Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
So I haven’t been assessed, I just have this feeling that I am autistic. Everything I have read about autism makes sense for me. I have always felt different to other people. Like there has always been something ‘wrong’ with me or something wrong with my ‘brain’. I have been bullied, made fun of and I have never really understood myself, who i am as a person. My sister got assessed and got told she has ADHD and for some reason that made me think about me and if I have a special need/learning difficulty.
i am just posting on here just to see if anyone else has felt the same way or if i am going completely crazy. How did you know you were autistic? Did it run in your family?
my anxiety has got really bad. It is affecting my eating habits and waiting 2 years is going to be super hard!
thank you so much in advance!
Hello,
I echo the words of all the above posters.
I went private when I was 67, and it was the best thing I've ever done. There is no official treatment and no cure, but knowledge brings understanding which, in turn, brings relief. The more I read, the more I understand my past and my differences; so much starts to quite simply unravel itself. I've come to know more and more just who I am.
I am Ben.
Doing an online test might be helpful.
Here is a link to a thread I started about the RAADS-R which formed part of my NHS assessment (conducted privately).
https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/28699/raads-r-diagnostic-scale/314921#314921
All the best.
Hi and welcome,
You’re not faulty, neurodivergent brains are just wired differently, anxiety and autism unfortunately do seem to exist together, start looking at which situations cause you anxiety, I found the waiting time at first very hard to cope with, that wait in the end was how long I needed to process quite a few decades.
If you live in England you can ask your GP for Right to Choose, the NHS will fund a private assessment, this could bring the wait down to months. I always thought I was the only person in the world who functions like me, to find out there are many who are similar to me was actually amazing. I started to not feel so alone.
Welcome.
If you spend enough time in the forums, you will soon realise that you are definitely not crazy. There are plenty of members here who will be able to relate to what you have said... The feeling of being different and never quite fitting in, discovering that things you have read about autism seem to make perfect sense.
As your sister has ADHD, it's entirely possible that you are neurodivergent in some way too.
"I have always felt different to other people. Like there has always been something ‘wrong’ with me or something wrong with my ‘brain’. I have been bullied, made fun of and I have never really understood myself, who i am as a person"
Well, if I'm going off that alone, that was exactly how I felt before I got diagnosed. Getting my diagnosis made everything make sense. I wasn't broken, I wasn't a social failure, there was nothing wrong with me. I was different to other people and needed adjustments at uni and work.
Life continues to get better for me since diagnosis. The only way you'll know if you're autistic is if you go for diagnosis. It's massively improved my mental health, and well, pretty much every part of my life. Yes, it was life changing in the best way possible.