My poor brother. He is has middle range autism and it has gotten worse the past few weeks. He is very self-abusive and hits his head when he gets mad. He hit his eye so hard that he has a huge black eye and his freak outs have become more frquent and more violent. My parents have taken him to the mental health center today and they are going to see how some new pills go with the self abusing. I feel bad for him, mom and dad. I know everything will be okay. It's gonna have to be okay. I just needed to talk to about it. A rarity for me because usually I'm pretty private and I know that God will help me through anything but I don't want to be silent anymore. Just know that I'm okay and I know everything will be all right again. Love you guys.

Does your brother consume a lot of dairy products by any chance? If so then you may want to read this article.

http://www.chetday.com/autismdiet.htm

Obviously all cases are different and your brother's autism may not be related to any type of food allergies but it's worth looking into.

Hang in there. It;s really tough around the holidays to have worry, my heart feels for you. Keep your faith in God, everything will turn out ok for your brother and your family. :)

:( I work around children with autism and it is hard, because you really don't know why they do what they do. You want to understand, but oftentimes you can't. Does your brother speak? That has to help a little I'd think. Hopefully this new drug will help. Hang in there. :)

Prayers to you and your family, sweetie!! :bighug:

I'm sorry about what is going on with your brother. I hope something helps him. I will keep you and your family in my prayers.

i'm so sorry that's happening to him. i'll keep you, your brother and your family in my prayers. give us an update. :)
if you want to talk, don't hesitate to PM me (altho we don't know each other, this could be a start, right? ;))
and yes, keep your faith in God and trust that He will take care of it. :)
if He carried the wight of the weight of the world upon His shoulders, i know my sister that He will carry you.
-'He will carry you.' artist: ???

I'm so sorry he's not doing well. As Charles wondered - have your parents checked into his diet at all? Especially dairy.

An excellent book is Jenny McCarthy's "Louder Than Words". There can be a combination of issues going on so everything should be looked into.

I hope there's an improvement soon! :(

I am very sorry about your brother. He is in my thoughts and in my prayers. God Bless him and your family.

You're in my thoughts and prayers!:bighug:

How old is your brother, by the way?

Thank you for your support everybody. I notice he is doing better each day since he's been off this antidepressant fro a couple of days. I am hopeful.

For those of you asking about his diet, yes he does like to drink milk but he likes apple juice more. These kids have certain food preferences that they carry with them through the years and they get very rigid. He is 17 and we just accepted that he likes what he likes. Maybe if we knew about the dairy and glutten back when he was diagnosed at 3, we would have tried it. Yet, I don't think it would have made a difference anyway. I know it has worked for people with high functioning autism, so I'm not saying it doesn't work for some.

Thank you again.

^ Yah, if he's 17 now, then he's long since past the point of some of these newer alternatives people are trying.

Glad to hear he's responding better to the change of meds tho! That's encouraging. I wonder if some of it could be just even the stimuli leading up to the holidays? Just a guess, but you never know - sounds can even trigger things so sleigh bells for some I'm sure.

Keep us posted. We're interested and genuinely care. There are quite a few here who have autism themselves. It's good to get things off your chest and discuss. :)