Hello!
Looking for advice and opinions on my daughter pretty please.
Theres always been something not quite there with my daughter.
She’s never been able to make and hold on to friends,
She’s always been a constant worrier,
She’s extremely emotional and unable to control these; when she’s sad, she’s very tearful and inconsolable, when she’s happy, she’s over the top ecstatic. She will become happy or extremely sad when least expected.
She’s always been happier having one solid ‘mother hen’ type friend but fails to hold onto these.
She’s extremely anxious in situations with too many people around,
She can’t handle new experiences
In the last week, new revelations have come forward; she’s been suffering with panic attacks. When walking on her own, from class to class or feeling/ being alone in unstructured times (break and lunch) she’s overcome by this gut-wrenching, overwhelming fear and when she explained what happens, I knew it was panic attacks. She’s now at a point where she doesn’t want to leave the house and go to school. She has had issues with friends (again) so I know this is a factor. She is receiving help for her anxiety at school, but the school nursing team have revealed to me that, whilst they have seen an improvement with how She responds to the nurse herself, what they can offer isn’t enough, there’s something more. She’s being referred on for her anxiety issues.
However, I think theres more. I think my darling girl is on the spectrum. She’s 12 years old, in her first year at high school and, since starting year 7, all the issues that have been lingering and not quite right have exploded into being.
Shes unable to socialise; when she does make friends, she doesn’t know how to behave around them. She goes into fits of hyper (talking fast, loud, ‘large’ movements, bouncing jumping etc) during unstructured times when amongst her peers, which she is aware her friends find ‘annoying’ but she can not help it.
Shes extremely shy, thinks so little of herself, the learning support officer at school has never dealt with someone who is so down on themselves. She hates the unexpected, being known to cry when asked a question in class without voluntarily offering the answer.
She is, however, extremely gifted academically. She’s in top set for all her classes and teachers can do nothing but praise her abilities, the only feedback they give is that she is extremely quiet and shy and doesn’t voice herself enough. She’s very creative and one of her comforts is to draw these beautiful pictures, usually depicting a very sad girl however.
We have a doctors appointment Thursday. Whilst the anxiety side of it needs dealing with, I want to mention the spectrum side of it. I think I have grounds to believe this is the underlying matter and the longer it goes undetected, the worse it’ll be. But I’m wondering am I right to feel this way? Do I have the grounds to think it is possibly ASD?
My 7year old son was diagnosed at the age of 5 and the help came to us. Having to chase the support etc is so new and slightly overwhelming.
Any advice would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.