Published on 12, July, 2020
I am so thankful I found this Web site. I have learnt a lot in the last 2 hours!
My daughter is nearly 17. She had / has anorexia and was not responding to the usual therapy. An experienced nurse wondered about ASD and arranged an assessment which to my surprise gave an autism diagnosis.
Since then my daughter seems to have totally changed. All of a sudden she now says she has sensory issues with food textures, this is the same girl who age 10 was enjoying everything from sushi to snails and steak. She is now saying she can't eat with us as she needs total silence in the kitchen, although she had been eating in busy noisy restaurants before. She now says she can't focus on school work and need decompression time. She studied so well for her National 5's (scottish gcse) She now says she can't speak on the phone, the list goes on.
I am so confused, how can getting a diagnosis change her so much? Has she always had these issues but now the diagnosis has given her permission to reveal them?
I have witnessed this is a few people, but I suspect it is caused by years and years of heavy masking. Masking is basically suppressing the issues than exist, it may be that the diagnosis has made her stop masking, or she may be experiencing burnout or something like that. For some people they spend most their life disassociating from sensory issues, and when they learn about them, it sort of destroys the coping mechanisms they’ve built up. I was diagnosed at age 19, almost 20, but I had been failing education for a while prior. Keep in mind, I was considered as a gifted child, but it’s true that the higher education system just isn’t set up to deal with autistic people. I have failed as many years of higher education as I have passed. Autism is a disability, that’s been something difficult to come to terms with myself.
As for advice? In terms of eating, there could be some kind of ARFID going on, which is common in autism. For school, she should probably get a pupil support worker to help her stay on track. This is essential because it’s unlikely she’ll earn a degree without support. Only 40% of autistic people in university end up graduating with a degree.