12/31/2025
Behavior changed overnight. And nothing makes sense.
Sudden rage episodes. OCD appearing out of nowhere. New tics. A child who was fine yesterday and seems possessed today.
The psychiatric medications aren't working the way they should. Maybe they help a little, then stop. Or they make things worse. Or they just don't touch the symptoms at all.
This is a red flag.
When a child's behavior changes this dramatically and this suddenly, we need to think beyond psychiatry. Because there's often an infectious trigger—something that's causing the brain to inflame and malfunction.
It's not that the child has a mental illness. It's that their immune system is attacking their brain in response to an infection.
And when we figure out what that infection is and treat it appropriately? The psychiatric symptoms often resolve completely.
But if we only reach for psychiatric medications without investigating the cause, we miss the opportunity to actually heal what's happening.
Early identification changes everything. The sooner we catch these cases, the better the outcomes.
Save this if you're seeing sudden behavioral changes in a child
Share with someone who needs to consider an infectious cause