Scary Morning

Ethan woke us up at 4am this morning. George said he had had a bad dream about bugs being in his bed. George talked with him about it and prayed with him and put him back to bed. Not too long later we heard him screaming. George went in and Ethan was crouched in one corner of his bed, trying not to touch any of it (which is difficult since he's on the top bunk). George brought him back to our room and we tried talking to him about what was wrong. He kept talking about seeing bugs and even saw them in our bed. I told George it looked like Ethan was having visual and tactile hallucinations. It really is horrible to watch anyone experiencing hallucinations and I think even worse when it's your child. We had all the lamps on in our room so there was plenty of light and encouraged him to rest in our bed. He couldn't, instead sitting very stiff and on alert, constantly looking all over the bed. My first thought is that it is related to some new medication he is taking. But in the back of both our minds lurks the fact that they have a genetic disposition to metal illness because of my family history. We left the bedroom and he asked to have breakfast and he was fine ever since. I researched a new medication he started called Xyzal which is an antihistamine. Wouldn't you know it--one of the reported side effects is hallucinations? Obviously we won't be giving that to him again. Since early this morning Ethan's been asking "why was my mind playing tricks on me?"