Michael’s problems started, according to his mother, around age 3,
shortly after his brother Allan was born. At the time, she said, Michael
was mostly just acting “like a brat,” but his behavior soon escalated
to throwing tantrums during which he would scream and shriek
inconsolably. These weren’t ordinary toddler’s fits. “It wasn’t, ‘I’m
tired’ or ‘I’m frustrated’ — the normal things kids do,” Anne
remembered. “His behavior was really out there. And it would happen for
hours and hours each day, no matter what we did.” For several years,
Michael screamed every time his parents told him to put on his shoes or
perform other ordinary tasks, like retrieving one of his toys from the
living room. “Going somewhere, staying somewhere — anything would set
him off,” Miguel said. These furies lasted well beyond toddlerhood. At
8, Michael would still fly into a rage when Anne or Miguel tried to get
him ready for school, punching the wall and kicking holes in the door.
Left unwatched, he would cut up his trousers with scissors or
methodically pull his hair out. He would also vent his anger by slamming
the toilet seat down again and again until it broke.
When Anne and Miguel first took Michael to see a therapist, he was given
a diagnosis of “firstborn syndrome”: acting out because he resented his
new sibling. While both parents acknowledged that Michael was deeply
hostile to the new baby, sibling rivalry didn’t seem sufficient to
explain his consistently extreme behavior.
4 comments:
I'm having trouble following the link to the webpage. Tom can you help?
I'll check it.
OK. It is fixed.
Thanks TM. Chilling article.
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