Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello! I am wishing to remain anonymous, but I am 19 years old and female (she/her pronouns) and since January 2020, I’ve been looking into the likelihood that I may have autism!
My younger half brother has already been diagnosed (he’s 10 next March), so I thought my mum would be super supportive, but she’s been the opposite. Because I’m not exactly the same as my brother, I apparently, according to her, don’t have autism. She doesn’t particularly know what traits I have as I’ve hardly mentioned anything to her since she’s so against me having it.
I got up the courage late October to actually call my doctors back home (I’m currently at University so living away from home) and got an appoint with a GP who referred me. The place where referrals normally go isn’t doing autism diagnosis’ anymore, nor referrals, so I got “referred” to somewhere else (basically got told to call this support team!). The autism support person for that centre is attempting to help me, but she’s missed two appointments with me and was late to the first one. No one knows (at this moment) where I’m meant to be getting referred to and it’s causing me so much more stress on top of everything with Uni and Covid.
I am getting support off Uni though, due to me showing clear traits and being referred (they even asked for evidence of the referral letter which I found weird). I’m just finding everything super difficult right now, especially with the change of living independently with my boyfriend and the fear of the unknown (there’s been a lot of tension in the household as someone was having psychotic episodes and as well, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve told them to keep the noise down late in the evening (around 11pm-2/3am) and they don’t listen!)
I was wondering if anyone had any advise because I’m really struggling with it and I don’t have a clue what else to do other than save up money and go private (which is my last resort since it’s a fortune and I have a car to run/food to buy etc). Sorry if there’s any spelling mistakes etc!
1. u r autistic u can simply self declare " I am autistic " until u get a diagnosis. Thats the current UK law.
2. buy rubber ear plugs and wear them at night --- i cover mean in baby bum zinc oxide cream to help get them in and to keep my ears disinfected ( it works ).
3. then wait on the referral people to get in touch with you. keep making appointments. dont give up its a hectic time right now just step back take 3 deep breaths .
in mean time make a list of
a. all autism traits u have
b. list of people who think u r autistic --- this is people who think u are autistic/weird/different
c. list of all relatives who have autism diagnosis / called weird / called different / have ADHD
u cant effort to go private - its 1000 quid approx
Recommended : check out if university/or nearby has mindfulness, meditation classes if yes join u immediately. dont worry if its a group of buddhist. explain why u are there and they will look after you
Recommended : look up on Youtube : Box breathing / square breathing to deal with moments of chaos / panic attacks