Hi, I've just joined the NAS and this is my first post. I'm crying out for help I guess. My 10 year old son was diagnosed with Asperger's in January this year. Up until year 3 at primary (he's now year 5) we had no idea he was on the spectrum. One of the cleverest in the class, popular and loved school. Going into Year 3, the classes were mixed up, school got stricter etc. and he couldn't cope with it all. He started school refusing April 2018 when he had a huge mental breakdown age 8 ;-(
He developed Emetophobia and lots of other sensory issues including high ceilings, people shouting, eating in the dinner hall etc. After over a year of part time education with a 1 - 1 in a separate room he was eventually given an EHCP. The school didn't offer the support (that's a whole other subject) and he was signed off by CAMHS in September last year as they deemed the environment was not good for his mental health.
There is so much more to this including how he has been massively been let down by his school and the services but right now I don't know where to turn with his mental health. He's a lovely boy; clever, funny, articulate, passionate and caring but he is on a downward spiral and I don't know what to do. Signing him off from school although had to be done for his health has resulted in him becoming severely depressed and his anxiety is unmanageable. He is pretty much housebound as he suffers huge panic attacks when out. It started with shops with high ceilings that he couldn't enter then it was every shop. Now it's even outdoors. He even has rooms in our house that cause him to get anxious. He is constantly anxious.
(Trigger Warning - talk of suicide) He is now saying several times a day that he want's to die as he can't live with the anxiety anymore. He wants to go out into the world and have a happy childhood with friends but his anxiety won't let him. He wrote a horrific poem last week saying that he will soon be dead.
What help is there out there for him and us as a family? CAMHS see him regularly but have so far made no difference whatsoever as talking about his anxieties make him worse. They would suggest exposure therapy for emetophobia but they know he's too poorly to deal with that, He explains it to me that when he's outside or anywhere other than home he feels like he's not there as he can't see himself (??) He said he feels so exhausted and so tired and it's as though he's not really there.
With his EHCP we should be looking for alternative provision for him but there's nowhere suitable and he would never get there currently. We've already been told a Base/Special School would be no good as he's fits fully into mainstream without the crippling anxiety and sensory issues that he faces. Home School is no good as I can't even get him out of the house and he's so clever - I could not do him justice. To be honest, education is the bottom of my priorities anyway at the moment. I just want to improve his mental health somehow and I'm at a loss on how to help him. It's making me ill too and my husband. Life is so sad right now and I can't believe there is no help. They always say talk to someone if you're depressed. We have talked to everybody but nobody is helping my son and his mental health is declining by the day. Does anybody have any advice at all? Thank you for reading.
