thought we might need to remember some of the things she was saying to tell the doc etc... Has anyone got any experience of this sort of behaviour? it just doesn't seem like AS behaviour to me? I have actually put her to sleep in my bedroom tonight as I was so scared to leave her with her sister as she was so upset. Please anyone who has any advice, let me know! Thanks Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Clare63 Report post Posted October 1, 2007 Anne <'> <'> <'> <'> <'> <'> This must be so distressing for you, from my expereince inlcuding that of my own asperger's child who suffers depression and anxiety, this is something that does happen particularly at time of increased stress or anxiety, also remember that AS child are often very focused on rules and the horrors of the world (war, famine, cancer, death, terrorism etc) must be very over whelming for them. My son is like this sometimes and can get so up set he is unable to explain what exactly it is he's worried about. A bit like a meltdown, its possibly best to let it run its course and then in time when things are more settled try to unpick with your child their concerns and worries. Clare x x x Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
krystaltps Report post Posted October 1, 2007 I'm not sure if this is any use, it's possibly quite different as your DD is older...But C used to get like this. It's only been within the past year that we have been able to have the news on in the house or listen to the radio in the car - he got quite hysterical when he heard that people had died. The worst came when he was in P.2 (yr 1 down your way), and there had been a gas explosion in Glasgow causing several deaths. Naturally we had avoided all newscasts of the incident, but other children had heard about it and it ended up being discussed in class. C came home very distressed and took a lot of calming down. He remained quite panicky for nearly a year - he was worried about everything, and convinced that I was going to die. He would come into my room at night to check if I was breathing, and if his brother had a seizure it was the end of the world and he would be trying to phone an ambulance, convinced he was dying. He also had a lot of night-terrors and did a fair bit of sleep walking around this time. I'm not sure what made it stop - perhaps it was the slow realisation that bad things happen and you just have to accept this and go with it and try to appreciate the good things in life. Perhaps it was the discovery of the all-consuming obsession known as Pokemon (which certainly is a million times more entertaining and provides a far better escape route into fantasy than rolling tins along the floor and lining them up along the skirting). With C, I rather expect it was the latter, as he doesn't yet have the understanding to come to terms with the former and escape into fantasy is far easier. Considering your DDs age, I would try to view this as a normal developmental milestone and the reaction is catalysed by her AS. I would try to reassure her, rationalise her fears and just be supportive. Sorry, not much help... but I do know how it feels. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jb1964 Report post Posted October 2, 2007 (edited) Hi Annea, Sorry can't offer any advice but yes my daughter suffers like this - really if she thinks in detail about anything that could be upsetting - she can't get herself out from it - it's almost like the thoughts become obsessional and she can't move it on from her head - but then again that is how she is about everything - as the CPN said the thought is like a record stuck on a record player it just keeps going round and round and you have to break the link to make it jump - it's just sometimes knowing how to break it. She's in yr 10 and only last week they read a poem in English about a 2nd world war casualty and she spent the whole weekend crying and being upset about this man being left all on his own with no one visiting him and not being able to get into his bed by himself because he'd lost his limbs - as you can imagine this affected her really badly. Take care, Jb Edited October 2, 2007 by jb1964 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
