Fighting for Answers | Category Archives: Autism | Page 3Autism Archives - Page 3 of 85

A new fear – Talking with dead friends

Last night was scary. Not sure what happened exactly, but David is back in the hospital. At 8pm, with his bedtime medicines he gets a snack. He wanted oatmeal, instead I gave him a granola bar. He said that he would hurt me if I didn’t give him the right snack. He made a move to run, pushed our 8 foot long dining room table at me, pinching me into my chair. I pushed back. Then because I didn’t know what he was going to do, I picked him up, took him to the living room and said that if he wanted to go to the hospital that is what would happen. He was ready to go in minutes. Since we live an hour from the hospital, and the weather conditions were near blizzard like, I drove slowly. David started turning the heat off and on, playing with the radio,

I am bored and this is fun.

Today, I had the rare opportunity to have a frank talk with David. We talked about everything from sunshine to cats. We talked about his favorite movie, Heaven is for Real. We talked about dogs, rain, basketball (though I am by no means knowledgeable) and we talked behaviors. We talked about how he likes being at home. When asked about being home, David candidly stated “I don’t think I am a home person, I don’t do very well here.” I asked him if he thought a facility would be better, and he stated “I don’t like facilities because I can’t get my permit at 14.” So we talked about behaviors and driving permits. I explained that sometimes, behaviors limit the extracurricular activities that we enjoy. He understands that. I gradually turned the conversation back to behaviors. I asked one very telling question, not expecting a response. “Why do you do

hmmm Toby you smell bad

Toby is our Pomeranian. David decided that since Toby hadn’t had a haircut and bath recently that he would deodorize him. So he sprayed him with a Lysol type spray. So far the dog hasn’t gotten sick. And he did get a bath and hair cut this past weekend. We have explained before that he can’t spray the dogs with anything. Last time he was home, he sprayed two of our dogs with bug spray. No explanation as to why. Frustrating. And we do have locks on the cupboards. They aren’t even challenging to him anymore, he is an amateur locksmith. Tweet #fighting4answrs