my son and his deterioration

My 17 yo son has recently tested positive for autism. He is getting increasingly withdrawn, and getting dangerously thin with not eating. It is the second week now he hasn’t seen his counsellor as he is in bed 24/7 and is becoming increasingly withdrawn. We don’t know where on the spectrum he is at the moment, we don’t know where to turn to get this sorted.  It is impossible to get a dr’s appointment, it is a 3 week wait and when he does get there he isn’t taken seriously.

I just don’t know where to turn anymore, I can see he’s deteriorating, I try getting him up out of bed and he goes back to sleep a minute later, we have tried to get him downstairs but he won’t eat, I’ve tried letting him upstairs with it, he won’t eat. Today he has had some toast but that will most likely be it for the day.

We have done research into autism after he tested positive and he has a lot of the characteristics of Asperger’s but again I’m lost for what best to do as we don’t seem to be getting anywhere at all.

Anna Sob

Parents
  • Hi Anna, I'm not qualified in any way, but what you are describing sounds like much more than "just" Asperger's. I mean, the autism is something he has had all the time, and he has not always been like now, otherwise he wouldn't have made it to 17. Depression for example is very common in people with Asperger's, that may be something to look into? More physical stuff perhaps needs to be ruled out too. The 3 weeks wait is for non-urgent things, if it's urgent you can get an appointment much sooner, the same or next day hopefully. You may need to be flexible and wait for them to call you when you can come, but you don't have to wait three weeks. Hopefully they will take his state serious, I mean, from what you describe it sounds pretty much so, you would need to have exaggerated an awful lot if they saw him and decided it's all fine. Please don't let waiting times put you off, or rather don't accept them. It's terrible that you have to call yourself an emergency nowadays in order to see a GP within a day or two, but do exactly that if they tell you there's nothing available any sooner than in three weeks. Do it soon, rather than waiting until Christmas when their capacity will be really stretched.

Reply
  • Hi Anna, I'm not qualified in any way, but what you are describing sounds like much more than "just" Asperger's. I mean, the autism is something he has had all the time, and he has not always been like now, otherwise he wouldn't have made it to 17. Depression for example is very common in people with Asperger's, that may be something to look into? More physical stuff perhaps needs to be ruled out too. The 3 weeks wait is for non-urgent things, if it's urgent you can get an appointment much sooner, the same or next day hopefully. You may need to be flexible and wait for them to call you when you can come, but you don't have to wait three weeks. Hopefully they will take his state serious, I mean, from what you describe it sounds pretty much so, you would need to have exaggerated an awful lot if they saw him and decided it's all fine. Please don't let waiting times put you off, or rather don't accept them. It's terrible that you have to call yourself an emergency nowadays in order to see a GP within a day or two, but do exactly that if they tell you there's nothing available any sooner than in three weeks. Do it soon, rather than waiting until Christmas when their capacity will be really stretched.

Children
  • We took him to hospital a few months ago as he was talking about suicide and he was extremely depressed. He was then sent to a centre where he had a councellor, they decided not to give him medication due to his age and that they wanted to get him out in group activities more. That failed as he is very socially awkward and his support worker stopped coming to badminton, something he was enjoying but we havent heard from her since. Would the doctor refer him to someone to find out where on the spectrum he is? 

    Primarily at the forefront im concerened with the amount of weight he is losing and wonder if he is becoming anorexic alondside this, alot of the time he just has no want to eat anything.

    He has also explained how he is unable to love people or care about things, which is hard to come to terms with.