Published on 12, July, 2020
My son is 24 years old and was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome nearly 4 years ago after suffering depression and anxiety. Since then has been living with his grandad and rarely leaves his bedroom. In the past four years, he has had counselling from various different people, been on antidepressants, had a support worker (albeit for a short time) and been on a ‘socialeyes’ course run by the local ASD team. He also attended a support group run by the ASD team (for one session only as he found it too overwhelming). All the support has now finished - either because ‘there’s nothing more we can offer him’ or ‘he is not ready for counselling’. The only thing that he attends is a weekly disability football session which he enjoys (although again can find this too much at times). Other than that he is very isolated and has no friends and fear and anxiety rule his life. This is heartbreaking for me as he was happy growing up and coped well with school until he went to university. I really don’t know what to do to help him and I would appreciate any ideas from people who have experienced a similar situation.
Hi Steveda66,
I'm sorry to hear that your son has been going through a challenging time for the past few years. I understand how difficult it must be for you. It's clear that you've tried many avenues to support your son, including support groups, but you may still find the following link to a social groups directory from the NAS website useful:
https://www.autism.org.uk/services/community/group/england.aspx
Your son may also find this page on managing stress and anxiety for autistic adults useful:
https://www.autism.org.uk/about/behaviour/anxiety.as
I hope this helps in some way,
ChloeMod.
Thank you for your reply. I will show him the page on managing anxiety to see if it will help. As for the support groups, he doesn’t seem interested unless it involves football or maybe computer games but again I will mention it to him. I do appreciate your help though - thanks again.