He’ll rattle off things that are upsetting him but it just doesn’t seem to fit. He’s either having an extreme reaction to something or there’s way more to what’s upsetting him than he’s able to verbalize. The extreme reactions are one of the things that has us seriously looking into Bipolar Disorder, along with the results from testing.
He’s in a place where hormones, depression, anxiety, Autism, ADHD and possibly Bipolar disorder have made life very, very difficult for him.
We have so many emotional outbursts or meltdowns, I haven’t mentioned them much because they’re so common anymore. He’s extremely emotionally volatile. He’s not really physically violent at all but the outbursts, like any meltdown, can be very, very disruptive.
His ability to cope with anything is very much lacking and that’s something we’re putting a major focus on. It’s our job to help him build the necessary skills to deal with all life throws at him.
We just experienced a massive, massive outburst a few minutes ago and my head is still spinning.
It’s important to understand that what Elliott is experiencing and what we went through with Gavin are very different. Gavin was extremely violent towards himself (sometimes others) and frankly, a physical threat. Elliott is loud and emotional but not self-injurious or a physical threat.
When he’s experiencing one of these outbursts, it’s a the lights are on but nobody’s home kinda deal. There’s no payoff for his outbursts and it’s clear that he’s truly in distress.
It’s incrediblely overwhelming for everyone involved, but even more so for Elliott himself.
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Ask him if anyone has been stressing him at school