• Replies 1 reply
  • Subscribers 66 subscribers
  • Views 45 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Rumination and catastrophising

FlamingoLass21

Hi

My 17 year old daughter is autistic and I am very worried about her. She appears to be very depressed but refuses any offer of help including counselling.

she is interested in World events but as you can imagine, this just adds to her distress. However, she will not remove herself from social media or minimise reading the news as she believes this is just denial of what is going on in the world. She believes that everything is terrible and, as is often the case, is very difficult to argue with. 

This week, she's said about 20 words to her family and I have not seen her smile. She does not believe that mindfulness, CBT or counselling will help her because she already knows the outcome.

She has only been diagnosed for two years so we are still learning, but i feel as though she has a persistently negative view of absolutely everything. She picks fault with anything and everything and is very hard to be around.

I just want my girl to be happier but I have run out of ideas in the face of persistent resistance and I worry that things will end badly. Any suggestions?

  • Hi  FlamingoLass21, I'm sorry to hear about your daughters distress.  I was doing similar a while back and was told it was OCD. I would get up and come straight online on another forum and check all the threads out, usually the very scary real world events ones. It was explained that my mind woulld want to see these threads, and even if it took 10 scary ones, it would seek out/try and find reassurance that things wasn't so bad by finding the one thread that said, hang on a minute, it's not so because...But because i'd read those 10 other scary threads, my mind was on hiigh alert and would go seeking the reassurance, and so on in a loop. 

    The world is very scary right now but try and reassure your daughter that the internet is not generally a healthy place. What with algorithyms and even the news is designed to be scary to keep you clicking. The more you click, the more money they make. The rich want to keep you scared, it keeps them rich. 

    If she would like , I can recommend https://www.positive.news/ and https://reasonstobecheerful.world/ to give a balanced view. 

    I also appreciate it can be very hard and worrying for you. Don't forget to take care of yourself. I really wish you both the best.

    EDIT: Sorry edited to add, I've just started reading a book, Stop Overthinking: 23 Techniques to Relieve Stress, Stop Negative Spirials, Declutter Your Mind and Focus on thhe Present, by Nick Trenton. I'm only a bit into it but it's making a lot of sense so far so thought I would recommend it.