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15 year old son with severe anxiety not attending school, possible autism / ADHD - help to know where to start for tests

NAS80054

Hi Im hoping someone might read this and hopefully give me some in site as to what to do next.

My son has struggled with attending school since starting high school, he struggles to make friends, has severe anxiety about school but is happy to go out skateboarding and does seem to be able to be social with people whilst doing this.

I  had to go private to get him tested for various things and it was suggested he could have traits of autism / ADHD. Since the pandemic I have not managed to get him properly diagnosed as it was thought by school and doctors that he was just depressed. School are letting him do a reduced timetable but are not pushing him to go in so he's attending less and less. He has been referred to CAMHS but again this takes months and he is almost year 11. 

We are a single parent family and his dad has not been a part of his or his brothers life for a number of years now so this could also have something to do with it. He has severe issues with his dad abandoning him.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to where I go next? There are tests out there for Autism but Im not sure it is definitive that it is Autism. Clinical Partners do a test for mental health and also Autism, does  anyone have any experience of them or any other similar companies that could help. I am paying for this myself rather than through the NHS so any advice anyone could give would be greatly appreciated. My son has done so much research himself that he is convinced it is only anxiety and not Autism.

My brother was diagnosed as Autistic in late adulthood I don't want my son to have the same struggles that he has had.

Parents
  • in reply to roberysmit

    A brother late diagnosed is a sign that one might not notice traits due to a lack of understanding, knowledge, education on the matter. 

    Pre-1980, the autistic 'wiring' perhaps needed little notice. Society perhaps sat through church once a week and were allowed to consider that not everyone thinks or reasons the same. But in this current climate, where Corporations can use adverts to homogenise thinking in society, where schools are shifting from education to NTypical socialising for grading and where individuals are no longer checking their cognitive bias but presuming everyone uses language the same and should be able to mature and learn the same, it is imperative for those who are autistic to be able to help the rest of society understand these are not little nuances of difference. Our autistic beings are marginalised to homelessness or unjustly accused, many experience an incredible amount of prejudice from a majority who assumes competition is a normal mode of communication, and traumatising, cruel practices focus on behaviour based on NeuroTypcial Motives rather than Autistic expression of intellect. This is of grave concern.

    By todays standards, not noticing is normal. From an autistic perspective, someone who does not relate with other autistic beings won't need a diagnostic and won't really identify with how they socialise or exchange ideas. It's a very hard (as in contrasting) difference.

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  • in reply to roberysmit

    A brother late diagnosed is a sign that one might not notice traits due to a lack of understanding, knowledge, education on the matter. 

    Pre-1980, the autistic 'wiring' perhaps needed little notice. Society perhaps sat through church once a week and were allowed to consider that not everyone thinks or reasons the same. But in this current climate, where Corporations can use adverts to homogenise thinking in society, where schools are shifting from education to NTypical socialising for grading and where individuals are no longer checking their cognitive bias but presuming everyone uses language the same and should be able to mature and learn the same, it is imperative for those who are autistic to be able to help the rest of society understand these are not little nuances of difference. Our autistic beings are marginalised to homelessness or unjustly accused, many experience an incredible amount of prejudice from a majority who assumes competition is a normal mode of communication, and traumatising, cruel practices focus on behaviour based on NeuroTypcial Motives rather than Autistic expression of intellect. This is of grave concern.

    By todays standards, not noticing is normal. From an autistic perspective, someone who does not relate with other autistic beings won't need a diagnostic and won't really identify with how they socialise or exchange ideas. It's a very hard (as in contrasting) difference.

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