Anger

[Anneuk]

Hi all,

 

J has now been diagnosed with AS for nealry a year and she is coping extremley well even though she has started comp.

 

My one concern is that as she is getting older and hormones are creeping in < i think> her anger is sometimes uncontrollable and violent,

she is extremly strong and has often lashed out at in animate things causing breakages. However a couple of times her anger towards her sisters has been violent and I am worried in case she lashes out and pushes them down stairs or something.. (thishas nealry happened)

 

I was told by the family thrapist and her child psychologist that anger management doesn't exist per se and is just an 'in' word.

 

She says it's all about working around the situations that cause the anger.. with her AS this can be very significant things and short of avoiding life we can't avoid situations that make her cross. I feel she needs extra help in contolling these out bursts but just don't know where else to go..

 

We are in South Wales and if anyone has any pointers I would be grateful if you could share them with me.

 

Anne

[Kazzen161]

T did anger management with the school's psychologist and it helped a lot. It was recognising things that make him angry, recognising physical signs that he was getting angry, learning alternative ways of expressing anger, learning to walk away and things to calm him down, etc. It was reinforced throughout the day at his (residential) school. He will now walk away sometimes, or think of clever ways of getting his own back, rather than aggressive ways.

 

Karen

[ceecee]

I believe some people withA.S. are unfortunately prone to outbursts of anger and mood swings.they have trouble controlling their emotions.Having said that there are people with A.S. who are very passive.

 

I guess I'm somewhere in the middle.

 

I think anger management would be worth considering.You don't know until you try and if it works then allwell and good.

[KarenM]

My dd has very bad problems with anger. It was odd watching that Jackson film the other day where the AS kid is so placid . I hope to get her help for it but I have never had any yet despite trying.

Karen

[hev]

im always enquiring about anger management as that is my sons biggest problem,have asked cahms,docs,school but nothing seems to be there for him

[call me jaded]

The psych world calls this cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

[Elanor]

My son had an element of anger management in a programme run by my health authority - but it was not ASD-specific, and I felt that it was a wasted opportunity. There is limited point in dealing with anger as an issue in isolation, the anger and the Aspergers go hand in hand, and an integrated approach is needed. Whether anyone is offering this, is a different matter.

 

In our case we have had to turn to medication to control the violence, and are doing our very best to provide our son with support at home. We're about to go into family therapy, run by our son's psychiatrist and play-worker - it's a new experiment for them, so I've got my fingers crossed.

 

Elanor

[Zemanski]

Com is very passive till under stress - then all hell breaks loose

 

Com has had both anger management and cognitive behaviour therapy - they are not the same but the cognitive behaviour therapy can be used to manage anger and there is some overlap I think.

 

 

The anger management had no effect other than to focus Com on his anger - it was not ASC specific and it didn't help that the kid who bullied him was in the group. The psych who ran the course reported that Com got the least benefit from it of any child he had used it with!

 

the problem with anger management is that it focuses on controlling the behaviour rather than dealing with the roots of the behaviour.

 

Com has just had a course of 1-1 cognitive behaviour therapy. This has been done at school by a specialist and was based on Tony Attwood's exploring feelings programme.

It included training for his LSAs so that they could reinforce and continue the programme once the initial work was done.

The therapist also keeps in touch by email, and I meet her after each session, and we discuss strategies and techniques to use at home - this is a two way process, she has taken on board strategies we use successfully at home already or adaptations to suit Com that I've suggested. This way it is being used across all environments consistently which I feel makes it far more powerful than isolated therapy.

 

The focus is almost entirely on feelings, starting with just recognising feelings but looking at strategies both to increase positive feelings and to ward off negative ones, and on anxiety as the root of the behaviour problems/anger Com has been showing.

 

It's difficult to tell how effective it is because at the same time there have been very positive environmental changes, although the strategies do tend to be helpful ones for refocusing him when he begins to lose it.

But at the end of the term Com has changed from the screaming ball of fury he was in Y8 to an exemplary student with no evidence of behaviour problems in school or at home most of the time

 

Personally I think the therapy was very useful in combination with putting the support and environment generally right for him and I would recommend it as long as it is used across environments so that the person can get the most benefit from it, as I think Com did.

 

I believe quite strongly that the anger expressed by AS children is anxiety induced and that anxiety management, rather than anger management, should be the focus if we want to really help them.

 

whatever therapy you go for it needs to be AS specific and it needs to be reinforced in day to day situations (home and school).

 

Zemanski

[DaisyProudfoot]

My 9 year old son is currently undergoing behavioural therapy and it already seems to be calming him a bit - so yes anger management does exist and it's worth investigating it further.

 

M got referred because I rang his psychiatrist in tears one day I was so worried about his anger problems and she referred him from my phone call - he started within a couple of weeks.

 

Bless them, they're good'uns here in Newcastle

[Kazzen161]

I just found the report re:T's Anger Management (he did the Emotion Recognition Programme using the Mind reader CD ROM at the same time).

 

They call it an Anger Management Game - he learnt to recognise situations that trigger anger, the various skills to use in order to stay calm, skills for good decision making, the difference between assertive and aggressive, how to deal with conflict situations. It was done one to one with an assisstant psychologist.

 

His was re: anger, especially due to conflicts - not due to anxiety, as the school is a specialist school and automatically reduces anxiety as much as possible.

 

This was backed up at school, especially via debriefing after incidents and discussing better ways he could have dealt with it.

 

Karen