BBC - When Mother's Love is Not Enough

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In a frank and moving documentary, successful businesswoman, charity worker and confidante of the late Princess Diana, Rosa Monckton, explores the realities families face when caring for a disabled child.

Against a backdrop of headline-grabbing cases in which desperate mothers, such as Fiona Pilkington, killed themselves and their child because they could no longer face the daily reality of their lives, Rosa, who herself has a child with Down's syndrome, admits that she too has felt a crushing despair.

Aired on BBC One (N. Ireland and Wales) on Tuesday 10th November. If you didn't see it, you can watch it via the link below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ntmbf

The documentary featured a lad with AS. Maybe I'm over-reacting, but once again people with AS are portrayed as aggressive and 'hard to handle' due to violent outbursts. Automatically, I couldn't help but notice that the young man in this documentary was displaying symptoms associated with other conditions rather than Autism. What appeared to be undiagnosed ADHD and Tourettes was portrayed as 'bad behaviour' on account of Asperger's Syndrome.

I'm curious to hear your opinions on it.

That kid was a victim of his parents - ffs how come he was allowed to walk sideways.

The honesty of those filmed impressed me, as did suicide getting good coverage.

It was certainly an a-typical case of AS with possibly other disorders you mention being undiagnosed. It interested me how the behavior was portrayed as both personal choice and caused by AS. Running sideways, continually watching videos of himself, these were just eccentricities caused by the AS rather than a choice he was making. The worse behavior his father challenges, he himself admits was wrong and must not do again, suggesting he has a choice and is within his control. However, the way this behavior is always then narrated back to the disorder, especially since the behavior warrants specialist care under the assumption it is caused by AS. This contradiction suggests the AS does not directly cause this behavior, instead AS makes people choose not to avoid such behavior. That they have a choice but the AS makes them not exercise it.

That neglects any mention of lacking social boundaries, sensory overloads, difficulties with empathy, focused interests that should not be interrupted, the obsessive desire for maintenance of the same. That he has far less choice than is being portrayed.

The thing about this documentary was that it was about the difficulties of raising a child with ANY disability. It wasn't making out that ALL people with AS were like him, but some of us unfortunately are or were like this. I agree though, he totally has Tourette syndrome. He even has some of the same tics as I do. That probably doesn't help with the agression.

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I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )