Self-harming.
Disordered eating.
Aggression.
Depression.
High Anxiety
Crying all the time.
If I said this to you to describe a young person, what would you think?
Abuse? Severe bullying? Mental health condition?
Whatever it was – you would want whoever was causing this to be stopped and be held accountable.
This isn’t what you would expect of a happy, healthy person and if you work with young people, this is many of the things that you will see delivered in Safeguarding training, under signs that they may be experiencing abuse.
But this isn’t a young person who is at risk in their home, who has a coercive boyfriend or is in with the “wrong crowd”.
This is an undiagnosed autistic young person, who is attending mainstream school.
If that doesn’t make you feel slightly sick, perhaps what I say to the parents or carers when they have finished telling me this will.
“I see this all the time.”
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It is time that schools, councils and the Department of Education actually learn what it means to have an autistic or ADHD style brain – in an education system that demands all the things that they cannot deliver, in an environment that causes their nervous system to be on constant high alert.
And no. A toilet pass, some blu-tac and a wellbeing room with some nice cushions isn’t going to cut it.