Hi everyone, help needed.

Hi all, my name is John, I am looking after my older brother Michael with help from my aunt and close family. I  have been looking after him since 2013 when my father died. Michael is in his mid fifties and has only just been diagnosed with medium to severe autism. He is in a bad way mentally.  He has also been diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. He is a recluse and refuses interaction with other people. He also has no motivation to help himself or me. I pay all his bills, do all his shopping and maintain his environment. Michael blames my late mother and father for his, as he sees it bad living conditions. He is very hard to deal with. He suffers from OCD, hords rubbish, refuses to open the curtains or windows. Keeps food on the floor and will not use the refrigerator. Often eating 15 to 20 day old food that should have been refrigerated. He often refuses to open the door and gets aggressive if we try to help with cleaning ect. The mental health and council seem to think it's OK to visit once a week or fortnight for 5 minutes and then declare "he's alright". Michael is always saying he will comit suicide and shouldn't have been born. He rants and swears loudly, often we receive complaints from nieghbours. He suffers severe mood swings from calm to ranting and shouting. I am worried for his safety and have expressed my concern's but it all seems to fall of deaf ears. He is living under the borough of [removed by mod] council. We have been informed that this is the worst in the country with regards to mental health. I welcome any advice or comments that you may have.

Parents
  • Hi John and welcome!

    Autism often leads to mental health issues - I would guess that most of us adults on the forum have arrived here through that route.

    One of the behaviours associated with autism is obstinacy (rigidity of thought is the euphemism!) and this can arise through failure to engage successfully with the world. There is a condition called pathological demand avoidance http://www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/pda.aspx do you think that that page describes his behaviour?

    It can be very hard to impose treatment and help on people with autism so the first question is does he think that things are OK or does he think that he needs to learn to behave differently? Autism can't be cured but we can learn some ways of adapting to having it.

Reply
  • Hi John and welcome!

    Autism often leads to mental health issues - I would guess that most of us adults on the forum have arrived here through that route.

    One of the behaviours associated with autism is obstinacy (rigidity of thought is the euphemism!) and this can arise through failure to engage successfully with the world. There is a condition called pathological demand avoidance http://www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/pda.aspx do you think that that page describes his behaviour?

    It can be very hard to impose treatment and help on people with autism so the first question is does he think that things are OK or does he think that he needs to learn to behave differently? Autism can't be cured but we can learn some ways of adapting to having it.

Children
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