Endless driving

Jake and Brandon at Snowbird

 Brandon likes to ride. I used to enjoy driving, and at times I still do. But I never thought I'd ever drive as much as I have in the past 18 years. When Brandon was a baby, sometimes we would take him for at ride a night to see if he'd fall asleep. This used to work for our three older boys, so why wouldn't it work with Brandon? Not knowing that he had Autism and that was why he never slept more than 4 hours a night, we took turns driving him around town at midnight. It never worked. Brandon just loved driving, and would look out the window flapping his hands with glee. 


Later, when he was about 11, Brandon went through a tough time. We moved and he changed schools all at once.  Most Autistic kids don't do well with change, Brandon definitely does not. For 3 or 4 months all I did was drive. It was summer, and I got up to drive Brandon to his special ed summer school. We got in the car at 8:30 a.m.  We got out of the car at 11:00 p.m.  True. When we arrived at school, he wouldn't get out of the car. No amount of coaxing or bribing worked.  I turned around and went home, but he wouldn't get out of the car. He just sat in the driveway and cried, hit, bit his hands, banged his head, screamed.  Not knowing what else to do, I got back in and drove him.  We drove around town, went up the canyons, drove out to the country. I would go home off and on, but he would not get out. I would drive, sometimes tears streaming down my face as I cried with frustration, Brandon would giggle and EEEEE unless I turned towards home, then he would pull my hair and bite his hand.
Finally, about 9 or 10 p.m., I would just park and wait for my husband to get home from work. Together we bribed Brandon with candy and tickles, tugged and pushed, and got him in. 
It started all over the next day. 


You may ask, why take him out at all then? Well, because of the trauma of moving and changing schools, Brandon's behavior had become very aggressive. He was banging his head so hard we had to get a helmet to put on him, he didn't leave it on though. He would bite his hands until they bled, and kick and hit us. He had many severe tantrums/meltdowns. The only way he would stop would be to get in the car and drive.  I had to take him just to give my elderly mother and my other kids a break from the crying and screaming. 


After several months of searching for a new doctor who could help us, I finally found the best team of neuro-behavior specialists. Happily, Brandon started on some medication that helped his aggressive behavior, and his obsessive compulsive behavior.

Brandon still loves to ride, especially in the mountains,  and our recent trip to Snowbird was a blast. Brandon sometimes still will not get out of the car if he decides he isn't through driving, but usually we just tell him we'll go again tomorrow, and he happily comes inside to watch Barney.