My daughter has received her diagnosis after a 3 + year wait in the referral system. The signs were not obvious until she hit pubity which coincided with her returning to school after the Covid lockdown. She has since had alot of mental health struggles including self harm and eating disorders. The past 5 years have been an uphill struggle and finding the right support has been extremely difficult. She's managing better these days due to our own actions - I took a level 2 course in Understanding Autism and she had 18 months of private therapy.
After finally getting her assessment and diagnosis, I'm not sure how I feel. There's a definite sense of relief, mainly for her now knowing why she feels the way she does. A lot of things are starting to make sense now and hopefully people ( including the medical profession) can stop saying things like " it's normal teenage behaviour " and "young people.all seem to struggle these days". There is also a feeling of guilt, that we've let her down by not picking up on things sooner. If we had noticed the signs earlier, perhaps she would have got the diagnosis and proper support to help her through her school years.
She's finished school now and somehow managed to sit and pass her GCSEs despite missing alot of school and being unable to revise properly. Without doubt, the system has let us down but I can't help feeling we (as parents) have also let her down.
She's an amazing girl, loving, considering and smart so I have every faith she'll be ok but her stamina and ability to keep going are constantly compromised and I fear this will affect her future in college.
I don't know what I'm asking for but any advice and guidance from parents would be hugely helpful.
Thanks for reading x
