i really need some advice on High functioning aspergers please

I have a 19 yr old daughter whom I think may have HFA. There have been many quirks to her personality over the years, but most importantly and disabling is her inability to manage social situations. She has lost all but two friends from her school and college years, she tried to start uni this year, and this resulted in one panic/meltdown when she tried to move into her student digs. We came home and she continued to insist she would go, but a week later after attempting the first day she had another almighty panic/ meltdown. We brought her home, there has been no backlash to this, no emotion, disappointment, frustration anything!!! i truly believe she does not know how to understand herself and her feelings, as there was little conversation about going away, just a build up of anxiety a few weeks before ( but this was only evident by a few panic attacks). She has been put on AD for her anxiety, she watched the Chris Packham docu, and told me two days later that she felt she connected with everything he spoke about. I did my research, and feel she has many traits and the GP asked her to complete a questionnaire.We go back to GP tomorrow, and I'm just lost as to how to pursue this? It's all very new to me, and im worried the GP may dismiss our concerns as we have never raised any issues beforehand. to be honest, I thought many of her traits were things she may just grow out of, or gain confidence once at uni??? is there anything i should be doing that i simply don't know about, anyone out there on this forum who has had a similar experience? if someone thinks we are barking up the wrong tree , please say. The GP test was a score of 40/50 autism spectrum quotient test. Thank you

MOM

Parents
  • Hi. I'd give you two pieces of advice.

    1. Your GP might not know much about autism, mine didn't. But, they're not going to be the ones treating your daughter - the autism specialists are. Just be firm and get your GP to do the referral to your local autism provisioner. That's all your GP needs to do - they just need to do the referral, nothing else. They're more likely to say "okay sure" if they know you won't be coming back every day with problems. Don't leave until you get the referral made. Then the experts will handle it from there and they deal with you directly.
    2. Your daughter is who she is. She won't grow out of 'quirks', these are just as much a part of her as her eye colour and her height. She will grow as an adult, but part of that is also letting her understand who she is, and who she can be, and what she needs to function best in our world. Let her be who she is - she won't change just because society is telling her to. Support her, quirks and all, in being who she is.

    For point 1, I went to see my GP initially, and told her why I thought I had autism, she just looked at me blankly. So instead, I found out from my county's autism provider exactly how to 'get in', and they said it's only by referral from the GP. So I wrote a 6 page document detailing why I think I have it, completed the referral form myself, then booked a second appointment with my GP and said "I think I have autism, I realise you probably don't know that much about it, but I need you to make the referral to the county provider, here's their address, and here's my evidence and my completed form, please sign it and send it off". And she just took it and said "okay", and sent it off. Make it easy for them!

  • thankyou, that is a great help. I've just felt helpless as the GP did give us that blank stare when it was mentioned, I will take your advice and drive this myself so that we can get an assessment done. Quirks were probably the wrong word to have used :-) you have been very determined, and I intend to take that on board. 

  • Seconding Robert123 and seekeraftertruth, you might find that these curves help provide some context for your daughter's AQ score:

  • Hmmm......interesting. i did do the test myself, i scored 15. its a starting point i guess, but there are many layers to be explored. Thanks.

Reply Children
No Data