when will this end.......

By when will this end, I mean- the cycle- the cycle of whatever is causing our son to behave in the manner he is- his obsession - his complete obsession that has taken over his being- his body, any control he may have had over his self before 10 days ago. Go back to last Thursday, September 5th- it all started to our surprise the obsession in his head to "buy something". It ended our nice start to the school year, it ended the transition of a good string of many days in a row of calmness, kindness, engaging, helpful, completely almost present of HIM.... and then little by little day by day that obsession got into his head- and everything has continued to go to hell in a hand basket, as they say. I really thought yesterday was the end of it- it has been going on long enough (we usually do see a pattern with these behaviors). And my husband took our littlest to school once again, giving him the break and exposure of leaving our house. And yet, this morning after he woke up from a normal morning nap he takes, and the behaviorist came over to the house- he as quick as a flash jumped into behaviors and literally riding off on his bike "to buy something". Oh crap is all I can say. He can't be eloping again. Eloping for those that haven't heard this word used in this way, no he's not off getting married. He is "running".... or in this case riding off. He rode his bike off to the local drug store around the corner, and to our surprise had raided his sister's piggy bank and took her money. We caught him before he was able to purchase anything. Slowly we just said, it's time to go home. And of course I was smart and even though he ditched his bike in front of the store, I locked his bike up with ours so that he couldn't take off without us. So we go home. Well, we thought. He purposely was trying to make us crash while riding the bikes home. Even to the point that he crashed into the behaviorist, ditched his bike once again in the middle of the street and ran "home". Okay, he's home now. Oh and of course I had my purse so that he couldn't lock us out of the house again. He couldn't steal my money from my wallet to try and buy something, so I thought we were in good shape. He is too damn fast and smart- and this obsession is completely taken over him. He ran into the house- and he knew my purse was in the garage hidden, I thought- but he knew where it was- and went back into the house and locked the house door from the garage and the front door. It's relentless, it's ongoing, it's becoming dangerous. He's done this once before, to this level of what I call "craziness out of body experience". But not for 10 days- not with running off. So he had run off Sunday night- luckily I was able to follow him, and he ultimately calmed down. This morning, he was off and running once again. And I was just telling the behaviorist luckily my girls are at school. What the "he...." do I do if I have Sarah. The littlest. I can't leave her to chase after him. And so the morning continued. He calmed down. He participated with "things" with the behaviorist. He seemed to once again snap out of this. We ride bikes to get Sarah and home. Things seemed to be fine. Until he jammed home quicker then a flash, which is pretty typical for him, no surprise. He usually likes to wait for me on the front porch to say he beat me. Okay, fine- except he crawled through the dog door- got in the house. Once again found Megan's money, I didn't even know where he found it from- and began to once again take off to the store. He said he was off to target, or CVS. Now CVS is around the corner. Target is about 2 miles away and I"m pretty sure he doesn't know his way there- but he is full of surprises these days. Sarah and I hadn't even gotten into the house before he was saying he was off to "buy something". UGH!! What do I do, I have Sarah with me now. As if my words mean anything to him in this altered state, I keep it simple and simply say "home now" and I point to our house. Ultimately I realized he wasn't going to comply with my request- so I brought Sarah over to a neighbors house and just asked if she could stay there for a few minutes. Boy people have no idea- but that's another story. But at this point, comments are not helpful :( Anyway he and I almost have a show down in the middle of the street. Will I crack? Will he crack? What will happen next? Please no more chases to the store..... well he ultimately after lots of time complied and went home. So I thought okay, at least he's home. I lock up the bikes again (btw all bikes he could possibly ride are locked up right now so he can't take off (until he figures out the scooters are not.. but don't tell him). So I get Sarah from the neighbors. And here he comes- threatening us once again. So I call my husband at this point since there is no end in sight and I have Sarah- and have no idea how exactly to handle this. She and I go to another neighbors house and sit in their front yard until my husband arrives. Well, it finally ends. He begins to act like what's the big deal. We follow our behavior plan of ignoring him and his pleads to engage in an activity with us at this point. He then falls asleep in the house. Now my husband and I are left to talk about, what do we do? This can't continue. When will this end? We need a major plan discussion as ABA works for certain related behaviors. What about when it's an obsession- and obsession that takes over any rational thought he might have. Which is already impaired so much by his other diagnoses and issues. Autism, Mood Disorder, PTSD, we can probably say OCD they say, but really it's probably more of a symptom of some of these other things he has going on. And why- why for so long? Why won't it end? We ignore it, we ignore the pleads he has to "buy him something". Now a bit of history here- this isn't new. I think I mentioned before if we hear him say "buy me something at target-" wooo run the other way!! This is his dyregulated obsessive self talking and nothing will stop him. If one entertains the thought- it only feeds the obsession. And in reality- it's not any one thing. It's the lack of control and obsessive behavior he gets to try and gain control of himself, his world and his thoughts. This time it's a power rangers samari sword set. No big deal many may be thinking. However, he has a sword playset because he was a ninja for Halloween last year. He's very inventive, and creates these "weapons" to play ninja and karate. And one thing we know for certain- it's now about the "thing" he chooses to lock his brain on. Because in reality- nothing will please him and take this obsession away- except himself. We could buy him whatever he starts to obsess about- but it doesn't matter- it doesn't stop, it doesn't go away, it only feeds it and it grows and grows. And when we are working on functional language skills- asking for things, using his good manners to request something, to use his words to engage others, to state his wants and or needs- talk about oxymoron. Here he is clearly stating what he wants (or needs as he thinks so), and we are to ignore all pleas from him. This in reality isn't functional language like many may think. Where as if he simply requests in a nice manner a cookie. "Mom can I have a cookie please?"- well it's 8:30 in the morning, but since you asked so nicely, sure. Thank you for using your good words. Which of course if one of the girls asks for a cookie at 8:30 in the morning, of course it's a different answer- no, it's 8:30 in the morning. These are just the constant daily struggles that our family continually juggles, and then when he throws his obsessive self into the pot- all I can say is - what do we do? And so far, no one has an answer. So, I again wonder at the end of this difficult day once again, when will this end. I'm tired. My husband is tired. My girls are tired. Our family needs a break- and we need this obsessive self to move past and let our little guy come back, please.