Autistic Teen Case Study

I worked with a family who have a special needs teenager, her diagnosis is autism  I spoke with Grandma and as she was into natural options we discussed the possibility of using flower essences to support the granddaughter. 

The way I would describe the teen is volatile, her immediately blaming herself if something goes wrong, incredibly anxious, socially and emotionally immature and unaware of anyone else.  On top of all of that she didn’t sleep all night, they would on a regular basis find her between 3 and 5am dancing in the kitchen with loud music playing.  At this point she was awake for the day.

Grandma and I spent around an hour together discussing how the teen was at home what her home life was like and how she was around other people. 

The things Grandma helped me get clearer on include her anger flare ups, her struggle to enter a room she is familiar with when a group of people are in there, her low vocabulary and her incredibly heightened sensory awareness.

So the blend I made for her included essences to support her in those ways.  The essences were:

Pink Monkeyflower – helping trust she will be accepted for who she is.

Mallow – helping her feel better in relationships

Evening primrose – to help her move through rejection she has experienced in the past.

Larch – to help her express herself confidently

Penstemon – to help her deal with the tough times life throws at her.

Sunflower – to help her accept her own individuality.

This blend was a great starting place for her and it did make quite a difference, but it became clear that she also struggled with self control and to feel calm particularly around her peers, like at school.  I therefore added:

Chamomile – to help with the fact she was so easily upset

Quaking Grass – to help her disfunction within group settings

Yarrow Environmental Solution – to help her be less affected by the people and events that happened around her.

In addition to this blend I of course gave them a sleep blend which has been just amazing for her.

I stayed in regular contact with Grandma and we some of the changes she and others began to notice included her ability to have a conversation increased and she showed an interest in what other people had to say.  She was still very focused on what would occur throughout the day but it really didn’t stress her like it had done previously.  She was also much more able to come back down from her angry place.

As time went on we noticed she was not dealing with arriving at school and it was slowly getting tougher and tougher.  The family was told by the school that she was not coping with lunch time at school and her mood was changing in a second from ok to angry and aggressive, she was even hurting other children and adults.  This of course was completely not ok.  Grandma and I discussed this and decided that we would try a blend specifically made to support this part of her.

This blend included these essences:

Cherry Plum – to support the lack of impulse control that she has.

Impatiens – this supports her to not be worrying about what will happen when she gets to school and her intolerance.

Mustard – this supports the manic behaviour the extreme ups and downs.

Oregon Grape – this essence helps her consider others have good intentions.

Poison Oak – this essence helps her to not be so defensive of her boundries.

Snapdragon – this essence helps decrease verbal aggression and hostility.

This blend was given to the school and they were giving it to her each day, and believe it or not immediately she seemed much more able to control herself.  After a conversation with Grandma I realised the change was huge.  The week before taking the blend the school was refusing to take her out of the school at all, but since taking the blend they have taken her out shopping and even swimming.

Testimonial

I have an autistic Grand-daughter who suffers from acute anxiety which can cause her to have major outbreaks both physical and verbal, she also used to struggle with sleeping. About two-three months ago I was talking to Leanne who commented that she makes individual flower essence blends, which I thought we could give a go. Leanne and I spent about an hour together discussing what would be the main things that would benefit her. Leanne then made her a blend, which has been added to as we noticed different moods changes which we were giving her twice a day, before school and in the evening. We noticed big changes in her before she went to school and in the afternoons, however we discovered that every day at school she was having the major outbreaks so Leanne suggested that she could make a blend for her to have at school each day. She had it every day last week at 12-12.30 and I this was the first week this term that there have been no outbreaks, and class trips which she could not participate with due to her being so unpredictable started again last Friday.

I highly recommend these blends and now one of my Grandsons and a friend are also using them.

Anne