Published on 12, July, 2020
No doubt this is a common issue among many of you, but I am needing some advice or guidance.
My 12-year old son is becoming more verbally aggressive and threatening, in particular to my wife (not his biological mother- she hasn't seen him for 3-years)
I have CAHMS involved and he has a support worker, but as you may be aware these organisations are low in resource, so it is a challenge to get things done quickly.
He has an episode this evening and the concerns are centred around his threats 'to stab you all' and 'kill you all with a knife' and also he wanted to kill himself as 'I've had enough and it's the end of my world'
As you can appreciate these are concerning words and whilst it may not be an immediate threat, the warning signs are growing louder. My wife says we need to get someone sufficiently trained within the police to speak to him to highlight the consequences of his behaviours, which may be beneficial, but from a long-term treatment perspective, what advice can you provide, if any?
I have done my own research and spoken to parents locally with Autistic children and it seems this is not a unique situation, but the safety of him and the rest of the family is essential here.
Hello, I’m sorry to hear about your difficult situation.
Challenging behaviour can sometimes be improved by a number of different ways.
1. Diet. You may find that a gluten free or dairy free diet will reduce aggressive tendencies: https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/5-foods-can-make-autism-worse/ Have a look around the internet, there are a number of articles about diet and autism.
2. Omega 3 products, vitamin D and probiotics have also proved useful in some cases. https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-016-1428-8
3 GABA fortified oolong tea. This has been shown to help reduce some autistic symptoms. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31060476
I would try 3 first as it is quicker.
Try and see if there is anything that could be triggering this behaviour.
NAS does offer a parent to parent service which you can find here. The NAS helpline can be found here.
In the 18 months I’ve been on this forum, this topic has cropped up a number of times. I’d be interested if any of the above are found to be effective, so we can help other parents.
All the best, Graham.