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I am worried, am i doing the right thing?

SamF

 

I am having some concerns with my daughter now. To explain I have a 16year old son who was recently diagnosed with AS although we have had a dx of Dyspraxia and autstic tendancies since he was 3 . An 11 year old son going through assesment for ASD just now. I also have a 14year old son with mears irelene ( cant spell) however the more i research and look at traits associated with ASD to help my sons i realise that more daughter who is 13 has got a lot of signs of OCD, a small difficulty with social imagination, a love/need of routine and being very organised.

But she is very sucesful at school the teachers have always said she is friends with everyone although she doesnt have any particular close friends she is involved with a large group of people and tends to be involved with all of them, she is deffinatly not bullied or even disliked. Her organisational and routine skills seem to help her and other people and her OCD is not restricting her life  it is mainly regarding how she eats, What order etc.

I honestly believe that if I had no knowledge of ASD i would just think she was an unuasual tidy and organised teenager who does well at whatever she turns her mind too. I have no concerns over her behaviour and all her teachers think she is fab. So we have decided to leave well alone but keep an eye incase any difficulties arrise in the future with a worsening of the OCD traits.

I wondered if anyone felt this was a mistake, or if you agree that although diagnosis is very helpfull in a lot of cases it is not always the way to go.

sam

x

  • Hi hope,

     

    Thanks very much, you have just confirmed for me my thinking on leaving things well alone and that I am reading too much into things.

    all the best

    Sam

    x

  • I would be careful of the prospect of over-diagnosing. ASD is a condition which involves isolation, problems with making and keeping friends (in my case I was very unpopular at school, I had just one friend at school but we often broke up due to my social problems) and usually involves severe anxiety of one sort or another. Often, but not always, OCD is part of the picture but OCD can occur without ASD and can involve extreme order and organization. The reverse side of the coin is that not all people with ASD are organized, although this can be part of the diagnostic picture. People with ASD, myself included, can be very DIS-organized and messy!.

    It can be tempting, if you already have autistic people in your family, to jump to conclusions about other members who share some of the traits but do not have enough of them to need a diagnosis of ASD (that said, other diagnosis such as OCD are often given because OCD/anxiety can be genetically related to ASD in some cases).

     

    My brother shared many of the traits of ASD as a child: an extreme interest in trains and order (graffiti and signs turned the wrong way upset him), he hardly had any real friends and he had a degree of fine motor clumsiness. He also had pronounciation  problems. But he does not have a diagnosis of ASD and he does not need one. He is successful: He has a full time high responsibility sales job, and he has a girlfriend who he has been with for three years (although he has no other friends). Unlike me, he does not need routine, is very flexible and on the go, and does not mind parties and drinks out. In short, he copes with life and I do not. Therefore, I have a diagnosis of Asperger's and OCD, given to me because I have extreme anxiety, can't work, find dealing with people and new situations painfully difficult, need routine to an extreme extent, and struggle with basic life skills.

     

    I don't know your own case but a successful  child at school who is popular is not a usual indication of ASD. ASD kids are usually unpopular and they struggle