I particularly like this paragraph from my DX report....

It seems as though that sentence gives you a sense of validation of your experience?

Yes exactly. My burnout experience taught me that not everything I'm good at is good for me, and this aligns with that; I *can* do stuff, but it's exhausting. It backs up the permission I've given myself to stop trying so hard and to allow myself breaks and rest.

It must be nice, to finally have a professional acknowledge how things are for you and show a degree of understanding? It's important that we realise the effect of what we do on ourselves. Maybe we can 'do' things but it takes it out of us much more than for a non-autistic person. It's all about finding a balance.

I’m glad that you were able to understand where I was coming from.

I think it’s natural for any of us, following diagnosis, to want to pick apart all of our past life experiences and suss them out in the context of autism. I have done so and am still doing so BUT I tend to ‘process on the go’, which I think is a healthy approach. What I mean by that is that I’m not solely focused on looking at my past life through the lens of autism but rather it forms part of the constant dialogue that I tend to have going on in my brain as I’m getting on with every day life. Things slot into place as and when, here and there. I was thinking some things through today, while clambering up and down spiral staircases in a castle with my two youngest daughters (2+5) so yes I’m processing everything but I don’t let it become all consuming. 

I don’t know how long the adaptation process will take. I think it takes as long as we need it to and it is important that we do take our time with it and don’t try to rush it. Personally, I’ve found the process so far to be a really positive experience. I’ve learned so much about myself; made sense of so many things; made a lot of friends that I would not otherwise have made and gained wisdom and insights from people that have been kind enough to share them. 

It must be odd after waiting for so long to finally have the assessment and diagnosis over and done with. I was lucky in that sense as I only had a 6 month wait due to also having an ABI so needing to be assessed at a more specialist unit that deals with more  ‘complex’ cases. I was already 99.9% sure that I had Aspergers, before I even asked the GP to refer me for assessment. I’d started to realise it initially way back in the early 2000’s when I was doing my undergraduate degree in psychology. But then I had the ABI in March 2007 and that took over, it had to really! It wasn’t until I passed the 7 years of ‘spontaneous recovery due to neuroplasticity’ that I started questioning this other stuff that had always been there before the brain injury, there had always been something not quite right with me. I started thinking along the lines of Aspergers again in early 2015 and spent from then until my assessment in December 18 completely obsessed with reading absolutely everything that I could find about Autism, especially the female presentation of autism which can differ significantly from the male presentation. Weirdly after I was diagnosed I suddenly no longer felt compelled to read everything possible about Autism, don’t know why!

I think that it’s important to take the time to work our how your autism affects you and what changes you need to make to help yourself. Again, that’s something that can’t be rushed, there’s no time limit on when it has to be achieved by. it’s very much still a work in progress for me, it may always be as different life circumstances or situations may crop up that need me to re-evaluate whether or not my current approach is still helpful or healthy. I guess life is a continuous process of adaptation in some ways.

Sorry, I’ve rambled for far longer than I intended to. I hope you find some of what I’ve written to be vaguely useful!

I’m glad that you were able to understand where I was coming from.

I think it’s natural for any of us, following diagnosis, to want to pick apart all of our past life experiences and suss them out in the context of autism. I have done so and am still doing so BUT I tend to ‘process on the go’, which I think is a healthy approach. What I mean by that is that I’m not solely focused on looking at my past life through the lens of autism but rather it forms part of the constant dialogue that I tend to have going on in my brain as I’m getting on with every day life. Things slot into place as and when, here and there. I was thinking some things through today, while clambering up and down spiral staircases in a castle with my two youngest daughters (2+5) so yes I’m processing everything but I don’t let it become all consuming. 

I don’t know how long the adaptation process will take. I think it takes as long as we need it to and it is important that we do take our time with it and don’t try to rush it. Personally, I’ve found the process so far to be a really positive experience. I’ve learned so much about myself; made sense of so many things; made a lot of friends that I would not otherwise have made and gained wisdom and insights from people that have been kind enough to share them. 

It must be odd after waiting for so long to finally have the assessment and diagnosis over and done with. I was lucky in that sense as I only had a 6 month wait due to also having an ABI so needing to be assessed at a more specialist unit that deals with more  ‘complex’ cases. I was already 99.9% sure that I had Aspergers, before I even asked the GP to refer me for assessment. I’d started to realise it initially way back in the early 2000’s when I was doing my undergraduate degree in psychology. But then I had the ABI in March 2007 and that took over, it had to really! It wasn’t until I passed the 7 years of ‘spontaneous recovery due to neuroplasticity’ that I started questioning this other stuff that had always been there before the brain injury, there had always been something not quite right with me. I started thinking along the lines of Aspergers again in early 2015 and spent from then until my assessment in December 18 completely obsessed with reading absolutely everything that I could find about Autism, especially the female presentation of autism which can differ significantly from the male presentation. Weirdly after I was diagnosed I suddenly no longer felt compelled to read everything possible about Autism, don’t know why!

I think that it’s important to take the time to work our how your autism affects you and what changes you need to make to help yourself. Again, that’s something that can’t be rushed, there’s no time limit on when it has to be achieved by. it’s very much still a work in progress for me, it may always be as different life circumstances or situations may crop up that need me to re-evaluate whether or not my current approach is still helpful or healthy. I guess life is a continuous process of adaptation in some ways.

Sorry, I’ve rambled for far longer than I intended to. I hope you find some of what I’ve written to be vaguely useful!