Help and advice for sub threshold diagnosis

I have been doing a lot of.geocaching to make up for.it but it still doesn't  compare! Maybe I'll feel better once I can get back to training properly 

I'm lucky with my job I can access therapy so I think I will ask for it 

Yeah - lockdown stopped everything.     I would suggest looking for more of your old hobbies so you have different things to talk about - also, life experience gives you more things to chat about.     If your friends are into the same things as you, they will be as chatty as you.

as a child I collected Beanie babies, i didnt play with them though i just put them in lines/orders and if any one touched them I would be livid! 

Now I play roller derby and I pretty much just talk about it non-stop whether people want to listen or not.. i stop myself because I know other people find it very boring.  there is a big community of diverse people, but since lockdown everything stopped and I lost pretty much my whole life and got very depressed as I couldnt go to training or games etc anymore. 

I can? that's good to know, I get a report and it might have some suggestions on there for next steps. i think therapies will help. I just want to understand myself better so I can let other people know why I do the things I do 

If you need talking therapy, you need talking therapy regardless. You can always approach this with "I'm sub threshold but do have some traits" if you have a good therapist they woukd understand 

Post-diagnosis support is pretty much non-existent.  

The friends thing is extremely common - and I'll give my standard answer - look to your childhood.      All the things you loved as a child are where you find relaxation and comfort - so logically, all the people doing the grown-up version will be people just like you.       They will be on your wavelength from the start so you already fit in.      Those people have friends and family so you are actually joining a bigger group than you think.       I'm into Lego and models of all sorts.      What are you into?

Thank you that is really helpful advice. they said if I have any questions about the report I can talk to them again. I'm thinking of asking for a neuro psychology referral as I had meningitis when I was a baby and there was some suggestion that it could be acquired brain injury territory. 

Will you get a follow up to advise on what's available?  If not can you ask for therapies with people with expertise in autism regardless?

most of my problems are around order and restrictive behaviours and routines and deviating from routines. I also struggle with forming relationship/friendships and never really fit in 

That is a very good question. I was hoping for some support maybe classes or therapy to help with dealing with things. I don't need any benefits or intended to claim anything, I work full time and don't need any financial support. 
I think for me I wanted a black and white definitive answer - whereas this is grey area and my brain does not like middle ground grey area things! 

then I'm really sorry to hear that.   It's very difficult for you if you're marginal - a foot in both camps but not quite in either.

The diagnostic report of autism is mostly of use if you are looking to claim benefits but a self-declaration should still help you succeed.    

Where do you find you have the most problems?     If you're self-aware and have taken steps to reduce the impact on your life, the only thing I can really offer is being a sounding board for your life-concerns via this forum.

Personally, I think identity is always self defined - and that means our race, religion, gender, sexuality and anything else about us.  I gave up describing myself as White British on Equality and Diversity forms years ago when I discovered so much of my heritage came from else where in the world, even though when I look in the mirror I'm white and my passport says I'm British, lol.

Same with this, I think.  If I get an assessment back emphatically stating I am autistic, I'm going to define that any way I want that's good for me.  I can celebrate being neurodiverse, and reject the term 'disabled' as I please.  The same will be true if I'm in your camp (i.e. lots of traits but not meeting the text book strictly enough for a medical diagnosis), I'll decide how I want to describe and identify with the outcome, not the doctors.  Knowing the outcome and which traits ARE there will still be incredibly useful in managing my life and my care, any way.

A medical diagnosis has to have a start point somewhere, but it doesn't mean you're not neurologically different because one or two traits were missing or not affecting you badly enough.  (Actually, the effecting you badly enough bit for me is a tad controversial.  We're born with our traits but they might at one point in your life be causing you big problems and at another none much to speak of.  I've certainly got very different problems I believe are rooted in autism now, to the ones I also believe were rooted there as a child, and other points in my life where I see only that I benefited in the main.  I can't possibly have been autistic only sometimes, lol.)  

I guess what I'm saying is you are not your diagnosis.  You are what you think and feel yourself to be.  If those traits are important part of your identity no one can tell you aren't neurodiverse.

The problem of course is in getting any help you need.  Once you've got the report, you'll be able to tease out of it the bits where your life is most affected to argue that although medically sub-spectrum, there are issues here and here.  If you think they've missed anything, (and that happens in all fields of medicine, especially psychiatry), a second opinion is always an option.

Proper diagnosis assessment, seen a psychologist 3 times, twice on my own, once with my Mum. Was told this morning and haven't been able to do anything else all day other then think and research everything

Hi Elliot

Is this after a proper diagnosis or are you just being fobbed off by a gp?

That's really helpful thank you 

I'm pretty mush the same as you, not enough traits.  You will find that you are accepted here if you self diagnose, and you will see that you recognise many of the things that people are talking about.