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Coming to terms with my diagnosis

NAS68158

Hi all! The past few months I've been really struggling with my diagnosis. I was diagnosed with high-functioning Aspergers at 16, after being assessed at 10. I never really gave my diagnosis much thought but I can now see how it's impacted on my life, and what it's prevented me from doing. I'm now 20 years old and I feel like no-one understands how I feel, simple things like going shopping or chatting with someone can trigger my anxiety. If I'm being honest, I hate being autistic, I hate the person I've become. No-one wants to accept me for who I am, I'm fed up of playing catch-up with society, desperately trying to 'fit-in', I'm fed up of the awkwardness, the shyness, the quietness, struggling with eye contact, the loneliness. Living with autism is exhausting and mentally draining, I wish It could be different. 

  • Hello there, welcome. I guess it's important that you accept your limitations. I thought for a long time there was something wrong with me in the lines of chronical fatigue. My wife told me I look exhausted on many old photo's. Almost haunted. This got a lot better now I have the diagnosis and I put the expectations for my own accomplishments a lot lower. I need to be well in control of things. And surprisingly then things go a lot smoother than you might think. 

    It is what it is. There is no point in trying to catch up with society, if you reach out to a couple of people that you get an understanding with it's more than enough. My advice would in first instance be: take more time for yourself, if you have special interests, try making enough time for them, avoid to have your life be dictated by other people, go in your own rhythm. Take your time to make sure you learn new things well. I'm 47 now, and most of the fitting in and society turned out to be just a waste of valuable energy.