Hello :-)
I posted a few months back looking for advice about whether to seek an autism assessment. Having been engaging with a clinical psychologist, she contacted my GP via letter recommending an autism assessment referral (she couldn’t do within her remit).
Phoned the GP today to request a referral as per the letter, no questions asked and the GP was happy to do so, said the referral will be made this week. The GP said the wait would be “6-12 months” within our area.
Quick background for those who may not have been my previous post…
Female, in 30s, graduated from university twice, work in a professional job, married, children.
OCD diagnosis in late teens (following *one* appointment with a psychologist & a tick box exercise), GAD diagnosis in recent years.
Just a *few* of a long list of traits:
*Routine - struggle with change to plans.
*like to be in control of situations/planning - adds predictability and stability for me.
*often told I ‘overthink’ - however to me this is just normal thinking I will consider all eventualities in almost all situations, especially before making decisions. Doing this allows me to be prepared for all probable outcomes and plan accordingly, also reduces anxiety around situations.
*excessive touching of objects (both as a child, to this present day) - have to touch objects evenly with full hand, has to ‘feel right’.
*dislike being touched (especially unnecessarily/unexpectedly) - makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
*fidget with my fingers (picking cuticles in nails a lot), enjoy playing with kids fidget toys, find it relaxing.
*obsession with counting/numbers (again since childhood) - would (and still do) count steps when walking, count when chewing, would mentally count sky satellite dishes during any car journeys as a young child, obsessed with reading car registration plates, reading street signs and counting the number of letters.
*organisation - items/objects have to be arranged in a particular order/way. e.g. food - labels all facing precisely to front, bedding/towels/clothing folded in a specific way, money arranged heads up, notes ordered into denomination & then by serial number.
*difficulty in busy environments - too much background noise creates a rabble and makes it difficult to focus on a conversation.
*can often zone out of conversations if there are several background factors (e.g. noise, movement, light) - often unaware I’m doing this and will appear to still be focussing by nodding along, and will only realise when I zone back in and realise I’ve missed part of a conversation.
*I struggle to build/maintain relationships, outwith family I have 1 friend (I have work colleagues, but don’t socialise outside of work as this is something I really struggle with).
*I will often talk very fast & loud when anxious/in a group of people or if discussing something which heavily interests me.
*I find social interactions difficult - making/maintaining eye contact, often struggle to interpret peoples thoughts/feelings, I very often worry I’ve upset or angered people after I’ve finished a conversation even if there’s no indication of this.
Childhood traits that I can remember:
*chewed my cot as an infant/toddler (so much so I wore down my front teeth.
*advanced academically for age - reading books beyond my learning stage, used to complete older sisters homework with relative ease.
*bed wetting until 5, had to be reminded to pee by parents when out of nappies as would often not realise I needed.
*Obsessed with flushing toilets - would ask to use peoples toilets when visiting, but only to flush it.
*lining up toys as a child, setting barbies up in a perfect scene instead of playing with them traditionally, playing with K-Nex/Lego - symmetry in size & colour.
*As a child I was a very fussy eater, much of it was down to food textures in my mouth - certain foods would literally make me gag. I am still like this with textures, although I am less fussy.
*Trichotillomania during teen years (pulled hair our head), resulting in a bald patch on my head.
Now a few questions…
1. Should I follow up with GP next week to ensure the referral has been made (I’m so worried it gets forgotten about!)
2. Do I then just await communication from ASD services for an appointment? Or is there any way to follow up in maybe a couple of months to find out how long I should expect to wait?
3. Any ideas how I stop myself worrying/ruminating/thinking about it for the next 6-12 months?!
4. It has been said to me that there is ‘overlap’ between OCD & ASD, and that some of my traits could just be in keeping with OCD/GAD. This niggling worry keeps creeping back, that I am seeking a diagnosis that doesn’t exist. However, with many of my ‘OCD’ traits, I don’t do them because of unwanted thoughts (e.g. I organise *everything* and obsessively count because I like doing these things and find them therapeutic). I guess I’m worried about wasting a year worrying, then wasting clinicians/NHS time.
I realise this is a very long post (I’m not very good at keeping things short haha), so thank you to anyone who takes the time to read, and I would really appreciate any feedback and advice :-)
