Autism and psychotic episodes

Thank you so much for your considered, informative and authoritative reply.

My son is 14. He's over  6 foot, has been in puberty since he was 9 (we think) and likes CBeebies. Your link to your comment re social referencing really resonates - he was excluded several times from mainstream school and is now in a specialist provision. 

It's hard to summarise something that is so complex, but I'll try. At times, he is unresponsive, he assumes a rigid posture, either twiddles his hair or makes rigid gestures with his hands, looks worried/scared and swallows repeatedly and/or talks to himself.  This can occur mid-sentence when he is asking you a question or carrying out a task (e.g. eating /brushing teeth). 

Alongside this, he is unpredictablly violent - previously we had been able to pre-empt meltdowns - sensory overload, anxiety, unreasonable demands - but now outbursts seem to come from nowhere. For example, he'll throw things at me when I'm driving, opens the car door, throws things out of the window...

He has hit me several times, sometimes when someone else has 'wronged him', repeatedly tries to strangle our dog, has bullied other children (saying he wants to kill them), and threatened to kill his sister.  

He appears sometimes to have an 'unusual' grip on reality, which he is convinced of. He has told school 'odd' things that have happened at home and told us 'odd' things that have happened at school (for example sex shops and drug-dealing). 

He is hugely impulsive - there are 'trigger' peers that only have to look at him for him to 'do the wrong thing' (e.g. throw things around, hurt animals, smash windows) He says he wants to be bad and is refusing the medication that has been prescribed - respiradone and methylphenidate. Though he is happy to take Sertraline as he feels it helps him with his worries - which have been everpresent and in previous years HUGE.

The context of this is that he hasn't had a social context for 13 of his 14 years (despite our best efforts) - and is just forming the first reciprocated and positive friendships of his life. At last we feel a school 'gets' him (it's a specialsit provision and we've had to fight tooth and nail for it) and staff are trying their best to help him. 

What you've shared with me makes a great deal of sense. My gut feel is that he is making sense of a world he has little handle on.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond to my appeal. I really value what you have said and have shared it with my husband.

Thank you so much for your considered, informative and authoritative reply.

My son is 14. He's over  6 foot, has been in puberty since he was 9 (we think) and likes CBeebies. Your link to your comment re social referencing really resonates - he was excluded several times from mainstream school and is now in a specialist provision. 

It's hard to summarise something that is so complex, but I'll try. At times, he is unresponsive, he assumes a rigid posture, either twiddles his hair or makes rigid gestures with his hands, looks worried/scared and swallows repeatedly and/or talks to himself.  This can occur mid-sentence when he is asking you a question or carrying out a task (e.g. eating /brushing teeth). 

Alongside this, he is unpredictablly violent - previously we had been able to pre-empt meltdowns - sensory overload, anxiety, unreasonable demands - but now outbursts seem to come from nowhere. For example, he'll throw things at me when I'm driving, opens the car door, throws things out of the window...

He has hit me several times, sometimes when someone else has 'wronged him', repeatedly tries to strangle our dog, has bullied other children (saying he wants to kill them), and threatened to kill his sister.  

He appears sometimes to have an 'unusual' grip on reality, which he is convinced of. He has told school 'odd' things that have happened at home and told us 'odd' things that have happened at school (for example sex shops and drug-dealing). 

He is hugely impulsive - there are 'trigger' peers that only have to look at him for him to 'do the wrong thing' (e.g. throw things around, hurt animals, smash windows) He says he wants to be bad and is refusing the medication that has been prescribed - respiradone and methylphenidate. Though he is happy to take Sertraline as he feels it helps him with his worries - which have been everpresent and in previous years HUGE.

The context of this is that he hasn't had a social context for 13 of his 14 years (despite our best efforts) - and is just forming the first reciprocated and positive friendships of his life. At last we feel a school 'gets' him (it's a specialsit provision and we've had to fight tooth and nail for it) and staff are trying their best to help him. 

What you've shared with me makes a great deal of sense. My gut feel is that he is making sense of a world he has little handle on.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond to my appeal. I really value what you have said and have shared it with my husband.