DLA to PIP for my son ....

Hello, this is my first post ... this is an amazing forum and so glad I found it

My 24 yo son has autistic spectrum disorder, dyspraxia, OCD, depressive disorder and anxiety. He has a normal iq but has always been severely affected by the autism and depression, and when he became a teenager by the ocd. Ocd is part of the autism, but he has it so bad the psychiatrist diagnosed it as a separate condition.

He was on higher care and lower mobility dla indefinite award. I am his named representative.

The move from dla to pip notification came last month and I have just sent off the completed application.

When I filled in his dla form it was hard, but he was 16 then and I think I was sustained by the hope that when he reached adulthood he’d be less disabled by his autism. He’s now 24 and having to fill in that form for my adult son for strangers to read and make judgement on feels almost like being violated. His diagnoses came in drips and drabs, ASD when he was 9, depression when he was 11 etc, and we lived through it and dealt with what we had to day to day. Filling in these forms this week has been like a hurricane of grief. 24 years of stress, anxiety and heartache condensed into the 32 hours it took me to complete the form.

I feel sick that we have to do this and terrified for the future. I don’t know how he will deal with an assessment. The only person he trusts to talk to other than me is the consultant psychiatrist.

The form was a nightmare, his difficulties are so complex it was hard work to describe. For instance how to explain why a seemingly articulate person has difficulties communicating, or why someone who can read can’t understand a timetable, or why someone who can count can’t budget.... and so on. Utterly gruelling.

I’m glad I’ve found this forum and been have able to share how I feel with people who will understand because it’s a very lonely process as I know you all will know.

Now we just have to wait

Thanks for reading