Published on 12, July, 2020
So, had a long history of anxiety and depression. Lately become very exhausted....I'm prone to "walking" when I can't handle things.
Thought I'd had a breakdown and finally asked for help from my doctor. I was referred to the mental health crisis team. I was assessed on the phone and asked to come in for a face to face.....
I was just expecting to be offered more tablets (never worked) and diagnosed with a personality disorder or schizophrenia....
Halway through, I was asked if it was OK to do a ASD questionnaire.....never heard of it and when asked what it was.....I was abit taken back. Sure, anyway...I scored a high level and will be referred for I don't know what next or how long that takes. I was assured I wasn't mental at the end anyway but now feel in limbo abit.
I'm 41.....I've gone through life trying to convince myself I was normal, and since they've mentioned asd.....I've realised I'm really not.....but that's OK. It kind of makes sense, my life and how I think.
Anyone else in the same boat?
Good luck. It feels weird finding this out about yourself, but it is a really positive thing to figure out the (probable) reason behind your phases of anxiety/depression/burnout. I was diagnosed very recently and I started the process because of similar mental health reasons that were worse at the time.
The spectrum is much broader than most people realise. A lot of us who are diagnosed in adulthood aren't 'noticeably' autistic in all situations, but that can make the mental health side of it harder to deal with because we're not well understood.
I concur. I didn't know what I did was stimming and masking until my daughter was diagnosed and I became intensely interested in the topic (hyper focus). I think of Homer Simpson when the monkey is jumping in his head when people are talking to him. I regularly zone out. :-)
Thanks for the reply. The mental health team picked up on it quite quickly and for me, it for a shock but quite a relevation. Things make sense now. 20 odd years of being an outsider and not knowing why, put on medication that messed me up more. Feel abit angry to be honest about that, but like you said.....its not noticed and especially hard when you try to hide it and fit in