ASD daughter wants a wheelchair but her problems are psychosomatic.

[hockeysticks89]

Hi everyone

My mid teen daughter has ASD, Tourette's and FND. She had been susceptible to almost all social contagions, each one worse than the previous one.

Currently she has leg pains all the time and has begged us to get her a wheelchair. We've resisted this as her neurologist said not to, but now she's saying she can barely walk at all and won't leave the house. We're due to go abroad in a week and she's said that we have to book special assistance and get her a wheelchair in the resort. If we don't do this she will make our holiday a misery.

We've spent hundreds on psychotherapy to teach her coping techniques but I don't think she wants to cope.

I just don't know what to do. For the avoidance of doubt, all of her healthcare professionals have said her leg pains are real to her, but are psychosomatic.

Thanks for any words of wisdom.

If it is a choice between no holiday/a very difficult holiday and a holiday the whole family can enjoy, I would use special assistance (which would help wheelchair or no wheelchair)/a wheelchair. Many DC with ASD find holidays overwhelming even without the added FND and Tourette’s.

Thank you for your wise words, I think this is the direction I'm going in

Apologies if I am speaking out of turn, it isn’t the subject of your thread, but have you considered DD is in autistic burnout and it is that and the overwhelm that leads to burnout causing her symptoms that have led to the diagnosis of FND?

Thank you, that's really interesting as I mentioned this to her psychotherapist, who had to google it, and her consultant pediatrician neurologist didn't mention it.it would make sense though, in terms of the timing of her GCSEs.

I would like to say I am surprised, but I’m not. I wouldn’t rule out autistic burnout just because the consultant and psychotherapist haven’t mentioned it. If it is possible, a therapist with experience of autism would be better.