Hello everyone,

I am reaching out to the internet for some help and advice. My autistic brother is currently in the hospital. He has gone through some negative changes at school since September and the effect it has had on my brother has been a nightmare. He progressively keeps getting worse. He stopped sleeping and eating and my parents are at their wits end. My brother is going through selective mutism because he is unhappy with things at school and it has drastically changed his life for the worse since he is choosing to protest and not do anything. My brother's school got a new busing company and he got a new teacher this year as well. The bus company has been terrible and could not handle my brother.

My father being the nice guy that he is, offered to transport my brother back and forth to school. However the same issues that were occurring on the bus carried over to Dad trying to talk him to school and bringing him home. My brother wouldn't sit or want to be moved. Same goes for transitioning him from one room to another.

My brother has even expressed to my parents that he hates school. We have never had this issue before with him. When my brother expressed this, he randomly blurted it out. That is very out of character for him. All was quiet when this occurred as well. Typically he does not communicate unless something or someone upset him. He completely has gone mute though, unless he is agitated.

He was emitted to the ER on Wednesday after seeing his pediatrician. We found out his sodium levels were high due to dehydration. Then his blood pressure levels dropped. Yesterday they gave my brother a feeding tube. Today he got the tube removed and was moved out of intensive care and into a different part of the hospital. He is now allowed to eat normal foods. However, my brother is still choosing not to eat. He has lost so much weight because of this. My parents can't force him to anything of course either. They're doing everything they can. Prior to going to his pediatrician, my brother had stopped eating solid foods in the past week and my parents resorted to giving him baby food.

It does not appear they are getting out of the hospital anytime soon. Even if my brother was to be released, they would probably end up right back there given my brothers stubbornness and his current state of well being.

Can anyone relate to this or offer advice?

The other big issue at hand is that he will be turning 18 in a few days. My family has been trying to file guardianship and we found out his school gave us the wrong forms and we are running it of time. My brother is absolutely unable to make choices for himself and needs my parents to have that control. They just found a lawyer finally to help but because they've been in the hospital they have been unable to get in contact and being it is the weekend they can't get in contact with them until Monday.

If anyone has any advice or assistance they can offer it would be greatly appreciated. My family lives in NJ. I live deep in DE and have had to take care of taking my other brother back and forth to school, and because of that and bad winter weather we experienced I had to go 3 days without seeing my daughter who is only a toddler. I am 25 years old. My job is also in NJ. This whole situation is very stressful for the whole family.


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Might be able to get guardianship info & forms online for your state, and/or contact the county for help..

For the school issue, maybe something is happening there, or he is being abused or harassed?
Contact a specialist for an updated autism assessment & evaluation & for the non eating , school issues and future adult hood, self reliance.

We don't have an Autism forum, our sister site does, you may find more help there - Psych Central - Trusted mental health, depression, bipolar, ADHD & psychology information

Maybe he would do better to finish his schooling another way.
Online learning - HS or GED.
graduate high school online free - Google Search
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