Published on 12, July, 2020
I am writing in connection with my son who is now 33. Since his late teens he has suffered from mental health challenges which were always diagnosed as anxiety & depression and treated with medication an attempts at CBT. This has had zero success and he leads a very unhappy life.
He is currently employed but he has gone through cycles over the years and I suspect he is about to lose this job which will trigger another downward spiral and he is losing hope.
In August of last year we managed to get him assessed again by a specialist psychiatrist as we suspected that there was more at play and he was diagnosed as being on the ASC spectrum with Aspergers. He received the report but never shared it with me and has not been in much contact with me or the rest of his family.
Now he is in a downward spiral he is reaching out to me to help and shared the repot. It appears that he has failed to take any action on the report recommendations which was one to one activities with specified focal areas and now I think I need to get more involved to try to help him find the right support. Whilst I don’t think he is suicidal he has regular thoughts about this given his last of hope.
As a family, we want to help him but we are not professionals and he appears to lack motivation to take action himself. When we create options he rarely follows through.
We are despairing and do not know what to do next.
We would welcome any guidance from adults with this condition or families of adults with this condition. I am sure that parents of children will be suffering as we are but the challenges are different as he is a grown man who does not live with his family.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
You need to educate yourself on autism to be able to understand and help
Hi NAS91583, thank youf or sharing with the online community. I am sorry that you and your son are going through such a difficult time. You may like to contact our Parent to Parent Emotional Support Helpline, which offers emotional support to parents and carers of children or adults with autism. This service is confidential and run by trained parent volunteers who are all parents themselves of a child or adult with autism.
You can find further information about the service and an online enquiry form here: https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/help-and-support/parent-to-parent-helpline.
You may also be interested in contacting a local National Autistic Society branch. Our branches offer support to local autistic people and their families. If you interesting in checking if there is a local branch near to you, please follow the link below:https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/local-branches
Our branches are volunteer-led, and as such every branch and group is different. Some are parent support groups, some provide support and information to autistic adults, while others have office premises and run their own a drop-in service. You will need to check with a branch directly for more information on whether they are able to provide a particular service that you are interested in.
I hope these help.
Best wishes,
Anna Mod