Dear Dr. T and C. Evans,
I had never heard of Aspergers until just over a year and half ago when my son became ill with severe panic disorder. There is so much we don’t understand and it is complex and affects many areas of his life.
He had really subtle differences in childhood, some being appearing to be very shy yet always observing other children and seemingly trying to negotiate ways to have one on one friendships. He never cried as a child much if at all. He had very high pain tollerance we found out when he broke his arm and didn't cry at all. Then, all of a sudden through puberty everything became very pronounced and escalated with sensory difficulties creating panic and severe social anxiety within a year became homebound.
He is now age 15 and not able to go out in the vehicle. He is not entirely sure why, however the start of his severe panic attacks began in the vehicle, which only makes sense to us why he is unable to at the moment.
During my research of anxiety - I stumbled across the video of Clay Marzo, Just Add Water. I cried as you start to describe ASD and as I see Clay in the video react in the exact manner I am all too familiar with. The social difficulty being the most prevalent and being unable to “read a face” is also part of it. Inablity to read others emotions or misread and misinterpret is a problem especially during teenage years. Another video with Jill Marzo, Clays mother describes Clay as a child and again- similiarities.
So my first question is about teenage dating, once we cross that bridge, if at all.
My son only knows about his anxiety disorder, the trouble is his inability to read emotions leave him appearing very much uncaring. Which is far from the truth, he does but he isn't able to sense that... this will likely cause him relationship difficulties in the future. I am trying to make him understand his mis-reading of facial expressions which cause him problems with me.
My sons diagnosis is Severe Anxiety/Panic Disorder . I know from previous webinars you have stated the teenage years are not a good time for diagnosis and my sons doctor agrees with this, yet he is being administered more and more medications for the anxiety, which concerns me in how this may affect the ASD, should he have it. When it does come time for diagnoses I am wondering should he have to be removed from the medication even though his ASD symptoms are still evident ? Those symptoms are the social difficulty, some sensory problems, less of OCD, but has separation anxiety as well that I want the doctors to observe. His Prozac was just recently doubled and he still has these ASD symptoms with lessened anxiety. Should this not be a marker for his doctors to determine he has more than the anxiety disorder?
Everthing you speak of in your web videos, pretty much describes my son entirely.
What is also interesting note is his 24 year old male cousin also suffers a similar disorder which he has not had a full diagnosis either. He has spent all of his teenage years, as we are now, wondering what this is. Now he isn't sure he wants a diagnosis.
The therapist nor the psychiatrist who diagnosed my sons anxiety, really has not had a full clinical experience and do not “see” Aspergers Syndrome. The trouble is he has not had any opportunity to really express himself completely in his difficulties to his therapist yet either.
As far as his schooling, his distance educators also have based his anxiety diagnosis around his school curriculum. They assure me that even if he had ASD, the curriculum would be the same. ? At the moment, he is barely enduring Algebra. From what I understand from Temple Grandin, is Algebra is extremely difficult for those on the Autism Spectrum. He is only able to manage one school subject currently and has very big difficulties with change in routines or schedules and again I see this as an ASD symptom rather than an anxiety.
I have so many questions, but many have been answered in your webinars. I wish when just before he became ill, we knew some of his difficulty as we were in Brisbane touring Australia and a few blocks away from your clinic. This was prior to his panic attacks. I’m amazed with him he managed the trip okay and only showed some difficulty in crowded places. (before we knew ).
My question is how do we proceed from here?
My fear is he stumbles across the information about ASD on his own. There are some movies and tv shows out now with Aspergers being part of the storyline. I'm concerned how he may take that information to be quite honest. On the other hand, he wants to know what is wrong with him and why he is the way he is. I feel it is unfair to not have a clinical diagnosis.
On the flipside we as parents are criticized by people, who I feel do not understand the disorder, and say to us "boot him out the door"... ? I'm not doing that! He's not lazy ... he has a disorder. As invisible as it is, its very real.
My other question is... why would a doctor not have neurological tests done ? I would hope there is nothing physically wrong with regards to his brain function that could be otherwise causing these episodes he has.
The episodes are toned down with the Prozac to more of a pre-panic symptom which he is learning to manage on his own.
I think you mention in one of your web sessions, a young fellow who has figured out the cure to Aspergers... which also my son has figured out that avoidance of social interaction is how he is dealing with the disorder. He has kept in contact on skype with some friends yet really has no desire to actually "see them" in person. Really quite concerning at his age.
Thank you again to Autism Hangout, Craig Evans and Dr. Tony Attwood for all of your insights. They have proven such a valuable resource to me.
Yours truly,
Dazzle
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