UnicornsearcherContributor
Treating psychiatrist calls Asperger's Syndrome "baloney"
Hi, this is my first post ever and am thankful to be able to talk about my difficult situation.
My daughter, who has just turned 20, is on a community treatment order after being an involuntary inpatient for 11 weeks. She was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, AS, when she was 8 years old and, even though very intelligent, has never succeeded at school because of her AS related difficulties.
In Jan 2013 she became psychotic and was an involuntary patient for 8 weeks and given a provisional diagnosis of bi-polar disorder. When she was discharged she was still far from her normal self and was angry with me and blamed me for all of her life's difficulties. This was reinforced by my mum and a sister who refused to believe that my daughter had AS (and still do).
My experience with the public mental health system has been very stressful as both times the treating psychiatrists have ignored her underlying AS - this was reinforced by my mother and sister who pretty well told them that I am an over controlling and manipulative mother - this despite the fact that I lived in a different state from them for all of my daughter's schooling which is where she had most of her difficulties when she was growing up.
So now I have my daughter being treated by a psychiatrist who refuses to acknowledge even the existence of AS let alone believing that it underlies her BP. He even told her gp to remove the AS diagnosis from her medical records.
I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that my daughter has AS but like many highly intelligent girls with AS, she has been able to mask and mimic to get by. My 21 year old son has AS as did my ex husband.
I'm furious that this psychiatrist can care for my daughter when he holds such rigid, false, fixed ideas. He will have also told her case worker to ignore any reference to AS.
I have been my daughter's next of kin since the day she was born but during this admission, when she was an involuntary patient, her nok was changed to the sister who dismisses AS. This sister is not a good role model as she drinks daily for stress relief, has 2 children of her own with mental health issues who she does not give enough time to and has recently broken a younger sister's marriage up by having an affair with the husband. She sets no boundaries for my daughter and doesn't even supervise her meds. She reinforces to my daughter that I'm the cause of her problems in life and that she's best away from me.
I'm very scared for my daughter's future - at the moment she is like a completely different person, almost as if she has had a complete personality change and I wonder if this is how she'll be forever.
Apologies for the length of this post and welcome any insights from others.
