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Autism and self harm.... thoughts please

NAS50499
over 5 years ago

Hi

I have autism and I started self harming when I was a child. I continued self harming into adulthood. My self harm was diagnosed as a mental illness and for years I was pumped with medication which made me a zombie. The self harm got worse. About 3 years ago, I went to see a psychologist who worked closely with me regarding my self harm. She concluded that I do not have a mental illness (in fact she was baffled as to why I had been diagnosed with a mental illness) she said clearly I have autism and that my self harm is a sensory issue regarding my autism. Has anyone experienced this?

Parents
  • over 5 years ago

    This report may interest you:

    journals.sagepub.com/.../1362361318818167

    Also, here’s a video talking about self-injurious stims:

    www.youtube.com/watch

    I have myself been misdiagnosed with a mental illness (EUPD) as a result of issues linked to my autism - difficulties with emotional regulation, experiencing emotions rapidly and intensely, having difficulties trusting others, sensory seeking behaviours (considered to be self-harm) etc. The thing is though, I already had a diagnosis of autism and I told the ‘professionals’ repeatedly that these things were due to my autism, but they just wouldn’t have it, and it’s not until I saw a specialist in EUPD (at my request, having questioned that diagnosis) that they confirmed I never had it. In the meantime though, the damage had been done...we need a much better understanding of autism amongst mental health professionals in order to prevent this kind of thing.

Reply
  • over 5 years ago

    This report may interest you:

    journals.sagepub.com/.../1362361318818167

    Also, here’s a video talking about self-injurious stims:

    www.youtube.com/watch

    I have myself been misdiagnosed with a mental illness (EUPD) as a result of issues linked to my autism - difficulties with emotional regulation, experiencing emotions rapidly and intensely, having difficulties trusting others, sensory seeking behaviours (considered to be self-harm) etc. The thing is though, I already had a diagnosis of autism and I told the ‘professionals’ repeatedly that these things were due to my autism, but they just wouldn’t have it, and it’s not until I saw a specialist in EUPD (at my request, having questioned that diagnosis) that they confirmed I never had it. In the meantime though, the damage had been done...we need a much better understanding of autism amongst mental health professionals in order to prevent this kind of thing.

Children
  • over 5 years ago in reply to NAS36609

    Thank you for your post and the video link. I was also diagnosed with EUPD it took years of fighting for this diagnosis to revoked, how many other people have experienced this. Medically can people actually be diagnosed with autism and EUPD? Also why do mental health teams and psychiatrists only have a general understanding of autism and only see self harm as a mental health problem?

    I feel really strongly about this because I believe if autism and self harm training was given to mental health services and psychiatrists the misdiagnosis of mental illness in autistic adults would be reduced.

    I would like to hear from anyone who has experienced this and how this affected their lives. 

    Thanks