It has become a family tradition of sorts for us to eat homemade pizza and watch a movie one night each weekend. Our daughter, who is a big fan of just about everything in the "Marvel Universe", asked us to rent the first "Avengers" movie for our pizza-and-movie night recently.

As we watched the part where The Hulk goes berserk and Black Widow tries frantically to get away from him, our daughter paused the movie and told us that watching scenes of that kind actually cause her to remember times she has had to get away from a violent Anthony, including hiding in a closet until he passed. She also mentioned the Lizard in Spider-Man as another character that brings back bad Anthony-related memories.

Interestingly for me, my wife and I had gone earlier in the day to see Love and Mercy, the biopic about Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. I knew a little of Wilson's emotional and mental issues, but I was surprised to see something that made me turn and exclaim to my wife, "That's Anthony!" I will try not to give away a spoiler in describing the scene, but the way John Cusack as Wilson walked and complied when being told he needed to do something was startlingly similar to how Anthony walks and complies when given the same directive.

What do these things mean? I don't know. It's not a great stretch to relate Anthony to an animal-like creature when he is angry, as he loses virtually all sense of reason. But it seems it could be worth researching a link between a low-functioning autistic individual like Anthony and one who would be considered a normal human being except for some behaviors that have changed over time due to mental illness. And, yes, I am of course aware that I was watching an actor's portrayal, but I am fairly confident that John Cusack depicted Brian Wilson the way he did based on interactions with him.



By the way, we have determined that Anthony's recent spike in aggression was due at least in part to a change in medication. I say "in part" because we are still having episodes after reverting to the dosages he had before, including hitting one teacher with his fist and giving another a concussion by head-butting her. I have worked a couple of times from home to keep him out of school after aggressive incidents, and also once when the staffer who handles Anthony when he is upset was off due to legitimate concerns the school administration had about being at Anthony's mercy if he went off. And, unfortunately, although the instances of aggression have lessened, the intensity when he does get upset has not.