Self Harm and Suicide ideation in teens

[duffy78]

Has anybody had any experience with the above? either via experience of the situation or treatment of?

Are there any particular coping mechanisms we should be considering? Therapies other than counselling? Anything which could encourage engagement of any sort? Alternative avenues other than CAMHS?

[sparkyhx]

both of mine, Autism followed by ADHD, and ADHD followed by Autism diagnosis' resulted initially thru CAHMS and second diagnosis privately

[ghost83]

My step sister has self harmed through cutting and inserting

Time and understanding why it’s at all his position

My step sister ended up in a mental health home and still is and she’s getting the help she needs, there is another girl in there he’ll bent on killing herself,

Speak with cahms, hospital

[duffy78]

Cahms are proving useless at present, they are just referring to a local autism charity; She is currently on the diagnosis pathway with them and we fully expect at least an ASD diagnosis but also ADHD, we are doing what we can to try and get the ADHD diagnosis accelerated with them but current expectation is April 2024.

Hospital just refer to cahms crisis team, we are fresh out of hospital from an OD at school. School have a RA in place but are at the limit of what they can do.

Had counselling via GP but she is now just refusing to talk to them. Hence the slightly exasperated shout for help on here for alternatives


Sparky what is your experience of private diagnosis?

Edited by duffy78 on Wednesday 21st June 19:45

[sparkyhx]

duffy78 said:

Sparky what is your experience of private diagnosis?

Edited by duffy78 on Wednesday 21st June 19:45

ADHD - circa 1k once you factor in prescriptions and path to shared care, Autism Circa 2k.

Autism and ADHD often go hand in hand and have similar symptoms. The biggest difference being ADHD is very treatable with meds so if the indications are there I'd pursue that diagnosis first.

Check out these two tests - these will give a strong indication as to whether to pursue a diagnosis, but they are not a diagnosis in themselves.

https://embrace-autism.com/raads-r/ - Autism
https://www.thecalculator.co/health/Wender-Utah-AD... - ADHD

"Had counselling via GP but she is now just refusing to talk to them"
my wife has had people like that, she just plugged away and built that connection/trust. GP counselling is almost certainly CBT based and as a rule CBT doesnt work for autistic people, so success will be dependent on the counsellors skills. Also Counsellors may not be as highly trained as psychotherapists and they need to be autism/adhd aware/trained.

See https://aspireautismconsultancy.co.uk/ they have many trained affiliates who they can refer to.

[duffy78]

Thanks for the detailed reply.


A bit of background would be that her older brother already has a diagnosis, apsergers and adhd. Hence us expecting one for her. Her issues have manisfested mainly during teens / progression to secondary school, which I think is more normal for girls?

We are pushing the ADHD diagnosis as like you we think the meds will help. It was night and day for my son.



Thanks again

[sparkyhx]

Classic manifestation in first 2 years at secondary school. The social interaction rules change between groups of girls. and then there is puberty. The size and noise levels of the school also add to any sensory sensitivity.

Girls who have managed to hold it together during primary school often start struggling after the move to secondary education.