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Late onset of symptoms - is this possible?

Completely In the Dark

My 12 year old daughter has had a rough 15 months since starting high school. She has a good mix of friends and a good range of hobbies outside of school. She has been struggling to cope with growing up however resulting in panic attacks, self harming and a number of suicide attempts. We have been seeing CAMHS for 8 months and she has had several counsellors trying to help her. The last CAMHS assesment mentioned that they now believe that she could be somewhere on the autisim spectrum. We have looked at the symptoms and apart from not maintaining eye contact when she meets strangers, she displays no other symptoms ( this has been backed up by school and relatives with experience of autisim in their professional field). My question is, can a 12 year old start to display autistic symptoms when she has never shown anything during her developmental stages?

Parents
  • Former Member
    Former Member

    There is a saying that "if you have met one person with autism then you have met one person with autism" Which means that it is hard to identify autism even if you have experience of autistic people - we are all very different. Identifying it in girls is even harder than in boys so it is really not obvious in many cases and can only be diagnosed by experts.

    The underlying cause may have been present from birth but it is common for this to be overlooked. I managed for 56 years without anyone suggesting it! I have had repeated social issues over the years but am otherwise entirely functional.

    The behaviour of someone with autism is largely determined by their environment so a child may be entirely fine and comfortable in home, primary school but may really struggle in a new senior school. It is possible that a different school will transform her happiness and her behaviour.

Reply
  • Former Member
    Former Member

    There is a saying that "if you have met one person with autism then you have met one person with autism" Which means that it is hard to identify autism even if you have experience of autistic people - we are all very different. Identifying it in girls is even harder than in boys so it is really not obvious in many cases and can only be diagnosed by experts.

    The underlying cause may have been present from birth but it is common for this to be overlooked. I managed for 56 years without anyone suggesting it! I have had repeated social issues over the years but am otherwise entirely functional.

    The behaviour of someone with autism is largely determined by their environment so a child may be entirely fine and comfortable in home, primary school but may really struggle in a new senior school. It is possible that a different school will transform her happiness and her behaviour.

Children
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