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16 Sep 2012 3 Comments
Isobel tore apart an apple tree yesterday, simply because she didn’t like it. Not a small tree, either. It’s at least 5 feet tall, with 2-3″ diameter branches.
She showed no remorse, no emotion, nothing. Just kept saying that she didn’t like it and that Charlotte did it, too. This seems to be her MO lately – no affect over doing something wrong and then trying to place most of the blame on Charlotte, or at least include her in the punishment.
Charlotte, to be fair, goes along with whatever Isobel wants her to do. She never comes to get me or tells me what’s going on, until I catch them at something. I can’t tell if she’s having behaviour issues herself or if she just goes along because she’s 6 years old and idolizes Isobel.
Isobel also eviscerated a stuffed animal yesterday. Methodically cut it open along the seams and took out all the stuffing. While I was cleaning their room, I found a burned wooden figure that Charlotte had made. Isobel admitted that she burned it.
I don’t even know what to do anymore. I’m afraid to sleep because Isobel wanders at night, up to and including wandering out of the house. I have to remove the knobs from the gas stove every night before I go to bed and I’m going to get locks for my cabinets so she doesn’t go thru things. She eats constantly when she’s up at night, although she’s still a skinny little twig.
I was Googling her symptoms and came across this article in the New York Times, which scared me half to death. I don’t think she’s a psychopath but she definitely has a lot of the same characteristics that the boy in the article has and it’s frightening.
I see the psychiatrist at the testing center on Thursday but in the meantime, I’m calling her therapist today to leave a message so I can speak to her tomorrow about this. I spoke to Isobel’s dad about it, too. We decided not to have her hospitalized right now but if anything else happens, I don’t have any other options. I can’t have everyone in the house endangered because she’s out of control. These episodes come in waves; sometimes she’ll sleep thru the night for weeks at a time and her behaviour, while still really, really, really challenging, isn’t as defiant. But this episode has been going on for weeks now and she argues and debates every word that comes out of my mouth until I just want to scream.
In my mental health news, I talked to a new prescribing psychiatrist the other day and he’s pretty sure most of what happened a few weeks ago is situational , due to all the stress I’m going thru with Isobel. He gave me a prescription for something that’s similar to Xanax, to take on an as-needed basis, but he doesn’t think I need to up my anti-depressants just yet. He was really nice and really listened, which is not something I’ve ever experienced with a prescribing psychiatrist before.
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Sep 17, 2012 @ 16:27:49
Here for you, hoping for the best.
Sep 17, 2012 @ 22:34:16
I’m pulling for you, J. I hope you can get some answers soon–I can’t imagine the stress you’re under!
Sep 18, 2012 @ 15:47:46
I’m glad to hear about your new therapist, but heartbroken to hear about these struggles with Isobel. I wish I knew of something helpful to say — but lacking that, I’ll just cross everything in hopes of a turn for the better.