Hi,
I haven't posted for a while, hope you are all doing well. I'm sorry, this post has turned out much longer than I intended.
So, I have a 12 year old son, who was diagnosed with ASD a couple of years ago. He suffers hugely with anxiety and managed to attend mainstream secondary school for one day last September before basically refusing to return due to anxiety - after a long process, we've just been told he'll get an EHCP, so some good news for once.
Over the past few months, he's gradually stopped seeing friends and going out - we used to be able to entice him to walk to town for Gregg's bakery for his usual treats but that's stopped now - I think maybe something happened when he was out with his mum that scared him. His world is getting smaller and smaller.
So, a few weeks ago we had a holiday in Spain planned, staying in a villa, so we could manage the environment and keep it low stimulation. My son obviously knew about this and leading up to it had said things like "I don't really want to go". Then, the night of flying out, as we're about to leave the house to drive to the airport, my son tells us that he can't do it and doesn't want to go to spain - it's too much for him. I asked my wife if she would go without me and our son - just her, her mum and our eight year old daughter, but she wouldn't because I'm the only driver and we'd planned to hire a car in Spain. So, my wife talks our son into going to the airport, basically by tricking him and telling him he wouldn't need to get out the car. We arrived at the airport and my wife made him get out the car and basically forced him on the plane.
Once in Spain, after a surpisingly good first day, my son wouldn't leave his bedroom in the villa and soon began telling us that he'd developed and eye problem - that he was seeing lots of static and bright lights in his eyes - he was staying in the room with lights down low and permanently wearing sunglasses. That continued the whole week and several times we offered him the opportunity to go home early or see a doctor - he wouldn't do either.
Back home, the eye problem has continued - he's absolutely fixed on this idea that he has something terribly wrong with his eyes - seeing colours, bright lights, shapes - he found a problem called "visual snow" on the internet which is a neurological condition and he thinks he has that. We've taken him to an optician who gave him a full eye test and found nothing wrong besides needing some glasses for short sightedness - which he's avoiding wearing now he has them but he's absolutely fixated on seeing things in his vision. I arranged a GP appointment for him to talk about it but he wouldn't go. He's spending most his time in his bedroom, hiding under a bedsheet because he says bright light makes the shapes and lights in his vision worse. He won't shower until after dark. It's all a bit crazy.
I feel terrible because it seems like the holiday in Spain has traumatised him. He has another optician appointment tomorrow, in an attempt to reassure him and we've even paid for a private psychiatrist appointment next week to discuss this (CAHMS seems pointless - we took him for an assessment a couple of months ago because of anxiety and the result was being told his problems are caused by autism)
I guess, I'm wondering if anyone has had any similar problems? It's also a bit therapeutic for me to write all this down, I think.
