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Autism Spectrum Disorder  (ASD) is a neurological disorder that effects the way the brain interprets and communicates information—autistic people struggle with processing sights, sounds and touch, and their ability to communicate with others is severely impaired.

If you work with anyone on the spectrum, I can't recommend highly enough the book NeuroTribes ​by Steve Silberman - if you can only read one, this is the one to pick. There are copies available for loan in the house. It is also an excellent listen on audio.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)  is a chronic disorder characterized by long-lasting anxiety experienced as non-specific persistent fear and worry often manifested physically as headaches, stomach aches and behaviorally as irritability and violence to self or others.  

Medication and therapy are highly effective. Unfortunately, the effective therapies (especially Cognitive Behavior Modification) are language based, and not applicable in Morgan's case. Medications have been a savior, as pre-treatment she was prone to violence and severe self-injury. If you notice a rise in self-injurious behavior or she becomes violent towards others, it is time to tweak her meds. That is not Morgan - that is anxiety taking the helm.

diagnoses

An accurate diagnosis is an art form  - ​this is morgan's current set of descriptors

Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression) effects the brain’s ability to regulate mood. Moods swing widely between hyper high and severely low.  Swings can occur rapidly (daily or even hourly) or over longer periods of time.  While there is no cure, medications can help dramatically.

Morgan tends to rapidly cycle. Meds help hugely, but they are never perfect - she will always have issues with mood swings and bad days (that can string together into a week or more), even with well balanced meds. Even on a proper balance, she will often experience crying jags that seem to come out of the blue, and can last an hour or more. 20 minutes after the tears storm passes, she'll be sunny and warm. 

It can be very difficult to decide when meds need to be tweaked (doses changes or new meds tried), especially as trying new doses or meds often makes the situation way worse instead of better. Usually, a conservative "wait and see" to make sure things don't right themselves is best. We have learned, however, that one indicator that it is time to tweak the meds if she develops severe Tourette's-like body tics, as those seem to be tied to mood instability.