My son (16) has OCD, depression, and severe anxiety. His therapist recently suggested I get him a neuropsych and that he may have autism as well. He doesn’t fit the “profile” socially but a lot of the other things I’m reading resonate, especially his shutting down behavior. He’s in a bad place right now. He did residential treatment for OCD and only got worse. He feels hopeless. He is combative and resistant to everything. He has just restarted 10th grade at a 1:1 school after losing most of the year to severe depression, OCD, and ineffective treatment. Is there a way to distinguish between defense mode and depression? All the professional advice I’ve gotten has been to ask more and more of him - be stricter, add more to his schedule, insist he do a sport or get intense exercise daily, add chores, etc. Frankly it’s beyond my own capacity to do everything I’m “supposed” to do to manage his moods. But then his behavior seems to match autistic burnout and the advice for that is the exact opposite? Does getting neuropsych eval tell me whether to push more or less? Is there another way to know while we wait for that? I’m so confused, and desperately trying to keep all our heads above water.

Posted by tallsally at 2023-03-10 19:27:21 UTC