I’m hoping someone here can help me regarding my son. His name is Matthew and he’s 26. Matthew has autism, he was diagnosed aged 10 and since then he’s never really grown up. He still plays with toys and loves to do imaginary play, sometimes on his own and sometimes with me and his mum. A while back he began to act differently, like other people where he adjusted his voice and his walk and actions. We found that he’s been doing this on his phone online. I discovered a lot of emails with different names, different genders which he says are his friends. I am worried now that this isn’t imaginary play and is becoming something else. I confess I don’t know much about autism but me and his mum have always supported Matthew through thick and thin. We support and encourage him in every way we can. We only want what’s best for him.
Regarding this I don’t know what to do to help Matthew. I’ve been online but it suggests so many potential things and half of them I don't think he's got anyway. It sounds a bit like split personality but I don't think so. I’m reluctant to seek professional help as professionals have dealt with Matthew before and in my opinion they made him worse. He doesn’t understand them and doesn’t really know what’s going on. As I said, he still like a child. Every time he saw them he had meltdowns, panic attacks and would refuse to leave the house sometimes for months after. I still think a lot of what Matt says and does is just him playing but I would like to ask here if anyone’s experienced this? If so could you tell me what’s up because I don’t know a lot about autism and if this is it or something else?
With kind regards and thanks, John.
