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This is my first post. I will try and make it short. My ds is 11 and in 5th grade in public school. He has been dx since Kindergarten with ADHD and ODD. During 4th grade we added anxiety to his dx. We have tried every stimulant in the book and every time we end up on the maximum dose available. The stims only work for 3 to 6 months, then stop. Last year we were able to be on the same medicine for a year, 72 mg Concerta and 25 mg Stratterra with 1.5 mg Clonidine at bedtime, but alas in November this stopped too. My son had started rubbing his head raw, also. The doctor believes something else is going on and put my son on low doses of Risperidone for violent meltdowns. My son still continued to have issues, such as refusing to work at school, having meltdowns, and recently saying he sees lines in the air. He says he has seen them for years but is just now telling us? The doctor put him on Lexapro 2.5 mg for anxiety and cut his stim down to 36 mg, due to all the problems. He also asked me to look up ASD and see if anything sounded close to my son. At first I wasnt so sure, but now it seems like it may be. He makes straight A's but can not function in the class, he has obsessive tendencies also. He wants to fit in and go to class, but is being sent home several times a week from school for refusing to leave class, refusing to behave we he gets sent to in school suspension for not working or behaving and more.

These problems seem to be school induced. He can sit and do all of his schoolwork at home on his own just fine, but at school he becomes very defiant, avoidant, angry, etc. He excels at track, baseball, and football, and he for the most part is okay at home. We have occassional meltdowns when he loses video games or other things for bad behavior, but nothing like what happens at school. The school wants to put him on homebound or send him to a school for behavioral disordered children. I told them he is okay with working at home, it is when he gets put in the classroom, or if he is in the resource room and too many other kids come he, he starts being hyper and disruptive. I am at my wits end!! I read the book mentioned on here Strange Kid and it seems all the tactics and stress reactions fit him to a T.

Sorry for the long post, but I could use some support!! We have tried taking ALL things from him. Sports, video games, iPod, TV, radio, etc and it is not working. I try and tell my husband he needs a stress outlet and that the whole reward and punishment thing doesnt work for him, and at school the punishments throw him into a meltdown but they say he HAS to have consequences.

Please HELP!!

Has he at any point been evaluated for sensory issues? When behavioral mods do not work, that is a good place to look. If he behaves well at home, some of this very well may be sensory and just the inherent chaos in school.

I am not familiar enough with the DSM to know how easy it is to get diagnosed with a lot of the co-morbids and ASD ovelap stuff, but if a professional wants you to think about if AS fits, and you think it does in some degree, I would definitely suggest telling the school you need an OT (occupational therapist) eval for sensory integration problems as well as an ASD eval. At the very least, I believe, sensory integration disorder can be diagnosed without the full on ASD diagnosis if that is what applies.

Do keep pursuing evaluations, as you have not yet found out all that is wrong with your son's condition.

As for schooling. Since he is not doing well in the school environment, but seems to be able to do school work at home, you should switch to the home bound schooling, at least for now.

Since your son seems to like sports a lot, you may be able to have him in school just for the part of the day involving gym class and sports activities. If that is not allowed for home bound kids, you could still enter him in after school sports programs, either at school or at a local sport center. Having him participate in sports is a good way to burn off stress and excess energy. It can also help him practice interacting with other people outside the home.

Hope all this helps.

Your son sounds so much like my 11 y.o DS. We have found that a small dose of an SSRI reduces the anxiety and obsessive thinking that results in the oppositional behavior. It has allowed him to not get "stuck." My son has a diagnosis of PDD-NOS, because much like you say about your son, he doesn't fit all the criteria for Aspergers. He also has a diagnosis of Mood Disorder - NOS (anxiety and behavior problems), and ADHD - which seems directly correlated to sensory input and anxiety. We decided to go to a psychiatrist who specializes in working with people who have AS. She starts on a very low dose, as she finds many people with AS are more sensitive to medication and side effects.

Thanks u all so much for the responses so far! He tried Zoloft a year ago and had a bad reaction. Which made us think maybe he was bipolar....he does take the SSRI Lexapro but has only been on it for 2 weeks at low dose. We have a dr appt tomorrow. My ds had an EEG and CT of head done and still haven't heard results. The dr said if scans were clear he wanted to do an autism assessment and then he would refer to a specialist. Bad thing is I also work at my sons school and so the repeated taking him home is weighing on me. They do not understand why all of a sudden??? And when meds used to work, not for long though, why can't we just use those again? The admin thinks these new Risperidone and Lexapro are too many drugs and only make it worse. They actually do not, but I think the doses are not right yet.

Just a thought on the lines he's seeing. They could be what's called "floaters" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater), most people have them to some degree. I have them and they're usually at their worst in bright environments like full sunshine or under fluorescent lights and against light colored surfaces. Seeing lines can also come from staring at something with lines for too long, like a tiled floor or lined paper, the image can get burned in to your vision for a short time.

Washi- yes! The doctor ordered the EEG and CT to check, but that is what we believe they are. It seems that he uses them as an avoidance topic when confronted by the principals at school, though. I am starting to believe he has some sensory issues, especially like you said the fluorescent lighting. I have also noticed at home he likes to sit and stroke soft things, such as blankets, pillow pets, microfiber seats, and his hair. He says it is relaxing. Thanks for the info!

I also thought my son was bipolar, as he was able to "hold it in" for sometimes months at a time, and then would explode. Here's the difference, and this may help you: when we finally got a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome, and started using those supports, things got incrementally better. DS also has issues with anxiety, some slight tic-like or ocd-like behaviors, and those cleared up to the point that they were no longer a serious problem. We still have moments, but they're easier to navigate now.

Specifically, the diagnosticians had his speech tested, and found a "pragmatic speech" deficit: DS was ahead in language, with almost college-level vocabulary - but did not understand social speech (tone of voice, audience, facial expressions) nearly at all, and thus was getting only about 70% of the content of conversations. Other deficits we found, he was unable to identify his own emotional state, so in his mind he either felt "angry" or "happy," which drove a lot of previously unexplained behavior. He has a Theory of Mind deficit and struggles with social attention (mind-blindness.) All of this led to him living in constant, frustrated confusion.

All of these things resulted in behavior that could easily be labeled something else, ODD, bipolar, etc. I am wary of these diagnoses, even though they may well be real things, because the therapies tend to center on the behavior and don't always delve into the reason why the behavior is there. I think it's a bad idea to address behavior without understanding it.

(Note: I'm just a Mom, not a professional)