Hi! Newbie - two for the price of one!

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Hi! I am 53 yr old male originally from Ireland but living in England for many years. My 14 year old daughter is at last finally going through the formal diagnosis procedures to confirm the long standing belief of her relatives and schoolteachers that she has Aspergers or some sort of ASD. Health Authorities in this part of England are a nightmare to deal with as they are obsessed with the politically correct idea that young people should not be 'labelled'. The system failed daughter in primary school but her teachers at secondary school are forcing health authority to recognise her very obvious condition. In seeking help for my daughter I have come to realise that I may very well have Asperegers myself and having taken several online Aspergers tests they would indicate very strongly indeed that I have the condition. I know from the huge struggles I have had in life that this has been an undignosed condition. It is unlikely that I can ever get a formal diagnosis as health authority is cutting back on adult services to save money, I have no one left alive who knew me as a child (I understand that their evidence is important for a diagnosis in an adult) and as a full time carer for a wife with a mental illness I cannot work and cannot therefore afford a provate diagnosis.

I can understand the labeling bit. I can see someone saying, "You know what, I'm not going to college because I'm this or that and I'll fail", or, "I'm not going to get a job because I'm this or that and statistically I'm bound to fail." In that sense, labels will hold someone back from their potential because they've given up. As an adult, though, I found it necessary to have definition as an explanation of my quirks and behaviours and why I didn't accomplish the things my siblings did.

I have always understood the general argument against labelling children. However the local authorities here have a far more cynical reason. If a formal diagnosis is made by the NHS (National Health service to any non UK users) than and only then are they obliged to put into place extra resources to assist the child acheive their potential. With the current skin flint government saving money is the major factor in trying to avoid a diagnosis. In 2009 my daughter was finally assessed using the multiagency assessment process and it was clear that even though her psychologists and psychiatric reports indicated that she was clearly a child with either Asperegers or ASD it was the Social Services input to the assessment panel (any they are controlled by the local authority!) that persuaded the overall panel result to be a 'wait and see, she might have something but can we look at her later' result. As as result she had to move on to secondary school in a new local authority area who have now taken a refreshingly different and more proactive attitiude and are determined to put whatever resources they can in place to help her especially as at 14 she has only a very short time left to consider her future path in respect of career paths or help with her poor social skills as a teenager. For myself as an adult I totally agree that a label can be essential to put in context the reasons behind difficulties and blunders I have made in life already and give them some sort of closure as I will now understand why things happened the way they did and therefore be in a better informed positoin to move forward.

Welcome to WP!

i was 55 when i read about AS because my nephew was diagnosed. i found myself described. some things i failed at began to make sense. i never pursued an official diagnosis and have told only close family and friends.

welcome to WP.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welkome to WP

Mick