Hi everyone, it's been a while since I've been here..
Partly I just want to vent because I'm just having so many undefined/unclear feelings that it's driving me nuts, but also I'm trying to work out if I should be worried about some things.
So I've been offered an intial assessment for diagnosis, which is great - I couldn't stop crying when I got the letter through a couple of weeks ago, since the referral went in back in October, so it's been a long wait and I know it's gonna take longer still to formally get a diagnosis. I'm really glad that this next step has come through and some progress can be made, but also, none of the worries I have surrounding a diagnosis have eased at all. I'm still so scared about telling my family because they don't understand and I don't know how to make them understand. I'm still really worried that maybe I'm not autistic at all and I'm just weird and wrong and broken, and looking for excuses for why I can't seem to manage my third year of uni (I'm about to start attempt #3). And a big issue for me over the last few years that's seriously affected my ability to complete my academics are housemates. I'm really, desperately hopeful for this year because there's only 3 of us here, and I know that one of the other two is also autistic, and I've known her for 12 years now.
What worries me is that her mum has, to be blunt about it, been talking *** about me. My friend's mum, who's known me half my life, thinks that I'm going to 'drag [my friend] down with me'. Or that I'll be a bad influence, or whatever else, I don't even know. And I'm kind of surprised by how much that hurts. I mean, my friend's mum and I have had very different opinions on a lot of things for a long, LONG time, and we haven't really interacted for a while now. But I'm surprised and hurt by the fact that she thinks that about me and doesn't know me better than that. It's not like my issues have been because I go out drinking 4 times a week, or that I don't put any effort in or anything else you might think of an underachieving student. I have tried. I've tried so fucking hard and I struggle so much, but I've put 4 years into this degree so far and I don't want to waste it by coming out without a qualification. And I've finally started to realise a part of why I've had so much trouble, and that maybe I haven't been getting the best support for me, the support I actually needed, and knowing that someone who's known me so long thinks that I'm lazy or stupid and not that maybe I need some help that I haven't been getting, it really hurts and also makes me angry. I almost wish my friend hadn't told me. But part of me is also glad she did.
I'm still worried about whether or not these housemates will be good ones (and that I'll be an acceptable housemate to them). Because I've thought previously that living with these housemates or those housemates would work out and it's been fine in the beginning but slowly gone downhill until I'm too stressed and anxious and uncomfortable around them to even leave my room. I'm worried about finances because this is the most expensive place I've lived since halls, but there are definitely perks that are worth the cost. I just have to be able to manage my money which I've always been terrible at. But not because I can't plan a budget out. I'm just too impulsive and uncontrolled to stick to it, particularly when my mental health takes a turn for the worse and I just have no energy for anything but eating junk food and paying too much for coffees because they give me temporary happiness. So if anyone has any advice there, that'd be great. This is of course assuming that
I keep noticing more and more things - quirks, I suppose - that could be symptoms of autism and a large part of me is very sure that I'm autistic, or at least some form of ND. And it'd be great to have a diagnosis and know for sure and be able to say, look, I'm not stupid or lazy, just autistic. But it's also still frustrating because I'm noticing that these are likely autistic traits and I still can't do anything about them and how they're received by anyone else? For example, my brothers always used to hate it when I listen to a song on repeat for days or weeks at a time. And now I'm aware that this is possibly an autistic thing, but it doesn't change anything about it, my brothers are still always gonna find it annoying when I put a song on repeat. Or my housemates or whoever else. Or trying to read a book (that I've only read once before and LOVED) but I really can't concentrate on it and I just want to read, damn it! But I can't because my brain isn't processing it right or the light is too dim or the sofa's upholstery is just not quite soft enough.
I think at the core of it, I'm just really tired of trying to move forward when it's so unncessarily difficult because my brain is a bit different than the majority.