Published on 12, July, 2020
I have now received my diagnosis and received my report.
I am 46 and perimenopausal so it has been very complex emotionally.
It has been recommended that I am assessed now for ADHD and have been referred to Psychiatry UK which is a 6 month wait.
I wondered where to start now other than what was recommended in the report such as reading biographies from women with autism and this organisation/forum to read up on female autism.
I have a mixture of emotions and have been enjoying some volunteer work helping in a charity shop and dog walking. The social element is difficult some days, others not depending on my mood (if it is low).
I am looking for some guidance on what to do next? I am under the CMHT and meeting them again in 2 weeks.
Hi DA.
I am 48 and have just been diagnosed too. I am post menopause due to surgical menopause 9 years ago.
I'm also wondering where to start. So similarly I am doing some reading, particularly around other autistic women's stories. I've just had a look on the NAS website and watched a few of the videos in the NowIKnow campaign. Whilst each person has their own story I found that each of them had parts where I was nodding along in recognition, something which I'm not used to experiencing when listening to women's stories and perceptions generally.
Currently I'm just trying to work out where I am, what it means and whether I need to do anything next. I've been offered a follow up meeting in a couple of weeks to go through things in more detail. But I don't really know what I want from it yet. So I'm reading up on something every day to try to understand where to go from here and whether anything needs to go anywhere from here.