Published on 12, July, 2020
Background:MY 16 years old son has always been anti-social - since nursery until today. He was top 3 at secondary school of 1500 in Year 7. He had no friends and all teachers couldn't say enough good things about him. In year 8, he befrended some bad boys from school and became 3d from the bottom - literally. Teachers hated him. He was expelled. Remotely schoold for a year, briefly schooled in a "special" schoold and stopped going there by mutual agreement. When 14 he formed drugs interest based on peer presure. When15, he had problems with police, gang culture (small town in West middland ), was arested etc. He was sent to his granny for a couple of months and now he is back. He stopped with the gansta, split up with his bad friend, stopped having problems with the police and acquired a nihilistic point of view. He tried to kill himself last week. We talked to CAMHS and Early prevention:
- we think he is autistic but he cannot be diagnosed because he is out of the system now - no referral is possible from school.
- he is suicidal and we expect to try again any time soon - we are relifed he survived the week
- he is self medicating with weed as he is struggling with mental health - NHS says he is having drug issue (weed is not a drug for me) and cannot be diagnosed until he is off the weed.
The ask:
What help is avaialbe as a private route - NHS cannot recommend as they are just being NHS. On the other hand, we cannot navigate in the sea of internet sites. We found we can find private diagnostic center near us. However I don't know if he will survive the diagnosis before someone can help him.
It could be good to have him tested for ADHD as well. Bless, it's incredibly hard - hang in there!
There is a reason ADHD and Autism (and then also Epilepsy) find weed helps. This Californian-based Professor explains the difference in the strains and how they work with or against the human brain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXvuJu1kt48v=V_K4PAkFtRY
One variety helps filter out sense-perception for relief and aid focus / executive function, which are very specific things Autistic and ADHD have difficulty with (frontal left lobe) - organisation for instance. We are a mismatch in modern society. Often stuck in to right-brained thinking (tapping into a time-stream that is eternal/moment vs linear). Often overwhelmed by more intense impact from our sense-perception among other things.
My son went through some of the same issues. He's dyslexic, not autistic, but experiences some of the same hyper-sensory impact, executive function issues and prejudice. I finally got him on a reishi and ashwaganda supplement (now at 27, he just takes a mushroom blend with Lions Mane and Rieshi) this is a healthy long-term solution for us. I've found it helpful personally, supporting my gut-brain axis: focus / clarity and also my ability to digest what I'm not allergic to. It promotes vitamin D.
However, an immediate POSSIBLE fix with a private GP (I don't fully know your situation): There are still moments where both my son and I need medical help shutting down looping melodies or a whole agenda creating excitement, spiralling into over-stimulation and anxiety which keeps me awake at night or becomes unmanageable. There's a good deal of medical research on Autism and ADHD being prone to less GABA (which is responsible for shutting this down in the brain), so in a pinch I do have a Private prescription for Xanax which is designed specifically for this (and for clarity, beware that anti-depressants further lower GABA which can be deadly for those of us with this different biology).
As this won't conflict with weed, under supervision one can always see if it's a momentary fix - just to get him through the week. For a healthy long-term solution, I'm a fan of a good nootropics blend.
yes, we wil go down the private route for diagnosis.
He says he hears voices at night and cannot sleep. He is paranoid and distrustful.
We are afraid to give him any medications as his first thougth would be to OD. He tried last week with his moms herbal tabs. Could you suggest any clinic/practice for the food supplements?