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 plate
Only likes dry foods without any sauces or gravy
He is always washing his hands
He 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 quirky
He won’t touch our dog
He doesn’t like our dog looking at him or watching him
He always bursts into tears at the least bit thing that goes wrong
He 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 people
He won’t join in conversations, he says he never knows what to say or how to start a convo
He 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 friends
But 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.
