Maybe it's puberty

I think Drew is entering puberty.  He is getting more emotional and aggressive lately and the smallest (to me) things seem to set him off. 

Yesterday, he had the biggest meltdown I have ever seen from him.  Hindsight being 20/20 and all that, I can see what I might have done to help prevent the situation, but it is what it is. 

I wanted to go to the store to get some shoebox size storage bins. I had been organizing the toyroom. He acted like he normally does when he doesn't want to go somewhere, but not awful. We got outside and he started screaming his head off. Our next door neighbor was outside and I am sure he was amused. I was not. I got him in the car and he kept saying, "I go home!" over and over. I said, "We will go home in a little bit. After we go to Alco."  He went berserk. He was biting the heck out of his hand and arm and screaming at the top of his lungs. He smacked himself over and over.  I turned around and went home. I told him he was in timeout and would be in timeout at home. And he screamed, "I want TV!" repeatedly. I told him he was not getting any tv until his timeout was over. Our neighbor was still in his driveway when we got home and Drew was still screaming bloody murder. (ha! that phrase always cracks me up.  Like he'd say, "Bloody Murder! Bloody Murder!") Anyway, Blake was upset by Drew's meltdown and  I got him in the house before he snatched Drew bald. Drew went right to the timeout chair where he screamed "No TV!" and "Stupid Ididot!" (yeah, that's a new one to me)

Eric called in the middle of this and I explained to him what was going on--blah, blah, worst meltdown ever, I said it started when I went to buy some storage bins. He says, "Why would you go buy more storage bins when we have a ton of them in the attic?" I said, "That is SO not the point of this story."  lol. 

He checked in on us twenty minutes or so later to make sure everything was ok.  We laughed about how that was the first thing he thought of. 

Looking from today's perspective, I know I should have prepared him for it first.  What I did was throw him some clothes and said, "Get dressed.  We're going to the store."  Blake, who always loves to go places, hurried to put clothes on and started yelling at Drew to get ready.  That got Drew worked up and escalated things.  If I'd have prepared him and told him exactly what to expect and for how long, we may have avoided this whole debacle.  But then again, maybe not. 

Look at the bruises he made on his arms from biting them!

He began biting his arms this summer, so there is usually a bruise or two, but this is shocking.  He used to bite his index finger, which got a big callous on it.  I feel bad that he's that agitated that he's physically harming himself. 

Eric and I are going to St. Louis next weekend for:

THE FRAGILE X WORKSHOP: Behavorial Strategies from Three Points of View

Dr. Marcia Braden, Dr. Ave Lachiewicz and Mrs. Cindi Rogers are presenters.  I am really hoping to get some ideas to help him cope. 

We have also signed him up for the Arbaclofen drug trial at Rush University Medical Center with Dr. Elizabeth Berry-Kravis.  They are targeting anxiety in the study, which Drew has an abundance of.