Super smart, great academics in HS. She has autism, specifically she has trouble picking up on social cues and interacting with other people.

She got accepted into BYU and attended a year (we live in TX so we were far from her). Our hope was that she would hit it off with a roommate or dormmate (she lived in Helaman Halls) and she would thrive. That didn't happen - her roommate moved to Heritage mid-year and they never replaced her so my daughter lived by herself for the entire winter semester. That, together with her autism issues, had her basically interacting with no one in a significant way for a few months (we facetimed as much as we could, but there was only so much we could do). She also was suffering from anxiety and depression at the same time and hiding an electronics addiction that was pretty brutal. Long story short, she had a rough Freshman year.

As parents, we weren't really sure of what to do. As someone mentioned above, we have always hoped she would be able to live and function on her own, independent of us. However, I'm not sure whether that will ultimately be the case. We got her back to TX and she is now serving as a service missionary here and basically doing a reset - trying to get her mental health and other issues under control by next fall ('25), when she could potentially go back to Provo. The service mission has been a good option for her - it has given her time to self-reflect and hopefully develop some skills that will help her. We just found a psychologist who specializes in autistic people and we are hopeful that he'll be able to help her develop the skills she will need to live on her own and find her way.

I wish I knew how this is going to end, but I guess that's part of being a parent. We are just trying to do our best and help her in any way we can. I appreciate all your stories in this thread - it's nice to know that me and my wife are not the only one going through similar issues.