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Low mood and stressed

ParentingAutism

Hi again, I'm so sorry for bothering again. Myself and school have noticed slight changes in my daughter's mood. She seems to be quite low in school, and is no longer smiling and seems disengaged with the world around her and seems deep in thought. She is doing things at a slower pace than normal, for example walking with her head down, completing tasks and seems to have no motivation. 

She is getting stressed about the smallest things that she usually wouldn't. For example, she just had a complete meltdown about her dinner, her sister made. It was pizza, noodles and sweetcorn. She's now not eating again because she did so many things wrong to the dinner. She doesn't like sweetcorn hot, the noodles were touching the pizza so the pizza was soggy. It even wasn't on a big plate, it was on a small plate. I understand why she's upset but she's never been this upset. 

She's also starting to refuse to go to school and get out her bed because 'she can't be bothered'. She's low and seems stressed. We are also having an extension done soon which probably isn't helping. We are currently ripping up the carpet and floor boards so it's noisy which won't help. What can I do to help her. We have so many issues going on right now... 

Thanks. Sorry for bothering you x

Parents

  • ParentingAutism,

    Sorry to hear this, but don't be sorry for seeking help and support, it's not easy to find these days. If your daughter doesn't go to the bench you mentioned it could have a connection to that, she seemed very interested in it and a special interest is part of an autistic person's wellbeing, it can help them tune the environment out when it's too overwhelming.

    Concerning anxiety, this is very common in people on The Autism Spectrum. In an autistic mind there's greater variation in the occipital lobes at the back of the brain that PhD. Thomas Armstrong says makes the mind work in a systematic way. This does explain things like the preference for routines and uncomfortable with changes, the autistic people I've listened to say when following a routine they feel much less anxiety.

    Concerning depression, this is also very common in autistic people. The most common type of depression is most likely "Situational Depression". When an individual is not able to adapt to the present circumstances it causes the depression (like people struggle to adapt to the loss of a loved one, redundancy etc.. Since so many autistic people are uncomfortable with changes they can struggle to adapt to new circumstances. Psychological studies show that depressed people have a more realistic evaluation of events. A good way to help with depression is gratitude, you could ask your daughter a couple of times a day to tell you something she's grateful for.

  • in reply to Daniel

    Amazing, thank you so much for your reply, it helped me get a better understanding. New issues arrive everyday so I'm trying to understand her more day by day. 

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