Hey there,
I have a seventeen year old in her final year of school. Very bright. Determined to go off to uni next year but I'm not entirely convinced...
Less than a year ago she was suicidally depressed after a difficult mental breakdown and out of school. Her mental health is stable now (thank God!) but I am concerned that a massive change and an intense environment are potential ingredients to send her over the edge again. Perhaps I am being a typical mother finding the idea of her baby fledging the nest difficult. I want to help her fulfil her ambitions, but I am also aware that the next ten months are going to be a steep learning curve.
The main struggles are as follows:
- Executive functioning: a tendency to be very forgetful and disorganised (remembering appointments, mealtimes, etc.)
- ...and consequently OCD in an attempt to manage it (anxiety, obsessing over routine, labelling things, continuously checking timetable, mild paranoia about germs)
- OFF/ON brain. All or nothing. Intense focus and enthusiasm followed by burnout after pushing too far and not knowing when to stop.
- 1,2,3-7,8,9 emotional scale. Quick to flare up and act irrationally/impulsively (self-harm, etc.)
- Non-existent social skills. She doesn't have much experience with social interactions or friendships, and tends to over-mask or not at all, resulting in intense hyperactive extrovert time followed by reclusiveness.
I would really appreciate any advice anyone has about learning to cope as an autistic person in the adult world, and any opportunities you think might be beneficial for learning some life skills. She is desperate to make friends and practise interacting with people. I was wondering about a summer job, but what kind and how much this would reflect uni social skills, I don't know. Do you know of any autistic summer schools... youth camps... teenage support groups which could be recommended? I'm sure there will be books out there about aspie life skills, but I think practice is invaluable... but what kind I am yet to decide!
