Our Aspergers Teenage Boy

Tommy having trouble sleeping tonight. I’m about to go up to see if he ever got down. He likes to occasionally lay in positions on the bed that make it hard to sleep or when he starts to drift off he gets up for water from the bathroom or something. It usually means he is plotting something.

That didn’t last long. Mom says firmly “Tommy, get in the bath” and Tommy rudely replies “FINE!” {baby just went down for a nap} so Tommy then yawns very loudly very intentionally.

What job requires someone to be in your face rude? Wow! He could be debt collector! Don’t they work from home?

Dad reports:
Tommy acting goofy and Mom and I are ignoring. Let’s see how the siblings handle it.

Took Tommy and Sarah to their first (maybe only) joint therapy session. Started off with the therapist bringing just Doug and I back so he could ask the question he has asked every week for the past 6 months. “When will Tommy be going back to school?” He was so excited about Tommy being back in school that I thought he was going to do a cartwheel. For the first time ever, he got his words all twisted and put his head in his hands trying to hide his obvious excitement. I am so glad he’s thrilled. I’m not. Anyway, Tommy got worried that we were talking about him so he started getting loud and out of control in the waiting room to get our attention. The doctor came out and Sarah and Tommy went back together.

After the appointment we tried to find out if it was a good session. It was clear that Tommy felt persecuted as his sister explained why he makes her life miserable and as both a reaction to what he was hearing and a verification that she was telling the truth Tommy got upset and called her names. I don’t know if the doctors will have the two of them together again.

In the car after the appointment I handed Amy to Tommy and asked him to buckle her in her seat. He bonked her head on the ceiling which made Doug furious with Tommy and even more furious with me for trying to say that it was the soft car roof and not the hard door jam. Doug seethed for hours afterward.

As I expected, Tommy proceeded to fall apart at school after the doctor appointment. Now he is upstairs reading, but is tense and agitated. Looking for trouble I think. This is going to be a bad night.

Tommy had a calm ride to school deeply engrossed in his book. He is nervous because today he will have a therapy session jointly with his sister.

Dad reports:
Tommy scored. He got what he wanted. I could feel it emanating from his body. I was downstairs and he was alone upstairs. He wanted attention and I had already asked him not to make noise so that we didn’t wake the baby. I ignored the first time he dropped the foot stool on the floor but on the second drop I raced upstairs, took the piece of furniture from him and gave him a lecture. He began beaming the minute I emerged from the staircase. Win for Tommy. Even though it was negative attention; it was attention and that is what he wanted. As for me, I am no longer relaxed. I feel stress in my neck and my chest feels hollow as if my heart just isn’t beating as it should. Tommy doesn’t understand how his actions impact others and even if he did understand he doesn’t care because in his mind, he must come first.

Even the cat is asking for attention today.

Dad reports this morning:
* Tommy groggily received meds at 6:45 and was hard asleep when I stirred him again at 7.
* After I dropped the siblings off at school, I returned and he apparently had already eatten and was rocking in the glider while studying his D&D maps and humming rapidly. He seems to want to self-stim today.
* Tommy is upstairs rocking away now. He is supposed to be reading (his most calming activity). I will take in to school shortly. Blast! He’s made a loud banging noise. I’m sure the baby is awake now.

Dad reports last night:
* At 9:45 Tommy was still going strong. He was reading quitely but manically. I think he could have read all night had I not intervened.