Day 5: March 23

I bring our son a notebook, colored pencils, zen coloring books and encourage him to keep a journal or make drawings to try to chart his thoughts and bring them to order. I ask him how the medication is making him feel and he just says "gassy". I remind him that I will come every day to see how he is feeling and if he is feeling more centered or his thoughts are getting better organized. He tells me another patient had a seizure right in front of him. He thinks he caused it because of some kind of negative symbiosis or synergy between the two of them. He asks me again if I know that autism was once called childhood schizophrenia. I tell him that autism was briefly called childhood egocentricism. That gets little response. He tells me that when he was about 10 years old a close friend caused him great damage by calling him a child molester. Another kid had said it was not possible for a kid to be a child molester, but he said it not to defend our son but merely to be disputative. And then our time is up.