My 14 yr old son had an unusual screaming episode or psychotic episode

[j***@hocc.orh]

I have a 14 year old beautiful sweet happy severely autistic child who last weekend out of the blue, started screaming blood curdling screams while he was taking a bath, and then he was pulling his ear lobes down to cover his ears, and screaming, and growling and had terror in his eyes...it was something we have never seen before and after 15 minutes we called the ambulance.....after a stay at a local hospital and then a transfer to a children's hospital and 10 neurologists looking at the video of the episode, none of them had ever seen anything like it and had no idea what to make of it, other then that they did not think it was a seizure. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this or know of a similar episode?

[Bob Badour]

Post by j***@hocc.orh
I have a 14 year old beautiful sweet happy severely autistic child who last weekend out of the blue, started screaming blood curdling screams while he was taking a bath, and then he was pulling his ear lobes down to cover his ears, and screaming, and growling and had terror in his eyes...it was something we have never seen before and after 15 minutes we called the ambulance.....after a stay at a local hospital and then a transfer to a children's hospital and 10 neurologists looking at the video of the episode, none of them had ever seen anything like it and had no idea what to make of it, other then that they did not think it was a seizure. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this or know of a similar episode?

Sounds like he was in pain.

[Autindividual]

Post by j***@hocc.orh
I have a 14 year old beautiful sweet happy severely autistic child who
last weekend out of the blue, started screaming blood curdling screams
while he was taking a bath, and then he was pulling his ear lobes down
to cover his ears, and screaming, and growling and had terror in his
eyes...it was something we have never seen before and after 15 minutes
we called the ambulance.....after a stay at a local hospital and then
a transfer to a children's hospital and 10 neurologists looking at the
video of the episode, none of them had ever seen anything like it and
had no idea what to make of it, other then that they did not think it
was a seizure. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this or know
of a similar episode?

I'm not sure what 'severely autistic' means although I can relate to
understanding being profoundly autistic.

I figure I might as well ask an important question since there was no
mention of this so very simple element in this entire account of the
episode...and that is:

Was anyone able to talk to him about what he experienced and ask him what
happened, since he'd probably be in the best position to say?

[Martijn Dekker]

Post by j***@hocc.orh
I have a 14 year old beautiful sweet happy severely autistic child who last
weekend out of the blue, started screaming blood curdling screams while he
was taking a bath, and then he was pulling his ear lobes down to cover his
ears, and screaming, and growling and had terror in his eyes...it was
something we have never seen before and after 15 minutes we called the
ambulance.....after a stay at a local hospital and then a transfer to a
children's hospital and 10 neurologists looking at the video of the episode,
none of them had ever seen anything like it and had no idea what to make of
it, other then that they did not think it was a seizure. Has anyone ever
experienced anything like this or know of a similar episode?

If he can't tell you what happened, unfortunately you may never find
out. I would assume he was reacting to a real stimulus that was actually
painful to him. I see no reason to assume it was a psychotic episode
unless he has shown signs of psychosis before.

You mentioned that he covered his ears. Perhaps he was hearing some very
high-pitched noise that was very painful to him but is out of most
people's auditory reach, so you wouldn't have heard it. Young people can
hear very high-pitched sounds and autistic people are often particularly
averse to them. Is there anything in the house or nearby that could have
produced such a noise?

A painful medical problem is another possibility, though it wouldn't be
my first guess given that he started screaming very suddenly.
Nonetheless, has he been checked for ear infections and such?

Have there been other such occurrences, or was this the only one so far?

- Martijn (39, HFA/AS, father of three)