Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi everyone. I am new here so I don’t know how it works really. My daughter is 14 and for the past 3 years she’s been in and out mental health units. She’s taken 4 overdoses with paracetamol, drank bleach, cuts herself, swallow a lithium battery, tried to jump out the window, tried to swallow a razor and tried to hang her self for the past 3 years. Last year she was diagnosed with ASD. I was wondering if any other parent gone through this with their child and have they succeed it to keep their child safe. I am terrified that some day she will succeed on killing herself. I have been reading a lot about ASD but there’s no advice on if they hurt themselves how can you stop it. I don’t care she has ASD all I want for her is to stop hurting herself. Our world it’s turned upside down. Even the doctors don’t know what to do. They changed medication 3 times and didn’t help , she had lots of therapy and that’s not helping either . All she says she hates this life even though she had everything she want it. Everything started with bulling at school when she went to year 7. The school was amazing and they changed her form and made the bullying stop but even though it stopped she won’t stop hurting herself. Any advice???
Leila,
The cause has to be something internal, bullying probably wasn't all she was finding as a problem.
Unfortunately the diagnostic criteria is gender bias so it's harder to diagnose females, boys are diagnosed from as young as 2, most females I've listened to were not diagnosed until their teens of older.
With autistic people there's two common triggers of depression, masking and unable to adapt to new circumstances.
Denial of self-expression leads to depression and the sense of worthlessness since no one will accept them for who they are, masking is denial of self-expression. Masking also causes thwarted belonging that easily drives people to depression feeling like they have no place in this world, and their only solution is suicide.
The other common trigger is autistic people can struggle to cope with changes. When an individual is unable to adapt to the present circumstances they fall into situational depression, like when someone faces redundancy they don't feel able to adapt and become hopeless.
Assess the environment and see if it affects your daughter, when they resort to hurting themselves they're usually overwhelmed by something, it can be internal or external.
I would still call for support from those in your country who prevent suicide, I would report to the emergency services and tell them she won't stop.
Sorry if you already do this.
Hi Leila - sorry to hear all this. Do you research all of the medication, as some meds make people suicidal - also you can feel worse in the early days of a new med but much better when you've been on it a while. I take aripiprazole for mental health problems but I know that some people take it for autism, and it made me feel suicidal until mirtazapine was added and then I felt even worse for a while and then a fair bit better. I'm not offering medical advice here as everyone is different, I'm just saying to do your research. Obviously I'm not saying you should stop any meds without a doctor's advice either.