Did your doctor pick up on your autism on their own?

Yeah they tell us we are ‘wired differently’, that we have a social impairment, and in a sense they are right.
We do not understand people who do not think like us, we don’t understand in a neurotypical way, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot empathise with our own. 
We do a better job of acclimatising to the neurodiverse than neurotypicals, because we know how to play with a handicap, and we can pick up a second mask rather quickly.

Sorry for not replying, my previous reply has only just been posted, the SPAM software NAS use picked it up as offensive, autism is to be embraced, we aren’t the strange ones. I’ve had strange responses to letting people into my autistic life, I told someone recently who I thought I trusted, yes that’s an oxymoron. I explained that a diagnosis in the 1970’s or 80’s would have never happened. The reply was, “ yeh, I bet when you were at school, they just thought you were thick.” I did bite, why would being ‘thick’ assimilate to autistic traits. I was playing chess in infant school while the rest of the class were playing with plasticine!  The world ‘thick’ is a nasty inaccurate word, try learning difficulties. Autistic people are quite good with other autistic people.

Yeah, infantilised to make up for their ignorance, take sounds about right. 
The weird thing about my journey is that; family, managers, and friends; have insulted me with ‘autism’ for my whole.
It’s seems rich that I was what they called me, no one thought to act on it positively, all of my friends had learning difficulties (two of them had AS)!

I know how you feel, as much as you know, I was completely excommunicated from the social hierarchy at school.  
I just had it all, it would take me an hour to scratch the surface, the trauma is so vast that it is just part of my overall character now.  
I wish I could go back and save that kid from his hell. I was a resilient kid and that kept the wolves at bay, but they were all wolves, so I found myself about and left alone.  
But even then I think, has my problem-solving really improved enough to actually save others and myself..? I think not, I have a ways to go, and I need support to get there..

Yes, I was told that the sensory/dietary/social issues I was having, and also my concerns about being autistic, were all due to my anxiety. I do have an anxiety disorder, and medication has helped with that, but in hindsight it wasn't the reason I thought I was autistic. It was probably the other way round- an anxiety disorder caused by all those years where everyone told me I was a cringey, selfish weirdo when I was really just autistic.

Paranoia from school bullying taken as societal norm?  Proportion of bullying  Adults is not the same percentage as bullying school children 

What about the symptom of Poor imagination of autistic people? 

I figured out I was autistic when I was 25. Had been to see so many doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists etc over the years and none of them mentioned autism - instead I was diagnosed with things like generalised anxiety disorder, OCD, disordered eating, depressive disorder. 

When I realised I might be autistic I went to my GP, she didn't really know what to do with me. Ended up being referred to a general mental health service, they didn't know what to do with me either - everyone I met said something along the lines of "I don't specialise in autism so I can't help you, I also don't really know where to refer you as I don't know of anywhere that diagnoses adults, but if it helps you're probably not autistic because you're making eye contact with me right now " 

So I gave up for a few years. But in 2022 I came across a private service that specialises in diagnosing adults and they confirmed what I already knew (but I wanted it confirmed anyway) - I'm autistic! 

My mums sister did, she is a doctor though so yes a doctor did pick up on it 

A mental health team suggested that I was autistic.  This was after I was recovering from multiple suicide attempts.  Before that, I was totally ignorant about autism. 

Nope, don’t do that..

Seem to have been reported, I’m never abusive, I love my autistic community, I must admit, I’m starting to wonder if I should leave.

I have been under the care of the local mental health service for a number of years. They picked up my autism almost immediately. Sadly the formal diagnosis took a very long time to arrive. 
Im quite old so there wasn’t such a thing when I was at school. People like me were called remedial.

you have to love the early 1980’s.

The problem isn’t weakness, older people never even knew autism existed. We had to mask, hide, be bullied and some unfortunately ended up in mental institutions. Life was often hell on earth. I’m really glad you were able to be taken seriously, doctors never even knew what  autism was, when I was younger, the GP in most cases wouldn’t even acknowledge autism, words like feeble minded, depressed or delicate. The favourite was, he’s just a bit tired and exhausted! 

Well I say to those old people, why is it all about weakness with you guys? I went to the doctors and stated my symptoms to satisfy the diagnostic process, screening was the gatekeeper to my question. 
What I am really trying to do is discover myself, not diagnose myself, I didn’t choose the process, the neurotypicals did that. I didn’t choose to make autism a defection, the neurotypicals did that; I only want to make myself stronger, and I have done that.

Good doctor, I’ve read posts on here for over a year, some GP’s  are very receptive, others don’t even accept autism. It really shouldn’t be a lottery, how many older people have been asked, “ what do you hope to gain from a diagnosis?”

When I first went to ask about AS the doctor asked me if I wanted meds, I said “no”, he said “good choice”..

I wonder how many times we have been to our GP with different complaints and masked. I went and told him I was suffering with depression, he remarked that I normally visited the surgery every 8-10 years, I was given antidepressants, it wasn’t his fault, he worked on the amount of information I was prepared to give, apparently I wasn’t producing enough serotonin. After 6 months I knew I didn’t feel any better, my old GP had just retired and I had a new young kid on the block, I did worry about a young GP, my adult son actually put me right, He told me that a young GP would have been to school, University and has most probably autistic friends, he was right.

*physiological

Yeah man, just walk through the list of acute mood and stress disorders, and you’ll have a list of all the ways that autistic people have been ‘fixed’ in the past. 
And that’s just the psychological stuff, I’m not even gonna dive into the neurological and psychological stuff, it’s been a long road to autistic people are ‘wired differently’..