|
Teaching Jeremiah, A Journey into the Mind of an Asperger's Child
Jan. 23, 2008
To Medicate or Not to Medicate...That Was the Question
What a dilemma! When we first visited the psychiatrist and received Jerry's Asperger's diagnosis, the doctor gave us the names of several community organizations to call for resources and information and told us to call him back when we felt Jeremiah needed medications. I didn't ask out loud, but in my head I thought to myself, "Medications for what?"
After joining a support group for other home schooling families with Asperger's children, I learned that a lot of their children needed medications for their obsessive-compulsive behaviors, their mood swings, their hyperactivity, and/or their anger. Naturally, being the sinful and prideful mom I've strived NOT to be, the conversations in my head went something like this. "Jeremiah will never need medications. We'll use behavior modification and just give him all of the attention and love he needs and that will be enough. Besides, what kind of mom medicates her child to make them behave a certain way? Have they even thought about the side effects or other disadvantages to their child? That'll never be our choice?"
Yeah right! Funny how God takes those areas of sinful pride and thoughts of condemnation towards others and uses the very circumstances they created to humble you straight to the floor. You gotta love it...after you've gotten up and brushed the carpet threads from your knees anyway.
Nearly a year after Jeremiah's diagnosis, our family was learning firsthand why medicating Jeremiah might not be such a bad idea after all. His aggression over not being able to do things his peers or siblings could do increased significantly. He would often retaliate in his anger by hitting someone or hurting himself by hitting his head or biting himself. His emotions roller-coastered. He would go from giggling uncontrollably during praise & worship in church (and I don't mean he was just giddy with an overabundance of the Holy Spirit either) to crying uncontrollably because he discovered that the shirt he was wearing was blue when he thought all day that it was purple. Positive reports from his Children's Church teachers were far and few in between.
Jeremiah would impulsively hurt his friends and siblings without being provoked as well. And as for school...well, it just rarely happened. School was done when Jeremiah was in the mood to do it. We did what he wanted to do and for however long he wanted to do it. And Jeremiah could never be wrong to need to be corrected during school because the results would be a half an hour "screamfest" while rolling around on the kitchen floor. In the meantime, no one else in the house could do school either because they could not concentrate above the hollering.
Then there was bedtime. We were lucky if Jeremiah fell asleep before eleven...and without laying there an additional twenty minutes or so making strange rhythmic clucking noises with his tongue. His obsessive-compulsiveness was out of control as well. If he felt he "needed" something, like a piece of candy or to watch Batman, and we weren't fast enough in fulfilling his request, Jeremiah would walk in circles or kick the wall while repeating his request over and over and over and over and over (you get the idea) again! Needless to say, ALL of us were drained and our nerves frayed by day's end.
After a trip back to the psychiatrist and several weeks of .25 mgs. of an antipsychotic called Risperdal four times a day, our peace is slowly being restored. Jerry's siblings aren't begging him to go to his friend's house anymore for our annual respite from Jerry. Don't get me wrong, we still enjoy our Jerry break one afternoon a week and will be forever grateful to my girlfriend Kim for taking Jeremiah for those few hours, but if she can't take him one week, it's not the end of the world. Jeremiah can be easily redirected now when we sense him obsessing over something or a meltdown coming on. Unless he's tired or it's close to his next dose of medicine, Jerry cries only when he's hurt himself physically. He's more remorseful of his actions and even apologizes and shows compassion towards others he has hurt or mistreated.
We did not tell his speech teacher that he has class with three times a week that we medicated him and, after about the third week she said to us, "I don't know why, but Jerry seems to like coming to class all of a sudden and is really working hard." Before medication, speech class was hit or miss. Sometimes Jerry would participate and other times he refused. And still, after nearly a year of speech, he would get easily agitated at your request of him to pronounse a word correctly. Now, he touches his hand to the back of his throat to remind himself that's where the "k" sound is when pronouncing those words. He is taking his time more.
After about two weeks on the medicine, Jeremiah began bringing me book after book and activity after activity to do "school" with him. If I correct him now he just says, "Oh, okay mom." and he changes whatever he needs to...no tears, no fits. Best of all, for the first time it seems that Jeremiah is retaining what he is learning. He could never remember colors of things or people's names, or how to put his socks on or button up his jacket. Now he remembers that Mercury is number one and closest to the sun! I feel like we're playing catch up and the look on his face when he remembers something he's learned is worth so much more of my time reaching out to teach him something new everyday now. He is so proud of himself.
Here is a picture Jeremiah made at Abrakadoodle, a monthly art class he attends. His teacher had to raw the fish for him and then he watercolored it. As you can see he didn't get far before he felt his wasn't as good as the others or that he wasn't doing it right and just gave up.
Now here is a picture of a fish mosaic Jeremiah made just this past Monday. He sat for the entire class period and worked on it. He cut the paper pieces out himself until his hand got tired. It was also his idea to put the frame of paper squares around his masterpiece.
Wow! What a difference. And bedtime...well, since the only two side effects of Risperdal in the amounts he's taking are mild weight gain due to an increased appetite and sleeping better, it has been nearly impossible for him to keep his little eyes open past nine o' clock! Praise God! And since Jeremiah only weighs 35 pounds at nearly six-years-old, we're not too worried about the weight gain either.
Jerry's Risperdal only costs us $20 on John's insurance, which saves us about $350 each time it's filled! John and I joke about what we would be desperate enough to do to earn the money to pay for the medicine if John ever lost his insurance! Bottom line, I regret my pride keeping me from getting Jeremiah the help he needed sooner. He's happier, we're happier, he's developing and learning much quicker, and hindsight about where he'd be now had I just not been so "fleshy" is 20/20. Lesson learned. Thanks, Lord.
|
| • Post A Comment! • Send to a Friend!
|
Comments
|
