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Concerned I may be Autistic/have Asperger's.

SMW83

Hi all, 

New to the forum so apologies if I am posting in the wrong place.

This is quite a protracted 'story' so please bear with me. I left a very violent and abusive relationship several years ago which caused me to suffer from what was believed to be Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Depression & Anxiety. These 'illnesses' impacted my life to the extent that I became very reclusive, struggled greatly to communicate with anyone, becoming easily frustrated and angry with sales assistants/anyone approaching me/ getting in my way etc. amongst numerous other issues. I am given medication for these issues but it has virtually no effect on how I'm feeling.

Yesterday, I commented on a Twitter post aimed at Anne Hegarty in which it was applauding her weight loss/aesthetics etc. My comment was merely that she has much more to be lauded for such as her highlighting of Autism, the children she has inspired since entering I'm A Celebrity etc. This descended into my being criticized/name calling etc. by other Twitter users. However one user was extremely critical of me and inferred that I was an ASPI. As I didn't know what this meant, I replied to her where she responded seemingly (to me anyway) was suggesting I had Asperger's. She then went on to highlight several points in my Twitter feed which indicated she believed I had Asperger's, such as only focussing on certain parts of her responses, being unable to put her tweets into context etc. I would have took her points on board her points if she had conversed with me in a decent manner but her tweets were very belittling and she was very rude and flippant about Asperger's and Autism.

I have since been online and looked at the symptoms to find that a lot of my behaviours are indicative of me being Autistic/having Asperger's. I do not want to look silly by going to the doctors and telling them I think I have Asperger's because someone told me on Twitter that I have it.

Any advise or suggestions as to what to do next would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

  • In many ways diagnosis can be a red herring. It does not change you. It may help to explain why you find somethings harder than other people, it may explain why you react differently, but you will still be you. Diagnosis is not a magic wand that fixes everything. That said it may give you comfort. Be prepared to be fobbed off. Adult diagnosis is patchily funded, despite the Autism Act mandating a diagnosis path, they are in reality a low priority and thus struggle to get funded. 

    You can tell part of the truth, in saying that you have always felt different, but only recently have you realised why that might be the case. You don't need to tell how you found out. 

    Twitter is full of not very nice people. Although it is easier said than done, these are people that do not know you, have never met you and are judging you on a sentence at a time. Their view is utterly irrelevant. Someone making cutting ASD comments on Twitter is contemptible and beneath worrying about. 

    I would be more concerned about your other issues. The treatment you are receiving for them is not working for you if you are withdrawing from society and you should discuss that with your practitioner - perhaps adding ASD into that mix.

  • Find the AQ10 test online, print it out and complete it. A score of 6+/10 means your GP should refer you for further assessment. You could also do the AQ50 and an EQ test.

    Sarah Hendrickx has some excellent youtube videos that you may relate to and also many of Tony Atwood's videos too.

    The more you read and research the more you will be able to work out if it is you or not.