Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi everyone, havent been here for a while as things were going as smoothly as possible, but I really need some advice. My step daughter who is 17 has been acting so strange for the last couple of weeks, she has now started to walk around naked and will even start to undress even in front of us all in the living room, we have explained as best we can for her to understand that this is innapropriate, she has been acting strange in school aswell. She says things like everyones going backwards but doesnt know what she means, her tics have increased, its just totally as if she is a different person. It is so awkward as she thinks nothing of doing this infront of her 14yr old brother and her dad. She says she cant walk from one room to another, just stating she cant do it. It is all so odd, we are desperately worried as obvioulsy we know our daughter and none of this is normal for her. She says she knows she is doing weird things but cant give an answer as to why. Please can anyone shed any light and the sudden change, if it was gradual it would be easier to understand but this has happened so suddenly, :(.
I think I'm more of a fan of conventional medicine than SOI! I share her aversion to medicalising for autism but autism may not be her only problem by the sound of it. I wouldn't avoid asking for help from the nhs. There is growing understanding of autism there and it isn't all about doling out anti-psychotics.
There are lots of suggestions that diet can make a massive difference to autistic's behaviour. There is an exclusion diet at fedup.com.au/.../how-to-start-failsafe-eating that aims to assist with identifying foods that might affect a child's behaviour. Personally I have found that I am intolerant of apples and lots of other fruits. I always thought that these couldn't possibly be harmful but then found
www.allergyuk.org/.../oral-allergy-syndrome
I haven't detected any direct impact on my mental health but generally feel better and my GI system seems to appreciate me avoiding apples in particular.
So has she started to eat or drink any different things recently?
A good site for evidence based research is
www.researchautism.net/.../our-evaluations-interventions
This suggests that Gluten and Casein free diets are not generally useful for ASD. It may be worth however to have her tested for allergies and intolerances.
Last time Holford's name came up on this forum...
community.autism.org.uk/.../recombinantsocks-patrick-holfords-optimum-nutrition-mind
I wouldn't discount anything however. Mark Twain: A crank is a crank until he's proved right!