Self harm has returned

Post Reply New Topic

We have hit a big speed bump lately. Damien has gone backwards since being sick and started picking at his fingers and biting and hitting himself again. I had to push his hand away last night because he was going to chomp down on it all because a temperature on the tv weather was different to the paper. I tell him and show him ' no hitting' and that kind of works, he taps him hand or leg. He is not telling me when upset or in pain but instead he will chew on his fingers. I offer him a chew toy only to have that thrown away. He won't always respond to a question or statement and I have to just about get right in his face to say something to. Other times tho it is the opposite, response within a minute.

Tried to ring psych only to get told he is away today and our local autism nz branch has been flooded twice and has no office at the moment. Have to ring tomorrow to see if support meeting is still on.
I just don't know what I can do, it is hurting me to see him hurt himself. It is almost like he is 2 again.

Is he too young for meds? I'm not a lover of meds, but if he's hurting himself, I'd think about it. It sounds like he has a lot of anxiety, from what you said about the weather/temp. ??

He is now 6.5 years (7 in Sept) and both me and the Paed view meds as a last resort.
It has only been in school holidays (4 days to go YAY) and also since he has been sick. He now has thrush from his antibiotics and like nappy rash on his bottom from fast poos. Now have antifungal drops and he is great taking his medicines!

He is obsessed with the weather and MUST see the weather page every day and watch the weather reports on TV. He gets very annoyed if they don't match and normally verbalises it with a growl or hits the couch.

I just want my boy back, if you know what I mean. Kinda feel like I'm back at square one at the moment. I'd love to be able to read his mind and know he is upset or uncomfortable.

He might benefit from learning more about weather prediction, that two predictions aren't necessarily comparable.

Most progress I make is as follows:

One step forward, two steps back, one step forward.... etc

you get the drift. just thought this would put things in perspective even though it doesn't help you with the immediate issue.

hope i helped!

Could be right there Alex. Seem like 4 steps back tho. He has gone from high functioning autie to like moderate.
His progress has blown me away and now this. I think I will treat him at his mental age and think of him as 3/4 NOT 6 and see how I go. As for the self harm hmm, when he does it I will ask him how is he feeling and give him his emotions chart so he can show me.

NO MEDS.


I have the same stims and the only fix I have ever found is gloves. I'm sorry to say this, but some people get stuck with essentially harmless stims (rocking, flapping) and some people get stuck with harmful ones (biting) and there's not much you can do about it. You can't stop a stim, but you know what? When I wear gloves, I don't even feel the need to bite my hands. I wear tight cotton/polyester ones that hug each finger tightly, so it's not just a "blocker", it satisfies whatever need my stim was trying to do.

I still do this, I peal and bite the skin around my nails and top of my fingers. I believe I do this to elevate my thinking since pain often increases clarity and focus. He doesn't know cuz he's young but I did it from a very early age, my mother would grab my hands and hold them (with 1 hand) look into my eyes saying "stop, don't worry" It would calm me down, since I would let some thoughts go but then my brain would start racing and I noticed myself doing it again. But I don't do it as often today, when I'm in a hectic period of my life my fingers are often red and pealed when I'm relaxed and people are not giving me future assignments and plans then I can focus more on myself and I don't peal nor bite. I think it's a way of stimming when deep in thought.

Show the child that you got his/her back and give him something fun to do so he takes his mind of the racing thoughts. Lego (video games as well but they can become addictive and lego might develop future skills, but video games specially RPG's role playing games have alot of conversations and morale choices and can train social interaction) is a great way to occupy his hands and he will be at it for hours, I was. It gives calm and focus on one area.

Poor guy still feels bad no fun.

I think someone said this, but maybe try to explain WHERE they get those predictions from and how they figure it out? Maybe that could get him to see how they could be different. Also, letting him know that the closer it is to when the temperature will be the easier it is to figure it out. (and that they wrote the one in the paper yesterday night so they could give it to him that morning.)

My child has started chewing on the tips of his fingers at school as well, but I don't think there is any way he would wear gloves.

well, what has changed? Maybe he is ill? I know I regress a bit if I feel sick.

It isn't ever going to be a steady progression.

Patience.

Interesting comments on the chewing. How bad does he hurt himself? Some parents think of it as a good stim, in that the hand is always there, so self-comfort is right around the corner. But I guess that depends on bad he harms himself. I know another boy who does that, and he'll bleed, he's got scars, but nothing too serious. His parents just let it be, in a way; they don't try to stop the behavior, but they do look to gently redirect and also work on finding/mitigating the triggers.

it's very common for inappropriate behaviors to manifest themselves when someone doesn't feel good.........try to remember that he's sick.........do you have any support plan in place for when he starts acting this way ?....you should probably consider coming up with a plan that you follow every time he gets like this.....i have a student who picks at his skin when he's agitated- we have him wear plastic gloves when he's like this. he can't pick at himself as easily, and the gloves seem to be calming to him

He is on the mend YAY! But still seems lower functioning than he normally is. I have been keeping his hands as busy as I can and the picking has gone down a little, the chewing hasn't but redirection or getting a chew toy has helped.
I think he will be seeing psychologist soon. He almost punched himself in the head at dinner tonight. I asked him if anything hurt or "do you have owie" and he said no.
I really hope that he calms down when school goes back (Monday YAY).
Thank you for all your support!! !! !! ! He is feeling bad about his behaviour so we are going to watch and autism dvd tomorrow so he knows that he is ok just autistic. He doesn't get it and doesn't understand why he does certain things.

One idea, although you may not like this is to use a little physiological knowledge. For instance you can punch yourself in he thighs and it is not going to cause a lot of damage. I can do it while perfectly happy, even excitable. I take more of a battering in martial arts.

Also his self harm is directly related to stress, and almost instantaneous. Therefore it is a good stress indicator. It should go down if the stress goes down.