Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 13, Suppl. 2, 2015 245 Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 13, Suppl. 2, pp 245-247, 2015 Copyright © 2015 Trakia University Available online at: http://www.uni-sz.bg ISSN 1313-7050 (print) doi:10.15547/tjs.2015.s.02.054 ISSN 1313-3551 (online) ADDICTIVE BEHAVIOR IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM AS A HIDDEN FORM OF AGGRESSION M. Shoshev* Faculty of Medicine, Department “Social Activities”, Trakia University, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria ABRASCT This article is about different form of behavior of children with ASD, associated with child’s daily life. The major point of discussion is evaluation of addictive behaviour as a hidden form of aggressive behavior and aggression with its various forms, including self- aggression. Key words: addictive behavior, autism, agression Autistic children in their ontogenetic development go through different stages related to change in the three main aspects of the disorders associated with social interaction, language and behavior. The characteristics of autism in most cases draw the attention to manifestation of self-isolation, stereotyped movements, ritual movements, experiencing difficulties with visual communication, self- aggression and aggression. The analysis of the behavioral sphere in autistic children focuses on the behavioral reactions associated with the child’s daily life and displayed in different settings and in the contact with different people. In this aspect, the opinion of various authors can be considered. They are united by the idea about the manifestation of aggressive behavior in autistic children. Aggressive behavior can be observed in its various forms, e.g. aggression towards others or child-directed aggression (self-aggression). The interest in this type of behavior in autistic children is justified since it helps decipher different behavioral reactions and tries to find the origin of their display. It seems that in autistic children aggression is accepted as an intrinsic feature and is used to explain the ____________________________ *Correspondence to: Mitko Shoshev, MD, MSc, Assistant professor, Faculty of Medicine, Department “Social activities”, Trakia University, 11, Armeyska Str., Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, Tel.: 042/644417, Mobile: 0877 331 551, е-mail: mitko.shoshev@gmail.com peculiarity in the behavior of this group of children. In this case, we believe that aggression and aggressive behavior in autistic children incorporate deeply coded internal impulses which generate the aggressive behavior and often are decoded wrongly by the parents and the professionals working with those children. One aspect of this code is the addiction of the autistic child to a specific object, item, people, events and changes that may eventually occur in their explicity. The relation between the child’s strong attachment expanding to an addiction to certain collectively called "objects" that have been chosen by the child, is also a process of "self-rewarding”, "self- stimulation." Such form of affection is extremely strong for the child and its termination results in negative emotions represented by the sudden changes which the child does not want to accept and rejects. In this case the child demonstrates the so-called addictive behavior. Its manifestation is an effort to compensate (unconsciously in most cases) for the emotional dissatisfaction. When unable to do so, the autistic child combines in way that the other find interesting, the emotional dissatisfaction with an aggressive reaction and this amalgam is so well bonded that the adults are unable to understand what is going on and how they could possibly help the child overcome this state.