Hi,
I hope I'm putting this in the right place- please let me know if another section would be more appropriate.
Our 16 yr old daughter was diagnosed with "ASD (high functioning)" last October. She'd never been seriously troubled by any of her ASD traits until becoming extremely anxious when her older sister was seriously ill a couple of years ago.
We accepted the referral and the diagnosis because she is so terribly anxious and we wanted her to be able to access appropriate help.
However, once the diagnostic process was complete, and we asked her psychologist what help she would now be able to get with her anxiety, the reply was that autistic people *are* anxious, and the best approach is not to put her in anxiety-provoking situations. I said that we didn't really feel that was an option, as 1) she is in year 11 in a mainstream school and 2) she has a life to live, and many of the things which give her most joy and satisfaction now were things which initially provoked much anxiety.
The psych went on to explain that counselling and other "talking therapy" approaches are not helpful in ASD because anything which is learned in the sessions doesn't "generalise" successfully into the problem situations. She also said that medications for anxiety weren't indicated because our daughter doesn't have an "anxiety disorder", but rather an anxiety which is normal for someone with her condition.
Currently, she is having panic attacks typically daily, sometimes more often (and there are odd days with no attacks). I hope that this will lessen after her GCSEs, but I don't think it will be eliminated, and don't want her to have to live like this forever.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
