Hi. I've just joined here. Long story but I've suspected my now 17 yr old is autistic for all her life. I've spoken to schools , school nurses and early help support worker about this. All of them looked at me like I was a crazy lady and because my daughter's anxiety (her main difficulty in life) has come in peaks rather than consistently bad, I've doubted myself over the years.
There's a lot more background to this including her childhood of lining toys up, not taking part in imaginative play, not giving eye contact to anyone apart from us at home and extreme andan several times every week due to issues with people or unfairness of teachers at school.
We took her out of school to Home Educate when she was 12 due to school refusal and her anger and violence disappeared.
However for the last 2yrs she's closed in on herself and although speaks to friends on the phone for several hours a day, she's developed agoraphobia in they she won't go to shops or buildings or meet with friends in real life.
She was referred but rejected from camhs twice over the years and denied any form of counseling. She is, however, currently having online counselling through The Mix counselling service for young people. She hates it though and thinks the counsellor has no idea what he's talking about.
Sorry, I've really gone off on a tangent. She won't go back to the GP now as she had so much rejection from them over the years that she doesn't see the point.
Does anyone know anywhere in Kent that do private assessments of 17yr olds? She doesn't travel hardly at all so it would need to be on the east coast of kent or in as far as Canterbury. And does anyone know what kind of price we'll be looking at? If we ever did get a diagnosis, what support would she get with her anxiety. When she's not going through a peak, she happy gets on with life but this peak has so far lasted for 2yrs. The way things are she won't be able to sit her exams or get a job as she can't be with people or go into buildings.
Sorry for the essay! Any advice on any of this would be great.
Cat x
