My partner has been looking for an autism diagnosis for the past year. In the past he has been diagnosed with depression but after living with him for 2 years, it became clear to the both of us that it was something other than depression and having worked with children with autism I suggested we look into it. Suddenly his behaviour seemed to make sense and through discussion with his parents the pieces began to fit together. He finds it very difficult to comunicate with people and has said on many occasions he does not understand the world around him. He struggles with change and will often have what I would describe as melt downs which often result in him hitting himslef and having to take long walks to calm down. He has not been able to work for almost a year because of this. Having been to the doctor and asked for a referral we waited 6 months to see a psychiatrist only to be told a few weeks ago at this appointment that he had been sent to the wrong department and would need to be referred again to the right one (after completing more assessments) where the waiting list is 18 months. This understandably has caused major distress as he (and myself) are nearly just coping as it is. He has also been asked to write down a personal history, a task he has found almost impossible due to the problems he has and this has lead to almost nightly melt downs. He rarely leaves the house other to buy food and basically spends all day watching tv. I'm not sure we can cope for another 18 months whilst we wait for another appointment and am completely at a loss as to what to do next, he has said on a number of occaisoons he might just kill hilmself because he cannot cope any more. I feel frustrated and let down by the professionals we have seen so far. What do we do now?
