Irrational fear

[curra]

A week ago my son was crying because he feels that his friends isolate him. He couldn't really tell a reason why apart from him not joining in the football games. Now he's at home but the problem is not gone and forgotten, o no. Suddenly he says that he realised that the cause of his isolation is that his skin is not the same colour as his friends and that he wants it to be changed. I don't know if all the kids in that group are white, but my son is and his skin is very fair, his hair is almost black so I thought that maybe it's his hair that could be the whole problem. So I explained it to him, but he would not hear of it. He said that I don't understand him and that I'm lying. He insisted that his skin WAS fair but recently it started going darker. I have no idea where he got this nonsense from. Not from me who don't care a hoot about those external things. There are several children from ethnic minorities at his school who seem to be all right and have plenty of friends so I don't suspect that the problem has to do with discrimination but with his own fears of rejection. It's an explanation that he suddenly found, but it's quite irrational. Yesterday he kept looking at his hands and comparing them with mine saying, "You see, I AM darker than you!", which is not true. Then he started crying and crying and nothing that I said to him calmed him down. He went on with this well into the night, then came to my room about 8 times during the night (last time it was 6 am..) saying that he could not sleep because he was terrified of the changes on his skin. He also vomited everywhere and had cramps with diarreah. He wrote an email to a friend of mine saying that he knows that his skincolour is changing and that he will have to do something about it or else he'll die... This scares me because he's usually very serious about these threats. We have a psychiatric appointment tomorrow, I hope he'll calm down. I wondered if any one else had ever heard of anything like this. Could it be a reaction to Risperdal? He's been taking it for 3 weeks.

 

Curra

[darky]

my daughter suffers from irrational fears and phobias and shes now on prozac for it. i would say that if your son has never said or done anything like this before then i would talk to the perscribing doctor or pharmisist and see if it could be the meds making him like this. i think this could be really dangerous and it needs looking into. i did see on a tv program once, there were these people who were totaly paranoid about their skin and suffered from ocd. they would scrub their skin with brillo pads and bleach it to try and get it fairer. i dont want to alarm you, but i would definately get it checked out as this is obviously causing a lot of distress.

[Paula]

<'> <'>

 

Not quite the same thing but on a similar theme.

 

 

My son is 12 and fasinated by preseived changes in his skin.He is constantly examinieng his skin.And points out every new pimple or mole.He has loads of freckles and moles and will actually chew and bite them off.Hes also fasinated by bruises on his skin and sometimes asks why his skin is blue.Its actually his veins.I try to explaine this to him.

 

I hope you can get this sorted and like many things with As kids its just a phaze that will in time pass.

 

Good luck.

Edited April 12, 2006 by Paula

[jb1964]

Hi Curra,

 

I would agree with Darky - you need to talk this over with someone. It may be a side-effect from the medication or it may not.

 

My daughter hasn't had a problem with her skin but does have many irrational fears - she had one over her swallowing which resulted in her not eating (she lived off build-ups and water) for 6mths - it was so serious it was really frightening. These things can develop from no-where and it takes professional help to get over it.

 

Take care,

Jb

[curra]

Thanks for replies. He woke up at noon to continue crying. Says there's no reason for his sadness other than his skin is getting darker. He's also been shaking with fear which he can't explain, he says "it's just it". I think this is really serious and I'm very worried that it might get out of control. Hope it's just a phase he's going through. I've never seen him so distressed before, sobbing with so much pain as if it was a tragedy. I wish we had the appointment now...

 

Curra

[Zemanski]

If he is behaving strangely 3 weeks into treatment then you need to go straight to your doctor and tell him what is going on, 3 weeks is about right for side effects to show up and this one may be quite serious, although it's not one I've heard of, at the very least it sounds like his dose may need adjusting.

 

by its very nature, this sort of drug impacts on the chemical functioning of the brain and ASC people are notoriously erratic in their reactions to drugs of any sort.

Definitely check this out, but do not stop the medication without consulting a doctor first.

[elaine1]

Oh wow i hope you get this sorted, poor chap. My son is of mixed race but he has very fair skin and non curly brown hair, he also has green eyes. His sisters skin is coffee colour and she has straight black hair iwth red tones in it. He keeps saying shes not his sister which upsets her, but how do u explain it.

 

Sometimes at pernts evenings the teachers take a double take when me and his father who is jamaican turn up, they look as if to say oh theres another step father.

When my hubby came to visit us in the maternity ward, the nurse sent him in to this jamaican woman he was really upset. Cos tom looked white they assumed he wasnt his baby.

 

Good luck with it all. <'>

[curra]

We had the appointment today. The counsellor said it's not a side effect to Risperdal. M just looked sad for 1 and 1/2 hour and didn't say much apart from the same thing that his skin is getting darker etc. Nothing the counsellor said made him see that this is not true. It's true for him and that's it. He can't make his skin fairer. that's a fact and hopefully he sees sooner or later the benefit of getting a nice tan in the summer!

 

He came out just as he went in, looking as if someone had died. Now I have to see how to cheer him up.He said he'd accept to go out with me somewhere to try to get rid of the depression, well that't a good thing at least.

 

Thanks for the replies <'>

 

Curra