Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello, my name is Sue.
My daughter is 26 years' old and was diagnosed (privately) with ADHD, Autism and PTSD about 18 months' ago. This followed several years of being prescribed a variety of anti-depressants and several rounds of CBT through the NHS. We are funding her psychiatric treatment and therapy privately. My daughter tells me that she first became aware of the need to "mask" from the age of about 8.and I can recall her saying to me "Mummy, I am different" and my response was "different doesn't mean bad, sweetpea". She presents as a confident and vibrant young woman because of her learned strategies. The amount of energy and stress this means for her has led to a series of "burnouts" which impacts on her ability to work.
My experience, so far, is that there is lots of support and guidance out there for how to support your child, far less on supporting adults. What I crave is a non-judgemental forum where I can share candidly the impact this is having on me and the rest of the family. Is there anyone else out there who has felt any of the following:
I realise that this list is becoming rather long:( Do any of you recognise any part of my emotional roller coaster?
I'm not a parent of an autistic child, but I'm pretty sure that my Mum experiences at least the first three things on this list.