fish exorcism.
After another pre-bedtime psychological breakdown last night, we have decided to resort to a sleep aid: chloral hydrate. The plan is to use this short-term until we can re-establish bedtime. Give it to him before the breakdowns to make him sleepy so that he’ll sleep even before he has a chance to think about bedtime. Get him into a new pattern.
For the past five years, I’ve been gushing that we never have any sleep problems with E-Niner. He goes to bed at 7:30PM, wakes up at 7AM, and is an awesome sleeper. Rock solid. It was my one thing that I hung on — sure, the days are hard, but at least he’s a good sleeper!
Hopefully we can nip this in the bud (I see those words coming back to haunt me — EVERYBODY, knock on wood, right now!), and get him back in a regular sleeping pattern.
One woman I’ve been e-mailing with whose son has psychotic episodes said that they blow away the images he has in front of his face. It is like a ritual; whenever the images come, they just blow them away. It teaches the child that he’s in control. So we’ll try blowing the fish away this afternoon.
We’re also going to do an all-out fish exorcism tonight. We’re going to round up all the fish in our nets and flush them all down the “poop tunnel.”
E-Niner said he’s been seeing clown fish, star fish, angler fish, and then he named some other species of fish that I’d never heard of and then some sort of crustacean. Of course the child doesn’t just see regular old fish, of course he sees many different varieties and can name them all. I should ask him what kind of whale it was…
I’ll keep my fingers crossed that both the medication and the “exorcism” work tonight!
I knocked with both hands!
Ok this is totally off the wall but a few days before my Dad passed away he said he saw fish floating on the walls and ceilings. He must have been in some type of euphoric state (maybe from morphine) but it was sooooo weird. I was on the phone with him during one of these moments and I swear to God it was like he was watching an i-max movie of the sea. He was describing the fish in great detail and then all of the sudden he’d yell (as best he could with a weakened voice) and say, “OH MAN one’s coming right at me! Oh no here he comes!!” And then he’d laugh and say it missed him. It was a bit odd to be on the other end of this call because I didn’t want to say, Dad you’re losing your freaking MIND! Especially because he seemed sooo happy, like he was enjoying it. There has to be a reason why fish seem to be the theme here. Is it because he feels like he’s floating? Does it make him feel peaceful?? This is really interesting and intriguing. I just hope you find some good solid answers and coping strategies soon.