The primary issue has always been autism
firemonkey
Citizen
My daughter and I had a good chat yesterday. She said that the primary issue is, and always has been , the autism - rather than severe mental illness . That it should've been picked up on a long time before it was. She doesn't deny that I have some degree of mental illness , but that it's secondary to the autism , and the effects of it worsened by failure to spot the autism much earlier. She confirmed that she was the one who mentioned autism at my 1st psych appointment here in Wiltshire, not me.
Certainly I've not had the cognitive decline that often occurs with a psychosis spectrum disorder. I've had cognitive strengths and weaknesses from as far back as I can remember. If the weaknesses have got worse, it's a big 'if', then its an expected age related, rather than illness, related thing.
Comments
This is a common experience, particularly for autistic people who were diagnosed later in life. Unfortunately the absence of supports provided at the time results in autistic people developing comorbidities from the ongoing distress, and that the maltreatment inflicted on them can be from autistic traits observed but not fully identified by the perpetrator. This also unfortunately complicates the assessment process as autistic people can be initially misdiagnosed with other disorders.