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Trying to decide if I need a label - interested to know if there is any help/advice that I could follow to feel more normal at work

NAS50654

Well today a guy who is a clinical psychologist and a friend, said well of course you are on the spectrum, and didn't mean it as a cheap through away line, when the topic came up at lunch. Before now I had wondered, but never truly engaged with idea. I am 41. I was 1% off a first at Cambridge. I hold down a complex job requiring significant communication and people skills.

Now I am wondering:

1. Is it true?

2. If it is, does getting a diagnosis help with anything?

3. Are there any resources out there that could help me perform better at work?

1. I am female. I am able to concentrate for so long I get dehydrated. I produce marketing content at speeds others can't. I am ruthlessly logical and can easily visualise complex systems. I am intensely empathetic in some situations. I have a low pain threshold and a heightened sense of colour, taste and smell. I am rigid in my views of what is right and wrong and believe I have to have a justification for everything I do. I feel injustice very strongly and get angry and upset if people don't do what they are supposed to. Although I enjoy one to one conversation, and can make presentations to large groups, I hate large groups of normal people and have to sit in a  corner when forced to go to things like my son's school fair or nativity play.  

I am not looking for an online diagnosis - but perhaps a pointer to some resources I could read.

2. If I were to get a diagnosis, would that help me? There isn't a cure right? I mainly function as a human being. I just feel abnormal and insecure and I react in ways that I know are not normal. If I got a diagnosis would that help me to access support?

3. What support is there? Can anyone train me to be less emotionally involved at work and to take things less personally?

If you are able to reply to this, thank you for your time.

Parents

  • Greetings. At risk of hate and arguments (?), I post the following. :
    You already have a "label", more than one, whether you want it or not: Male, Female, White, Black, Asian, Mixed, NT, ND... all that sort of thing. It is all just the English Language, and however people (including strangers) classify you or ignore you, and it is used in LAW to define you as a living (human) entity.

    If you have the chance to get a diagnosis, then do so, because getting a diagnosis is not at all easy to get. (The 'waiting list' is so long that sometimes it can take Months of Years.) But in gaining an Official diagnosis of Autism, it opens up a lot of new/different routes according to LAW. Also, Once gained, it need not be stated/disclosed to everyone, and only stated when the need(s) arise. (E.g. in case of 'Sensory Overloads', or something.)

    ...As for "feeling more normal", you can only feel how you yourself feel; but with the diagnosis, that, as I say, is supposed to open up a little more 'support'. For at least some "support", you are already in the right place (or the start of it?), by knowing about NAS and this Forum. Others here may give you better answers to more specific questions, and so on.

    Good Luck.

Reply

  • Greetings. At risk of hate and arguments (?), I post the following. :
    You already have a "label", more than one, whether you want it or not: Male, Female, White, Black, Asian, Mixed, NT, ND... all that sort of thing. It is all just the English Language, and however people (including strangers) classify you or ignore you, and it is used in LAW to define you as a living (human) entity.

    If you have the chance to get a diagnosis, then do so, because getting a diagnosis is not at all easy to get. (The 'waiting list' is so long that sometimes it can take Months of Years.) But in gaining an Official diagnosis of Autism, it opens up a lot of new/different routes according to LAW. Also, Once gained, it need not be stated/disclosed to everyone, and only stated when the need(s) arise. (E.g. in case of 'Sensory Overloads', or something.)

    ...As for "feeling more normal", you can only feel how you yourself feel; but with the diagnosis, that, as I say, is supposed to open up a little more 'support'. For at least some "support", you are already in the right place (or the start of it?), by knowing about NAS and this Forum. Others here may give you better answers to more specific questions, and so on.

    Good Luck.

Children
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