A Beautiful Mind

That is what I was told I needed to remember in order to understand what Joseph is seeing.  In the movie, A Beautiful Mind, he was able to function without anyone knowing he was seeing things because he knew they were not real so he was able to hide it.  So we have to teach Joseph that what he is seeing is not real and he has to ignore it. 

Joseph started talking to things that were not there....at least they were not there to the rest of us.  We were first told of him having hallucinations over a year ago when he had a neuro-psych evaluation.  He was describing talking to a friend named Michael.  I pushed it out of my mind and thought it was just a normal imaginary friend.  Then I found out another autistic boy in his class had a "pretend" friend and figured we were just dealing with him not being able to tell the difference between his imagination and reality.

But in the beginning of December he started acting bizarre.  He was doing things we have never seen before.  He was making strange noises in the middle of class, was very withdrawn, would just start talking to something/someone not there, and then....got lost.  He went to the restroom at school and when he came out he says he "saw Optimus Prime (a transformer robot).  So I followed him.  After I followed him for awhile he turned and told me to go back to class now.  Then I did not know where I was and was lost."  He also started having conversations with his pencils.  It was obvious to the teachers that he was not only talking to them but they were talking to him.  So, I immediately made appointments with some of his neuro doctors. 

My biggest fear is hearing that it is not physical.  I know this sounds disturbing but no one can understand unless you have been in these shoes.  I want them to find a tumor.  That would explain things.  That is something I can see on an MRI.  That is something that we can fix.  And, once again, my biggest fears are before me.  He is having hallucinations . Very real hallucinations.  There were things we found out he had not shared with us.  He is seeing mummies outside and they chase him.  They turn into eagles so that they can get to him faster.  He sees monsters.  He sees robots.  They tell him things.  His pencils have names and mouths....and actually talk to him in class and bother them . He gets mad at them because they won't stop talking.

He will be put on anti-psychotic medications ASAP.  Both doctors agreed that him going to Villa Marie is the best thing for him.  Right now we must work hard on stopping his obsessions.  He is obsessed with Transformers.  I have no idea how to break this.  But his obsessions and imaginations influence his hallucinations.

The mind.  What a beautiful wonderfully complex mechanism!  We could study it a million years and still it will keep some of it's secrets!  Thank you for your continued prayers for my family!!!