Mother of a 23yr old Autistic Adult

Hi.

I am in a similar situation with my son.  He has also been in trouble with police and will be attending court soon.

He is also going to be threatened with becoming homeless as he has refused to live with us.

I am at my Witt's end.

He has some interaction from social services but they have been of little help.

Hi,

it’s just so very hard especially when other close family members do not understand the complexities of autism!

to be honest I’m not sure that I even did until this particularly traumatic event has brought everything to a head. I feel like he’s just been diagnosed all over again (he was only diagnosed at 19yrs). He’s always had developmental issues and speech and language difficulties but the knowledge of autism wasn’t as clear 20 years ago.  After a really difficult time at school and managing to get a little job I naively thought he was coping with life - well unfortunately not !

We have now moved on a bit and the police will have to do their bit but at least social Services are helping.

I feel like I’ve been through a wringer .  I really understand your stress in a really difficult situation- have you had much support from friends and family?

I have zero support from family they have never understood it as it's an invisible dissability.  

He has some input from social services but I feel they have failed him and he has slipped through the net.

He doesn't except his diagnosis and can easily fool people into thinking he is more able than he is.  I feel many social workers are not trained in Autism enouh to spot these signs

Yes. I worry so much about my son too - he’s very weighed down at the moment by all his worries and years of struggles at school and college have really damaged his self-esteem. He’s a wonderful person and deserves to be happy and to have a fulfilling life. Because he’s feeling  depressed at the moment he isn’t feeling very motivated to do very much - so spends a lot of time on his IPad or watching tv. We do love to go out walking in the countryside though - we do that a lot and he really enjoys that. Sometimes very long walks - several miles. He likes to explore wild places and follow footpaths etc - seeing all the different birds etc. 

The problem is though that when we come back all his worries seem to come back to him. Neither of us are coping very well at the moment to be honest (I’m autistic too and struggle with anxiety). 
We are doing our best though. Hopefully we can work on our problems - but there’s so little support.

Yes. I worry so much about my son too - he’s very weighed down at the moment by all his worries and years of struggles at school and college have really damaged his self-esteem. He’s a wonderful person and deserves to be happy and to have a fulfilling life. Because he’s feeling  depressed at the moment he isn’t feeling very motivated to do very much - so spends a lot of time on his IPad or watching tv. We do love to go out walking in the countryside though - we do that a lot and he really enjoys that. Sometimes very long walks - several miles. He likes to explore wild places and follow footpaths etc - seeing all the different birds etc. 

The problem is though that when we come back all his worries seem to come back to him. Neither of us are coping very well at the moment to be honest (I’m autistic too and struggle with anxiety). 
We are doing our best though. Hopefully we can work on our problems - but there’s so little support.