Dealing with anxiety first?

[nedgly]

My 15 yr old dd had her 1st appointment with psych at CAHMS yesterday. He says he's not sure if she has an asd or not, but he did say that she has extreme anxiety and that he wants to deal with that first. He's talking about her having a couple of appointments on her own and then we will all meet again and he will discuss with us what they have found so far and also said that there is a strong possibility that he will need to put her on some meds to relieve her anxiety before they can go on and look at the underlying causes of her anxiety.

 

To be honest she has always been anxious, but it has increased in a big way in the past couple of years. I'm just worried that he can only see the anxiety and will just skim over her other problems and that she won't get a diagnosis.

 

Has anyone else's child had severe anxiety treated first before they could go on and look at the other things that are going on and was that child then diagnosed with an asd?

 

Sorry for ranting on everyone, this is just going round and round in my mind and i'm sooo worried he won't pick up on everything.

 

Thanks for listening, I think I feel a bit better now it's out of my head.

Nedgly

[summertime]

Looks like we are in the same position only my DD will be 14 in two weeks, she's always been very anxious but its only now she's older Im noticing more and more traits, very literal, socialising with peers etc. We went to CAMHS and they useless, they went round and round in circles not addressing any issues at all. I deal with CAMHS in another area and they are brilliant but the one we have has only made her worse

 

Im now looking to try and get her assessed so we know whats going on and that hopefully will give us a clearer idea of where to get some support for her from

[purplehaze]

Hello, my son who has ASD has high levels of anxiety which has grown over the years due to the lack of understanding in mainstream school. The only problem with dealing with the anxiety is if she has ASD then strategies need to be put into place to help the anxiety. It states on my sons statement that he needs support for his ASD and anxiety they both are linked. I think you should discuss this with your pysch. X

[Karen A]

Looks like we are in the same position only my DD will be 14 in two weeks, she's always been very anxious but its only now she's older Im noticing more and more traits, very literal, socialising with peers etc. We went to CAMHS and they useless, they went round and round in circles not addressing any issues at all. I deal with CAMHS in another area and they are brilliant but the one we have has only made her worse

 

Im now looking to try and get her assessed so we know whats going on and that hopefully will give us a clearer idea of where to get some support for her from

 

Summertime have you thought about asking for a second opinion with Camhs in another area....just a thought.Karen.

[jb1964]

Has anyone else's child had severe anxiety treated first before they could go on and look at the other things that are going on and was that child then diagnosed with an asd?

Nedgly

 

Hi Nedgly,

 

Within 6 weeks of starting comp. my daughters' (she was 11 at the time) anxieties reached a level of where she couldn't swallow any food at all (she lived on 'build up' drinks for more than 6 months) - and within 3 months she'd lost so much weight (she was tiny anyway and under a paed for failure to thrive since birth) that the paed. referred her to CAHMS for anorexia (she was just over 3 stone).

 

While she was there - they desperately tried to treat the anxieties because it had become critical and within one session they knew it was not anorexia - on the second session they suspected aspergers and she then continued an intensive assessment for 6 months to mainly get to help her anxieties and to start eating food again - but looking at the same time for other factors.

 

I'm sure that even though they will be focusing on helping your daughter they will be looking at underlying things as well - as they basically go hand in hand.

 

Take care,

Jb

Edited March 14, 2008 by jb1964

[Clare63]

Hi Nedgly,

 

My DS was originally referred to camhs with OCD as a result of high anxiety, during a whole year of unravelling he was found to be aspergers. You will find that whilst initially it seems they are just scratching the surface they will dig deeper and ask you as the parents for a history of childhood behaviours.

 

Clare x x x

[nedgly]

Clare did they treat his anxiety first and then start to look at other things beneath the surface?

they're talking about putting dd on medication and getting her anxiety levels down first before they start looking at anything else. I'm just hoping they do look at the underlying causes of her anxiety before they send her away. I think i'm going to have to get tough on this and insist they find the reasons for her anxiety, because there is definitely more to this than it first appears. x

[Clare63]

Hi again,

 

Well they tried to work on his anxiety, though we did not go down the meds route (surely that just covers things up ? or maybe if the anxiety is so bad they feel meds are better to enable them to work with the child, though my son has never been seen on his own as totally refuses and is far too anxious to be alone with anyone else)

 

In fact for most part of the year my son could not face going or was up to going to the appoinments at camhs so I had to go on my own or when they asked with my son's Father, they gave me strageties to work on with him etc as nothing changed and things got worse we were refered on to see a consultant psychiatrist who very quickly came to the conclusion he had Aspergers, the OCD was not undertaken to save guard bad things happening, but more as a comfort / sensory thing, the anxiety seemed to relate to him trying to be, for want of a better word "normal" casuing him stress and the lack of understanding of how he felt and felt things around by not only school but us also as a family.

 

I can only really suggest you talk through with the pychologist your concerns and illustrate them with as much evidence as you can gather, such as what your daughter was like as a baby, toddler, young child etc

 

Good luck and keep me posted on how you get along.

 

Clare x x x

[purplehaze]

the anxiety seemed to relate to him trying to be, for want of a better word "normal" casuing him stress and the lack of understanding of how he felt and felt things around by not only school but us also as a family.clare x x x

 

 

Hello Clare, my son has high levels of anxiety at home and school and is so desperate to be 'normal'. Can I ask did you have any strategies to help your son?

[Clare63]

Hi Purplehaze,

 

Whilst things are a whole lot better than they were, I hasten to add he still expereinces high levels of anxiety at certain time. Our only real strategy is being aware of the triggers and trying to prepare him as best as possible for things we are planning and if things start to go wrong or I see the anxiety increasing and my stragtegies not working I take him out of the situation. I guess a lot of it is down to trying to understand the individual, as we all know everyone with ASD's are quite different, my son is the passive/anxious person.

 

An example would be (you have to bear in mind here, my son has huge difficulties leaving the house) we went to the garden centre for a hot chocolate, I would let him choose where to sit and encourage him to sit somewhere different each time, we don't order our drinks till he says he's ready (ie comfortable and not anxious) then we have chance to leave if his not, last time we went it was full of older ladies and he said their nattering was far too noisey for him (which made me laugh its usually old people who complain the youngsters are too noisey) I said lets see if some of them go in a minute as they all seem to be packing up to go, he started to relax at the thought and we got chatting, as we ordered our hot chocolate I looked around and the place was full.

 

Strategies givens to us by camhs were basically small detailed steps with lots of praise, encouragement and support without being too obvious IYKWIM.

They said the anxiety he feels is very real and the Flight/Fight thing, I guess he's a flyer whilst some kids fight.

 

Sorry waffling on there a bit, its hard to describe what you do and often as not what works today does not tomorrow. I have learnt so much from this forum which has helped me understand my son, especially reading the posts of the adult As's who I have found have really given me insight.

 

Clare x x x

[mandyque]

My dd was suffering from anxiety as well as her autism, which was causing more problems, each part feeding off each other. Putting her on prozac was a great thing because it lessened her anxiety and she was better able to tolerate changes and behaviour management strategies. It simply meant that she didn't fly off the handle so quickly and gave us an extra second or two to try to help her understand what was happening before she got upset. That way we could also assess how severe her ASD issues were too.

[purplehaze]

Hi Purplehaze,

 

Whilst things are a whole lot better than they were, I hasten to add he still expereinces high levels of anxiety at certain time. Our only real strategy is being aware of the triggers and trying to prepare him as best as possible for things we are planning and if things start to go wrong or I see the anxiety increasing and my stragtegies not working I take him out of the situation. I guess a lot of it is down to trying to understand the individual, as we all know everyone with ASD's are quite different, my son is the passive/anxious person.

 

An example would be (you have to bear in mind here, my son has huge difficulties leaving the house) we went to the garden centre for a hot chocolate, I would let him choose where to sit and encourage him to sit somewhere different each time, we don't order our drinks till he says he's ready (ie comfortable and not anxious) then we have chance to leave if his not, last time we went it was full of older ladies and he said their nattering was far too noisey for him (which made me laugh its usually old people who complain the youngsters are too noisey) I said lets see if some of them go in a minute as they all seem to be packing up to go, he started to relax at the thought and we got chatting, as we ordered our hot chocolate I looked around and the place was full.

 

Strategies givens to us by camhs were basically small detailed steps with lots of praise, encouragement and support without being too obvious IYKWIM.

They said the anxiety he feels is very real and the Flight/Fight thing, I guess he's a flyer whilst some kids fight.

 

Sorry waffling on there a bit, its hard to describe what you do and often as not what works today does not tomorrow. I have learnt so much from this forum which has helped me understand my son, especially reading the posts of the adult As's who I have found have really given me insight.

 

Clare x x x

 

Hi Clare, this has helped me realise I do things already to support my son the same way as you, I too use lots of praise, detailed steps, visual cues, and today we went out for a muffin (for me) and icecream (for him) this rarely happens as he gets anxious about who we will see etc and it was so lovely we sat and chatted I think it being the end of the day and the cafe being empty helped.

 

My son is a flyer and a fighter so I never know what role he is going to take-he deffinately keeps me on my toes.

 

Thanks so much I always felt that i dint do enough to help his anxiety but I do.

[Shnoing]

If the anxienty level is so high that it needs medication, I think it should be dealt with first. But it may be that the AS has an effect on the dosage of the medication needed. At any rate, you should express your concerns to your professional ...