Hi there. I just signed on today and I would like some feedback or advice about my 24 yr old daughter Micaela. I believe she is on the autism spectrum. She believes she is too, but I never could get a diagnosis for her as a child no matter how much I tried. She was diagnosed with selective mutism when she was 4, but she has exhibited almost every symptoms of autism or Asperger's except for 1 or 2 in one degree or another. I tried all through her childhood to get her diagnosed but was denied everytime. I know she has it. She was given a questionnaire from a psychologist about 2 months ago and the result was that she scored a 45 out of 50 of the likelihood that she has autism or Asperger's. But the psychologist said she could not diagnose her. She didn't have the authority to. I don't understand that, but that's what I was told. She has no job is not independent at all and does not appear to know the first thing about how to go about being independent or even wants to. She has high anxiety of a lot of things like storms and doesn't want to live alone, but at the same time she is unable to connect with people or her peers and has a lot of trouble making and keeping friends and never wants to be part of a group even in family events, but at the same time doesn't want to be left out. It's like parallel play except she does this in everything she does. She's scared to get out and get a job, she has a license but won't drive in any weather but sunny, and won't drive at night. There are a lot of other things about her I could say, but hope you get the idea for now. I'm trying to get her on disability, but not sure if that will happen since I can't get her diagnosed or if people with autism spectrum can even get on disability. Any thoughts?

Posted by laura.woods at 2023-08-17 17:29:26 UTC