• Replies 4 replies
  • Subscribers 6 subscribers
  • Views 2880 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

Elderly mother may have autism?

Priss

Hi this is my first time here.  Just posted a reply on another thread but realise I maybe should have started a new thread here.

i have two children who have an autism diagnosis (boy 23, girl 16). I belong to a family of four sisters and our mother is 88. I recently toyed with the notion that our elderly mother may be autistic.  Having two children with asd I think I am more familiar with autistic symptoms than my other 3 sisters, two of whom have no children. In a recent conversation with my sister who does have 4 adult children, one of which has recently self assessed and diagnosed as autistic, we entertained the notion that possibly all of us are somewhere on that spectrum including our mum.

In recent tv documentaries which explore autism I could relate particularly to what was said about masking being that I think me and my sisters have all struggled over the years with mental health issues, and so on. 

my question really is, does anyone here have any experience of an elderly parent with undiagnosed autism?  My mother has struggled all her life with high anxiety which is now off the scale. She’s really not in a good place with depression and I wonder if there is something we can do to help. She’s on all sorts of medications.

  • in reply to dopamineplz

    That's good news if they are treating "as if" anyway.  It might be the kindest approach at her age.

  • in reply to Dawn

    Yes that’s exactly it. I feel the go should know, or at least consider the possibility so that they can maybe offer a different approach. However, in my experience, not all gps are on board with asd and have limited knowledge of it.

    thanks for your reply 

  • in reply to Dawn

    i agree, if she has capacity it's a very delicate subject.  I can't persuade my mother to do anything at all and she has capacity, so I've had to watch her deteriorate with heart failure and cancer almost to the point of death and then she was blue lighted into hospital. It's heartbreaking Cherry blossom  having gone through all that and now chemotherapy, there is no way mother could cope with autism assessment, though I think her medical team now realise she is autistic and are making adjustments anyway.

  • Hmmm....I suspect mine has traits.  Not about to tell her that though.

    Your mum sounds like she really isn't in a good way though and it may be that whatever treatments they are giving her aren't right because they are missing an essential part of the diagnosis.  It's a tricky one; to tell her or not to tell her at 88, or whether to mention it to her medical team. If she's got capacity, ethically it's tough to wade in.