All Good Things...

The Tenex did a great job of managing Max’s impulsivity and putting him on an even keel.

And then, it didn’t.

Max’s behavior the past week or so has not been good. He’s been highly reactive, extremely irrational and more than once over the weekend I wondered if he required a trip to the emergency room for sedation.

Max’s psychologist, Dr. I., wonders if he’s experiencing side effects from the Tenex. Nothing in the literature suggests Tenex could cause such severe outbursts. Max’s psychiatrist doesn’t think it’s the Tenex. Here’s my theory: most of Max’s outbursts can be traced to some compulsive need of his. I think now that the Tenex has managed his impulsivity, we’re seeing more problems with compulsion. It’s not that the compulsions are new—they’ve been here all along—they’ve just taken a back seat to Max’s aggression and impulsivity.

Dr. I. suggests I track Max’s behavior for one weekend so he and the psychiatrist can see exactly what they’re dealing with before we consider adding another medication. Here, a few highlights from what is easily the worst weekend we’ve ever had:

Friday
7-9pm

Max is yelling at Dave and Ari to stop talking because he can’t hear the video they’re all watching. Max is louder than the two of them combined.

Saturday
All day

Max cannot walk from one room to the next without knocking things off the kitchen counter, tipping over bags and knocking pictures off walls. He is constantly throwing toys across the room. When I tell him he needs to pick these things up he tells me “later” because “I’m too mad now.” He’s mad?

6:45-8pm

Went to dinner to one of those Chinese buffet places. Every time Max came with me to get food he’d touch all the tables between ours and the food. I kept asking him to stop but he didn’t. Or rather, he couldn’t.

Sunday
6:45-7:05am

Max wakes up screaming for me to take him downstairs. He’s upset that it’s after 6 am. “You idiot. I missed 2 hours,” he’s screaming at me. “You’re wasting my time. It’s light out already. It’s too late to play.” I told him it wasn’t time to get dressed yet, that he had time to play and watch TV. I gave him milk and asked what else I could do. He didn’t like his TV choices and he wouldn’t pick a video. He was very angry and nasty.

Whether or not the Tenex is exacerbating Max’s behavior isn’t clear. But one thing is: something has to change.