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Is it autism??

NAS39189

Hi,

its my first time here, and I could really use some good advice. I have three girls, a17 year old and 12 year old twins. One of my teins, Amber, is struggling a lot. We all are. For about 18 months now Amber is getting worse. It just started with crying, not knowing why but she was getting very upset. It kept going so I took her to the GP. We were referred to CAHMS it the may of 2016, we were eventually seen in April of 2017. I’m sure it’s not in every case but we are still dealing with them, but they aren’t much help at all. We have been assigned to a lady who is a mental health nurse. Amber is getting worse for example she screams, like she is being attacked, has horrendous panic attacks, she slaps and punches herself in the head repeatedly, she claws her face, pulls her hair. Ambers sleep pattern is all over, her eating is suffering, Amber and her twin sister Morgan aren’t identical but extremely similar, but now Morgan looks older,where Amber is smaller looks thinner, and just so fragile. Amber doesn’t liked to be touched, conferred, or hugged, it’s like hugging a stick. Sometimes she covers her ears and says everything is to loud, when it isn’t. She’s very very talented in drawing. When she finds she likes something she researched it to the point of being an expert. I’ve told CAHMS several times that I’m thinking she could be on the scale, but the mental health nurse says no, because she can hold a conversation and is very articulate!! Things are so stressful at home it’s not a nice place to be. Me and my husband are arguing all the time, her twin sister is really suffering because of it all. She gets very frightened when Amber has an episode, I don’t know if it’s a twin thing but they seem to feel a lot of what’s going ineith the other. Ambers missing a lot of school, but they are being brilliant.

Im so sorry it’s been a long message, and I’ve tried to include soy, but I feel strongly that something else is st play then just anxiety as the say, I’m just a frightened confused parent wanting answers. 

Many suggestions? Does it sound like it could be?? Or am I looking too far in yo things 

thanks 

catherine xxx

Parents

  • Welcome to the forum.

    Before I get to answering your question, I'll just point out that the forum can be read by anyone with an internet connection, so you might want to edit your post to remove the names, just in case someone can identify you that you'd rather didn't. You can edit your post by clicking the little "More" button below the post and selecting "Edit".

    Naturally, none of us here can say for sure, but your daughter certainly has some traits that are common for autistic people; particularly the extreme sensitivity to sounds and touch, the "panic attacks" (or "melt-downs" as many autistic people call them), and her extreme focus on her interests.

    NAS39189 said:
    I’ve told CAHMS several times that I’m thinking she could be on the scale, but the mental health nurse says no, because she can hold a conversation and is very articulate!!

    This is nonsense, and the nurse obviously has poor understanding of autism, particularly as shown by girls, where it can often can appear superficially more social than for boys. Autism is about developing differently, not necessarily in impaired ways; just as some autistic people have big struggles with language skills, others of us develop skills in advance of our age (I could read well before I went to school, for example, but I'm still autistic.) It is also possible to develop some language skills well, but not others. For example, we might know the literal meaning of words, and even have a huge vocabulary, yet struggle with how the meanings change depending what mood the other person is in or what tone of voice they use (this part of communication is called "pragmatics".) Conversations with a nurse are very different to those in day-to-day conversation; it's much easier for us to predict what is expected and it more based on factual information, so this may also have given the nurse a distorted impression of your daughter's language skills.

    I think you should point this argument out to the nurse, and if that still makes no difference, you should insist on second opinion from a different professional (this is part of your rights under NHS guidelines.)

  • in reply to Trogluddite

    Thank you very much for taking the time to reply! I understand about putting names, that was a misdtake in my part, I think I just wanted to put everything down and pray for a response. I’m going to bang on every door and keep pushing this, and I’m going to ask for a second opinion from CAHMS. We are currently doing family therapy which I think is good because we can get things out as a family but I know this will not “fix” things, as they hope it will, as the “problem” will still be with us. I love my girls and I’m going to keep pushing for answers. Thanks again I really. Appreciate your insight x

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  • in reply to Trogluddite

    Thank you very much for taking the time to reply! I understand about putting names, that was a misdtake in my part, I think I just wanted to put everything down and pray for a response. I’m going to bang on every door and keep pushing this, and I’m going to ask for a second opinion from CAHMS. We are currently doing family therapy which I think is good because we can get things out as a family but I know this will not “fix” things, as they hope it will, as the “problem” will still be with us. I love my girls and I’m going to keep pushing for answers. Thanks again I really. Appreciate your insight x

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