My 17 year old daughter was diagnosed with autism just before Christmas. This is the culmination of a difficult five year journey where the NHS have offered little care or support, no 'joined up' thinking over my daughter's various mental and physical health problems and effectively acted as gatekeepers to achieving this diagnosis and the vital support that my daughter needs. In my daughter's words, "Why does no one care or help me?" In the end I paid for a private diagnosis. In fact i paid twice. In my desperate piecing together of her personal jigsaw of difficulties and behaviours I first thought that she might have Tourette's Syndrome. The clinicians who carried out this initial assessment were the first health or educational specialists to mention ASD.
As a family, my daughter included, we welcome this diagnosis. My daughter is still the amazing young woman that she always was, she just happens to be autistic. The problem is that I am so exhausted by this journey, and overwhelmed by the on-going responsibility of supporting her that I have fallen into depression and am struggling to cope. I thought that this diagnosis would empower and energise me further. The way forward should be clearer as I know where and what to look for in terms of help and support but all I see is an impossible task that I can no longer rise to. I am optimistic for my daughter's future but pessimistic about my own.
If anyone can share their experiences of how they moved forward after diagnosis of a teenager/older child it would be really useful. Having my daughter assessed just before Christmas, when all forms of support are closed until 4th January and we were all moving into COVID-19 Tier 4 was poor timing to say the least. Thank you.
