A Closer Look at Impulsive behavior: Annie
Thank you to Charyn, mother to Annie, for sharing their story with us.
Annie has some impulsive behaviors, including hair pulling, and most often, it comes down to the main thought that if Annie wants to do something, she’s not going to stop wanting it.
In the moment, Annie does exhibit these behaviors when she’s more emotionally heightened, but it isn’t necessarily impulsive, because she sometimes’ becomes obsessed with doing things when she’s not upset either. With hair pulling and pinching, we feel as thought these are actions that she just can’t stop on her own. She can’t NOT pull the hair.
Her big things that she loves most are taking baths, bringing food into bed, and hair pulling and pinching. Even when we say “no,” we’re aware that she’s going to continue to want to take a bath. She’ll go so far as to going up into the bathtub and turning on the water with her clothes on. She knows she’s not supposed to do that, and even when we tell her no, she obsesses over wanting to take a bath, because it’s something she likes. She knows the word “no,” and understands that we’re saying “no,” but she just can’t help that desire. She looks at us, and understands, but continues on her way to the bathroom.
There are certainly triggers that set this behavior off, such as loud noises, crowds and over-stimulation, but we’re aware of those and do our best to be prepared. First, consistency has been key for everyone in our household, from our youngest (five-year-old) to my husband and I. All of Annie’s siblings know to keep bathroom doors locked, and they know tricks to calm her down.
We do a lot of preventative measures for Annie’s impulses to try and stop them before they begin or have a chance to grow. In crowds, like at her sibling’s soccer games for example, we bring blankets because Annie loves to cozy up underneath the thick, heavy blankets and on top of the blankets, and must cover her whole body, but it helps her stay calm. We also have large headphones she will wear with built in radio to play music which can help cut out stimuli, but also because Annie loves music (Christmas music is her favorite right now). She also likes deep pressure, like sitting on our laps and having us hold her hands into her chest; even her siblings help with this. We sing into her ears when she’s getting upset, and since she likes music that helps.
Mostly, we just continue to stay on message and be repetitive. We say, “no” and show her the hand sign for it. Sometimes when we know this behavior will keep happening, we’ll get her communication device and reiterate the message on that as well.
