Those Awful Scars

Oh, Puppy. Tuesday was quite a day for you.

 

Lately, I’ve been talking about how Puppy is showing signs of alertness and even debating with me more of the time over these last 7-9 months.  But with this comes a down side.  He seems to be causing himself more anxieties, many of which are unnecessary. 

So on Tuesday, when he was in a mental state of anxiety, he escalated into a meltdown at school between 9 and 10 A.M.  The incident was reported to me by the teacher with a text.  We then got on the phone so she could explain in more detail the events.  My heart just sank. It was such a minor thing, or at least to us, but was it to him? His teacher couldn’t guess what caused it other than the fact that he had forgotten his homework assignment in the classroom the day before and probably thought he was going to be in trouble for leaving it behind and not studying. 

He had started with a cry and when he was actually given attention to calm him, it blew up into episodes of biting his hand and arm, scratching his face, punching his face, getting down on the floor to bang his head, and repeatedly screaming and using foul language. I can't wrap my mind around the reasoning of self-injury. I wish I had all the answers he needs to hear so to prevent it from happening. And on this day, so did everyone around him.

Once it was over, the remainder of his day was fine. He cleaned himself up, calmed down and complied with his school work without further incident. After school, the bus took him to the TA’s house and all was still good.

It came time to pick him up. I was not prepared for what I saw. His face, his handsome innocent face…was scarred once again. There was ointment all over his right side. What an awful reminder for him to have to see over and over. How does one hurt himself this way? He’s just a child? 

Autism is a horrifying and unpredictable enemy.  Autism is not our friend.