Published on 12, July, 2020
My son is 16 in November and has had a few issues since he was about 5. But I’ve never thought about autism/ aspergers before, until my eldest son brought it up about his brother. I could be completely barking up the wrong tree.The Things he does I thought he would grow out of, but at nearly 16 I’m concerned that he isn’t going to grow out of them now.I don’t know where to start really. I don’t like talking about my son in front of him as he gets anxious and upset. I won’t go into to detail as i would be here all day and this post would be ridiculously long. He has suffered with bullying all through school, and is seeing a counsellor at school too. He suffers with anxiety and gets really down.
So here is a list of some things he does....
He doesn’t like food touching each other on plateOnly likes dry foods without any sauces or gravyHe is always washing his handsHe sometimes showers 2-3 times a day
He doesn’t like to talk much, although he can speak with no speech problems.
He sometimes uses his hands and tries to mime out what he wants to say.
He will sit with head phones and earphones in constantly...I think to avoid conversation He claps his hands and has a rather huge grin on his face and does a crazy laugh when he gets excited ( hard to explain on here but it isn’t the kind of thing you see a kid of his age doing)Occasionally lets out a screech....but has changed that to now shouting Yeeet instead...it also use to be a kind of owl sound and he’d move his head side to side like an owl....but again coz he has a funny sense of humour I put all of this down to him just being quirkyHe won’t touch our dogHe doesn’t like our dog looking at him or watching himHe always bursts into tears at the least bit thing that goes wrongHe gets very fixated on things...like his electronic gadgets ( and I know that’s a things for most teens)He has problems socialising and always say he doesn’t know how to talk to peopleHe won’t join in conversations, he says he never knows what to say or how to start a convoHe has gone through all his secondary school with bullying and is seeing a counsellor at school.He is really clever and maths is his thing, even his teacher says he ignores all the easy stuff and always wants to do the hard stuff I could go on.....
His peers at school all say he is weird...apart from his 2 close friendsBut I don’t know if this is all just an anxiety issue or if there is something underlying that has been missed. Also because he is a teenager...I know they have there own quirks lol. He has good eye contact.He got referred to camhs last year as he was so down and anxious and told his counsellor that he had thought of suicide. I told camhs about his issue with food and ocd etc, they said it was interesting but they then discharged him and said they didn’t need to see him again.So just getting to the point where I don’t know what to do for the best. I obviously don’t want him labelled with anything but at the same time want to get him any help he may need..or should we just leave it and carry on with him knowing he is just who he is, our gorgeous son.Thanks in advance for any advice.
The latest thing he has told me is that he gets scared in the dark through the night, thinks there is something in his room. A shape or shadow scares him. He keeps a big fan turned on through night to take away the silence of the room. He used to keep a big teddy bear on his chair and he had to angle it so it was looking at his door to watch for something coming in his room....now he uses one of his weights up against his door through the night.He said he sometimes thinks he sees people...like if I have washing on the line outside, he can see it through the frosted glass of the door, from where he sits at pc....he knows it’s washing...but he says his brain tells him it’s people in the garden.
He has asked me a few times what schizophrenia is....So I know he is thinking about himself and what is going on with him
He could always take a few online ASC tests
If the results are in the stated range to qualify for a potential diagnosis you could then discuss it with your GP.
This is what I did recently (I'm 37).
My partner told me that she suspected I'm on the spectrum, as have others in the past, so I took three online tests and shared my results with my GP, then attended two assessments after which I was diagnosed.
I have socialisation / trust issues and have niche interests so I actively avoid social situations these days.
I was bullied heavily in school and suffered from anger management issues, which I now realise were Autistic Meltdowns.
I also have similar anger management issues in the workplace when placed in environments where I'm exposed to prolonged periods of mismanagement, disorganisation and mistreatment of staff.
I'm having problems with it right now in fact because I had a meltdown and raged at my department manager after being blamed for mismanagement of a project that was out of my control.