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I created this page due to the
large amount of interest
in the psychotic features that
we have experienced with
Mary Kay's AS.
The one that stands out the
most is she talks to herself
and makes odd faces as she
talks. It seems as if she is
actually talking to "someone".
She also talks to objects
and to herself in the mirror.
The conversations are two sided.
We are working on reducing
this behavior.
With a simple verbal reminder
I say
"Mary Kay we don't talk to
ourselves." She also laughs
to herself a lot.
Her imagination is very odd.
She thinks people are
in her closet.
She thinks the clouds in the
sky have eyes and can see her.
She makes up words, one of
which is "keeker".
She will say this when questioned
with
what she ate for lunch, dinner,
ect...
The other word is "wesser".
From her
description he is a man who
wears all
black and is the source to
her bad behavior.
The docs say that she knows
the difference
between real and not real.
In their opinion
she does not actually believe
these things are
true or exist. That is
the reason they ruled
out childhood schizophrenia.
I
am reading Asperger's Syndrome by
Tony Attwood for the first
time. I wanted to
include this quote. I
found it very important
and fits what I am seeing at
this age right now.(12)
It certainly has some relevance
to the paragraph
above:
"During adolescence, the person
may retreat into their
own inner world, taking to
themselves and losing interest
in social contact and personal
hygiene.
There may be a suspicion
that they are developing
schizophrenia, but careful
examination reveals their behavior is not
psychotic, but an understandable
reaction
to Asperger's Syndrome during
adolescence."
I can't tell you how that "hit
home".
Recently Mary Kay had came
to me crying to
"please make the voices stop".
I took her to our psychologist.
He did mention
schizophrenia to me.
Which as you read from the
above has not been the first
time I have heard the
word schizophrenia. At
this point he is not sure
as to what we are seeing.
He has been seeing Mary
Kay for 8 years and I truly
trust his professional
opinion. Due to the lack
of progress with her disorder
we have changed medicines,
once again. She is now
taking Zyprexa
2.5mg twice daily.
I have a fake plant behind her
bed.
It has been there for 2 years.
She was crying in her
room. I went in to ask
what the problem was.
She replied that "the plant
was talking to her."
The most memorable was the time
she was having
"leg pain". One night
out of the clear blue sky
she started screaming and verbalizing
profanities.
I went into her room
to ask what the problem was.
She said that her legs
hurt. (when I said screaming
I mean screaming, the neighbors
could hear her)
I gave her some Tylenol.
This did not help
the screaming went on until
5:ooa.m.
Then she went to sleep.
I just chalked it up as
something odd or maybe growing
pains.
(she was about 9 years old)
Next, night
same thing. I took her
to the psychologist. He told me she
was experiencing a type of
Dissociative Disorder.
Mary Kay told me that it was
the medicine
causing her legs to hurt.
The med at the time was Moban.
Both psychologist and
psychiatrists said that
was impossible. We went
on like this for 2 months.
Finally, I said to my
husband
she takes the medicine at bedtime
and that is when the pain starts.
She was fine all through
the daylight hours. At this
point I was willing to try
anything
to end our night terrors.
I took her to the psychiatrist
the next day
and requested he change the
medicine.
He said that he would but it
would
not help since it was not the
medicine
that was causing the problem.
We changed
the med to Risperdal.
I can't tell you if it
was the medicine or
Dissociative Disorder all I
can tell you is
the screaming stopped.
We could
finally resume our normal sleep
patterns.
Through my experiences and readings
I have found that
psychotic features are rare
among Asperger's cases.
If your son or daughter has
Asperger's and experiences
psychotic symptoms please E-Mail
Me . I would enjoy
sharing stories.
This site
was last updated on 8-09-99