Mild Autistic Boy

When 4 year old Nathan was diagnosed with autism his parents were shocked. He was given anthroposophical oilings and after the second oiling he became restless, tapping furiously, then began shaking and crying after a bath, eventually telling his parents that he doesnt belong in this world, he is stuck here and his real parents want him back.

He was talking about what his family was like. He was sure he was not from this land. His parents were woodchoppers. "They are calling me and they want me back, and I can’t get back to them cause I am in the wrong world" he said. When young he woke up screaming like he had woken up angry that he was back here. He hated it. He screamed all day long.

Everything had to be in a particular order. He had to exit out a particular door, get in the car on a particular side and so on. As he got older he could talk about how his brain worked. He said "One side of my brain is good side and one is bad side ( left side), right side tells me to be good. Mostly it is like a switch - right is turned on or off. The bad side tells me to do naughty things and I have to try to stop it. I use to do really naughty things and I use to punish myself - like hurting myself.

A couple of days ago I use to be at kindy and I use to twist my leg around a chair and it really hurts. It sort of helps my naughtiness to get away. When I am sore I wrinkle my toes or my knees cause I thought I would be nice boy. I don’t like to get hurt cause it really hurts. I have been asking God to help me be good in bed - I told you about my dreams and I had to help me to do it - it is like the bad side is more powerful."

These behaviours made it difficult for Nathan to successfully attend school and caused many difficulties within the family. He was given a homeopathic medicine that matched this delusion of not belonging to the world, and many of his delusions, obsessions and anger problems have disappeared. A year later he is regularly attending school and is becoming a much more manageable member of his family.

(Angela Hair, Havelock North)