Driven by Rage

Posted by Thomas McKean in Self Advocacy on 08 13th, 2009 | one response

“Mister McGee, Don’t Make Me Angry.  You Wouldn’t Like Me…When I’m Angry…”

What follows is an opinion.  Indeed the majority of what you have read (and what you have yet to read) in any Autism @ Home is opinion; such is how little we truly do know about autism.  Some of that opinion is based on fact.  This opinion is based solely on gut feeling and personal experience.

Having said that, I believe there is a direct correlation between auditory sensory dysfunction and rage.

Autism is a complex disorder with many various symptoms and behaviors.  No one with autism is the same.  Some have the rage.  Some don’t.  Some (like myself) have the rage early but eventually (and fortunately) outgrow it.

One of the problems with recovering from autism (not that one can ever be 100% recovered) is the guilt that is carried for the past.  I know what happened and the things I did are not my fault.  But sometimes I still think maybe I should have done things differently, even if I was only eight years old.  I did my share of tearing up the house, that is for sure.  Most of the time it was because of certain sounds I was hearing in the house at the time.

The auditory problems in autism are usually frequency based, rather than decibel based.  This means it is the pitch or frequency of the sound rather than the volume of the sound itself that causes the problems.  This has led to many a parent scratching heads wondering why their child is fine in a noisy room and covers ears in the quiet room next door.  Look up at those fluorescent lights.  Do you hear them humming?  I didn’t think so.  I have seen a lot of violent behavior in my travels, and though obviously not all of it is auditory based, I have found that a lot of it is.  Kids may also have problems in school but not at home because of this.  They may be hearing the silent lights overhead or they may be afraid every second that the fire alarm will call attention to another drill.

If your child is angry much of the time and you can’t see any obvious reason for it, consider the sounds in the environment.  Is the TV too loud?  Is there a fan or an air conditioner running?  It could be anything, maybe something you will never hear.  In that case, you will have to be creative in looking for what it could be.

Again, I am not saying that auditory sensitivity is always at the root cause of aggression, certainly it isn’t.  The child may be attempting to communicate, or, like has happened to all of us on occasion, he or she may just be mad.

But as you search for what may be the cause of the anger, don’t forget to add this to the list.

© Thomas McKean
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  1. Inside the Mind of Sensory Overload
  2. Resonating with your Environment

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  • Rebecca Hamilton

    OMG.

    Thank you thank you thank you!

    My son has autism, very high functioning (well, not until after 6 months of being GFCF, but still). To the point that although 4 respected medical professionals gave him the diagnosis, his TEACHERS thought it was *purely* behavioral. I told them, time and again… this is SENSORY. I mean, he could not stay on track at school. He was in a rage 95% or more of the day, and that is not hyperbole. At home, he was fine. I told them…. he is not trying to be defiant. (My son is actually VERY compliant, more so than the average kid, when he’s not “overloaded” (that is what he calls it). Once he has ‘overloaded’ he cannot be brought back down, no matter what you do. He just needs to be shut in his room (I know how mean this sounds, but honestly, we’ve tried EVERYTHING) until he calms down. It is because there is no stimulus in his room.

    Anyway, the school said he’s fine with loud noises. I said… I know! It’s not the volume. It’s *how many* noises. They don’t have to be loud. Can be how many people in the room are breathing, scratching their pencils on paper, erasing, whispering, teacher talking, etc. His rage in school was so bad that he got suspended once for destroying a classroom. Talk about mortifying. And then, he started doing it on purpose trying to get sent home, because the class was “too much noise! it’s hurting my ears!”

    They tried headphones, but I tried those headphones, and it only lessens the volume, doesn’t stop it. And like I’d told them, it wasn’t about volume. He was NOT learning in school. Soon, the behaviors were spilling over to his home life, and he was having night terrors and headaches. I was in school DAILY. It just wasn’t working.

    Finally, the school moved him to an autistic cluster. It took a real fight to get them to do it, which was strange. The way he was acting, I’d have thought they’d be happy to be rid of him. I think they only did it because I was *adamant* about it. I said I would call everyone under the sun until they figured out what all the medical professionals had had no trouble seeing.

    The DAY they moved him to an autistic cluster, his behaviors decreased 90% in school. I KNOW it’s because of a few things, but mainly
    1) Smaller class size, less noise.
    2) “cubicle” desks. There weren’t a million visual stimulants in the room (he doesn’t do well with that either).

    The thing the old school had trouble with was that he was “fine” usually during the first half of the day (at first). I tried explaining to them… It’s like putting a tight rubber band on your wrist. It’s fine at first. It bothers you, but you can cope. But after a while, it starts to hurt more and more, until you’re just irritable. That is how it is with my son. They thought he had no coping skills. He does. The problem is that once he can’t take anymore, he doesn’t know how to act, and so he has not self control at that point.

    It’s something we still struggle with. And to be honest, the hardest part sometimes is people who don’t understand. We have two other kids, 1 typical and 1 who I think is affected by my oldest son’s autism. I kept telling the school, this is NOT a typical kid who just has behavioral issues. (Besides, he didn’t talking until after age 4, he had lots of stimming behaviors and potty training problems before he went GFCF, and he has articulation problems still, sequencing problems in general, and regressions in his learning.)

    If the school had their way, they would have diagnosed him with 10 different things, instead of just calling it for what it was: Autism.

    They also thought that because they know 1 autistic kid without rage, that rage wasn’t an autism issue. All kids are different, autism or not. Sometimes, to be honest, i think it’s harder having a kid who is high functioning. People think they are “just bad”, and parents with autistic kids don’t always accept you either because your kid can talk so they don’t think your kid is really autistic either. There’s a lot more to it than whether your kid can talk or hold a conversation or be “trained” to be social (and to this day, my son has social issues–either he avoids, or he is TOO friendly with total strangers).

    Sorry my reply is longer than your article. I just can’t thank you enough because this spoke to my heart. Opinion or not, it’s something I see with my own son and have for a long time, and it’s nice to find someone else who can speak about this who KNOWS.