Published on 12, July, 2020
My son was diagnosed with ASD in November 2022, aged 18 after a long very stressful 10 year process involving CAHM’s for a number years.
He started University in September 2022, and unfortunately because his official diagnoses has taken so long, he’s basically had zero support from his University since he started in September.
He’s really struggling, his made no friends, he want ask for help and he’s convinced he’s going to fail the first year and he’s the going to be £13K in debt for being a failure.
He’s not really capable for applying for a job or even holding down a part time job.
It makes me sad because he’s sad and he thinks the easiest solution is to kill himself because he’s such a failure. He’s such a bright boy but because of his ASD. He struggles with independent learning, speaking to new people and general life admin. He gets frustrated and angry and it causes so much tension in lives.
I just want him to be happy, I just don’t know what I can do for him and I’m worried about he failing the first year at Uni and how much he will be in as a result. I’m trying to get some additional support have DSA but it’s just too late now for his first year
He really needs to reach out to the university, have they been informed that he now has a diagnosis? They may also have a mental health first aid team he can talk to as well. Ends of terms are busy times for coursework and this time he’ll likely have exams looming after the holidays, if he struggles with independent learning then he really needs support from their SEN teams as university mostly is independent. Are there any local charities or even a social worker type service he can get a referral to to help with life admin?