nightsweats and vivid dreams-son diagnosed with ASD

[nicola1980]

Hi I'm having a particularly stressful time at the min, my son has just been diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder and I'm struggling to get my head around it all to be honest and ever since I've been having awful night sweats to the point my bed and sheets are soden too, I wake every night after only about 3 hours sleep like this, also I'm having the most awful vivid dreams that really unsettle me, it's like I'm watching a film in my sleep. I've seen my gp who ran the normal bloods which all came back ok apart from my iron levels were quite low, hes decided to run some more bloods and send me for a chest Xray too just to be on the safe side but he's reassured me that he thinks this is all stress related due to my son. I'm so exhausted from hardly sleeping and lost a considerable amount of weight too, people are commenting on how pale and drawn I look :( my son is a constant worry for me at the min tho and I'm battling with his school to get him the support he needs but I feel so lost and alone in this. I've had 2 panic attacks this week already. You just want to protect your kids don't you? And I feel I can't from this and that scares the life out of me, I've found myself watching telly at night and then the tears just start and I can't stop them. I'm currently on 187.5mg of venlafaxin and 2.5mg of olanzapine which I was hoping to come off as I was doing so well before all this. Sorry for the long post XX

---------- Post added at 03:27 ---------- Previous post was at 03:20 ----------

Just to add alot of my panic symptoms have started again, tight chest, palpitations, restlessness, heartburn, headaches.

[pulisa]

If I can help in any way please PM me. I have 2 adult children with ASD. It's a huge spectrum and diagnosis is tough and shocking. It's very early days for you in this but schools are pretty clued up about ASD now and your son will benefit from appropriate teaching methods/techniques.

I really feel for you and you're really in shock at the moment. Your symptoms could very well reflect this but your GP is being sensible in checking you out.

---------- Post added at 09:01 ---------- Previous post was at 08:52 ----------

You will cope with your son and the ASD diagnosis. It's hugely daunting to begin with and you will need a lot of support from friends and family but it just means that your son will need a bit more specialised help in certain areas of his life. I thought it was the end of the world when my daughter was diagnosed at 2 but it wasn't and we're still here! She has extra diagnoses but my son was later diagnosed as ASD and with extra support and a personal special needs assistant achieved 8 GCSEs, 3 A Levels a BA and an MA at uni. Not that academic success means everything-it doesn't.

Don't think about the future too much. You need to take each day as it comes xx

[nicola1980]

Thankyou Pulisa that means alot, his actual diagnosis is aspergers but it's just known as ASD now so very confusing, he's also been diagnosed with chronic anxiety which stems from school, he struggles so much with school, the workload, homework and how big the place is in general, his sleeping has got so much worse due to his anxiety so he's been prescribed melatonin but I've got to wait for that to be sent directly out to me from the hospital. There was talk of him going on a low dose of sertraline but I don't particularly want to go down the medication route just yet, that in itself scares the life out of me. His school is a very academic school and it's the top school in our county which isn't helping as they are all for targets etc when infact at the min I couldn't give two hoots about that, it's his mental health I'm concerned about, I've had to really fight the school to get additional support and get some pressure taken off him which has helped immensely but unfortunately they aren't very cooperative so I will be on the phone to them again this morning. I'm so exhausted with it all and feel very alone as his biological father isn't involved in his life so I'm attending all meetings alone and it's overwhelming me to be honest. My mind races whenever I try to relax and the whole time he's at school I'm worried about him so I'm constantly on edge hence all my panic symptoms rearing up, I hardly sleep at night thro worrying and my mind going into overdrive and feel I have no one to talk to to take the pressure off me. I will fight for whatever help he needs tho but at the min I just feel like wrapping him up in cotton wool and keeping him safe with me XX

[pulisa]

My son is Asperger's too. I'm not sure how old your son is but being in an academic high achieving school will put extra pressure on him as you well know. The National Autistic Society is very aware of the need to support children with Asperger's in mainstream schools and it would be a good idea to contact them to see what local support services they could provide for your son? Asperger's is taken very seriously now-it used to be talked about as a "mild form of autism" which couldn't be farther from the truth as it's a very complex form of autism and the resulting anxiety is hugely challenging. The more intelligent your son is the more complex his anxiety will be and he will need specialised psychological support. I'm with you on the meds front although a low maintenance dose might help as he grows older but you would need to see a decent psychiatrist with experience of ASD for that.

My main advice would be to contact the National Autistic Society. They have a helpline which is open from 10-4pm xx

[nicola1980]

Thankyou Pulisa, he's 14 but it's took me a long while to get a proper diagnosis, I've been referred back and forth to cahms etc before I insisted on seeing a paediatrician as I knew myself what it was as I could see the traits which have got significantly worse since his teen years. I will give the autistic society a ring. Thankyou so much for your help XX

[pulisa]

Puberty can escalate a lot of anxiety with ASD teenagers. Pressure from school, changing hormones, social interaction-it's a minefield. When your child is academically able it's very hard to get the support in but I thought that things were better now that there is a lot more awareness of Asperger's and how the academically able struggle with anxiety and social awkwardness? The NAS has grown so much over the last few years and there is much more support and more recognition for people with Asperger's now.

Your son will be so grateful that you are being so supportive and caring. You just want the best for him and to provide him with the best possible environment in which to make the most of his obvious abilities xx