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My son is 9.  He has many diagnoses over the years, from autism to bipolar to anxiety.  Anxiety is the one that has stuck and we have since found out he is gifted.  The problems with anger started when he was 3.  He had a flip switch and would rage for hours, run away from us, destroy daycare classrooms, etc.  He has gotten better over the years.  His IEP and behavior plan were removed this year due to his progress.  He has also gone off of his Risperdal and is tapering off and almost off of Trileptal.  However, starting at the beginning of May - his anger came back at school.  His triggers are during recess mostly (90%) and related to people not playing by the rules as he deems them.  For example, four square.  He knows all the rules because he has researched them and gets mad if others do not play that way.  He has hit, kicked, shoved.  The school  year ends in a few days  and summer camp starts.  Summer c...

Hi Dr Dave I wondered if there was any research to prove that positive parenting strategies were more effective in the long term than restraining? My daughter is 12 with a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) with Anxiety, ADHD, and she was  also recently been diagnosed with the new DMDD (Disruptive mood disregulation disorder) as she spends so much time 'bubbling' with no clear understanding herself of why she feels on edge. She is fully verbal and high functioning but loses all logic once she gets too wound up. She was hospitalized at age 9 for 9 months because she was simmering nearly all day and erupting 1-2 times a day lasting approx 2 hours - regularly hurting herself, others and causing breakages, smashing holes in the wall etc. We now have her in a good specialist school where she is residential Mon-Fri and is getting Anger Management therapy and OT. I am learning lots. I have been using de-escalation / positive re-enforcement with calm empathetic techniques fo...