Took the leap

Don't worry, I also felt some of that at first but I'm glad I did, because looking back, I'd got myself in a right mess and I couldn't cope, so I am proud of myself that I took the plunge and asked for help (even though it is entirely out of character for me). I have been on the waiting list for 6 months now and it's given me time to get used to the idea.

Bear in mind, you can always duck out of the process if you decide later that you don't want to do it.

I hear you both. Yes indeed there should be more help riding on the back of a diagnosis. The NHS doesn't offer a lot, but there are pockets of it out there if you dig. My GP referred me to MIND Adult Autism Services, which run some courses for people awaiting assessment or newly diagnosed.

It does mean some things will always be hard. But whilst no one can ever or should ever change who they are, there are different strategies which can be tried to make life easier once you know what it is you are dealing with. It's just a question of finding out what works without compromising yourself.

Don't forget, you do now have some protections under the law too, which might help.

for me i never was able to get a job, i just assumed a diagnosis would perhaps come with help and more leeway for me to get a job... not that i think im suited to any job. my work gap on my cv kills it for me, hell i get machiens auto declining my cv telling me too many gaps although with one it gave me a chance to edit it so i stretched the dates of the 1 or 2 jobs i had to cover years instead of the 4 months they lasted. still didnt get job. never can. i dont know how to live either, still live with parents, i wouldnt even know how the rent payments work, never had my own place to know.

I have been recently diagnosed and I am scared of it. My life has always been a disaster but I hoped there would be pills for it. I can't say at loud that I am autistic even to the doctor who diagnosed me. I'm scared because it will never go away. I will always have it. I will always be weird and always have problems with other people. Now I realise I was fired from work because of it. Who would hire a person with social disability? I don't know how to live. 

i think they are ignoring it as i suspected lol filled the ask a gp online gp thing out 2 days ago and still not answered it. which tbh i dunno maybe thats good because i was thinking of cancelling it anyway, i even put my phone on silence because this gp i had previously who always phones and ignores the "reply by email" i clicked seems to have been assigned to it. i cant even understand him so well over the phone due to his accent. probably a cool guy but probably is a type from a country that would brush this off as a fake western made up thing.

Well done! Good luck!

Remember your parents only need to know if you choose to involve them.

I'm totally getting the inactivity thing. I'm normally a busy little bee with all my special interests or hobbies, but I'm in so much shock over this, sitting and thinking about it in ever greater depth to the exclusion of all else has become my daily norm.

Waiting on an assessment myself and I'll damn pleased when it's over so I can go back to the activities that normally consume my all mental energy, lol.

And what with my IBS, I'm quite sure quite a lot of poop will be involved come the week of the assessment too (If that's not an inappropriate thing to say, lol. Hell, it's a forum for ASC. Who cares? I think I'll be forgiven.)

Keep us posted on your progress.

yes very true ----  i think Bruce lee changed that quite a bit  --- well I hope

there was a big fight and Bruce won it and his right to teach his new methods ( I am no expert this is from memory ) . But then he died sadly.

if u only understand half of the eastern way of thinking it will still do u good. 

east asians want to keep their own stuff to themselves, they look down on other ethnicities practicing what they consider something that is theirs. same in martial arts too, its a elitist thing, chinese master wont ever consider a western master of kung fu to be doing it legit or right. most of them didnt even want to teach to outsiders originally. which i think is part reason why the chinese community hated bruce lee at the time.

yes i have listened to quite a bit of his stuff via videos ---- funny thing is he wasnt approved of by real zem masters etc but i always thought he did a very good job teaching us eastern thinking.

I loved his voice. If only i could talk like him

ah watched a few videos about alan watts, i think he was a zen buddhist of something. one of the guys that brought it back and created the hippy movement i think. or inspired it.

that is true, say thanks to your kung fu teacher for me,,,, alcohol witll as well --- it shrinks your brain. 

I stopped completely and my mind became clearer. 

there was a TV series called "Kung Fu" with David Carradine in it. I loved it.----- this little series is when i first heard of "The Way" and Zen and the martial arts

Now I am actually a practitioner of Zen.

Someday I will be good at it

drink every weekend or so. drugs are a no, my kung fu teacher says that drugs screw your system up to the point youd never be any good at any martial arts at all as it ruins your nervous system

ok once u say brain damage  I am no doctor,,,,,,u need to talk to medical people and provide them with some evidence of brain damage with the view to getting an MRI

I am assuming you dont drink or take drugs

hmm could end up turning out as frontal lobe brain damage tbh.... i have hit my head loads of times and have a few indentations on forehead still lol got run over by cycle idiot one time and i ended up face planting the edge of a brick wall, that got me a massive lump on head at the time, although i was struggling socially long before that, since primary school even where i didnt feel to fit in and i seemed excluded by everyone and didnt understand it or how others just got along. then again i did have a few head injuries in primary school too so still could be one of those i suppose lol pretty sure i member some kid sitting on me and ramming my head continuously into the solid ground too. so plenty of room for it to be just standard brain damage haha

gangerine is black.

its funny that what i thought i had and assumed a  bit of re-socialisation would deal with it---- but i got a shock i was told  i had autism  

aye, i know its gonna be at least social anxiety. to be fair i half expect them to tell me they have more important issues to deal with tbh. they turned me away one time when my fingers were all swolen and red and looked like they were gonna explode in gore lol told me to come back when its infected and to me it did look infected anyway, looked gangrenous! lol which is part of the reason why i hate going to GPs, always make me feel like a time waster.

best of luck  but remember they can diagnose something else other than autism

This is so true. I feel like like fraud even with a diagnosis  it is so draining. 

Good luck with your journey!     The stress will come and go - and nearer the time, you'll be convincing yourself to pull the plug and feeling like a fraud - but don't worry, it will all be whatever it will be.