Gavin and I met with Dr. Pattie for about an hour tonight. There were no snacks and no prizes at the end. We sat there and talked. We tried to get a better understanding of where Gavin is coming from when he makes the choices he does. I don’t think we are any better off right now because Gavin really didn’t make a whole lot of sense when he was talking. At a few points he started to get worked up but we quickly responded and defused the situation.
While we don’t have a better understanding of his motives he did put together a pseudo behavior plan. Gavin made a list of ways he can “defuse” himself when he gets frustrated. These would be better options then melting down or hurting himself. What concerns me the most right now is that he was only upset tonight because he couldn’t have a snack and because he had to have oatmeal. At no point did he show remorse for injuring and terrifying Elliott or waking up his sick little brother, seemingly on purpose. He didn’t give them a single thought. That worries me because we are already concerned about sociopathy and the fact he only seems to care about what happens to himself and not about the other people affected by his behavior makes me nervous.
Dr. Pattie said that it’s very self-centered but that it could simply be Aspergers and adolescence. It could also be coming from a darker place and right now we just don’t know. We have to continue to hold him accountable for his actions as he CLEARLY knows what he’s doing. I’m worried that he is slowly turning into his biological father or heading down that same path and that would NOT be a good thing as evidenced by the fact that he abused and abandoned Gavin. Hopefully we can find a way to reach him and keep him from going down that path. Gavin is a GOOD kid that just makes “LESS THAN GOOD” choices. I believe he can prevail but it’s going to take some work…..and patience…….AND……a whole lot of outside the box thinking.
