Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello,
My name is Jayde. I am female woman, 25 years old.
I am struggling how to word this, I have re-written this about four times now.
I spent much of my childhood in hospital - with medical health conditions. I struggled to and continue to struggle to engage socially with people. At 19, I was diagnosed with OCD, depression and anxiety.
Despite being on medication and going to therapy, I still struggle with social communication. I only appear to be able to talk about a limited range of topics that interest me, and struggle with other conversations, according to my mother who gets angry with me. I only seem to engage properly in social interactions when the other person in the conversation is autistic. I appear to behave in similar ways to the other people who are autistic, particularly other women.
This leads me to believe that my social difficulties are not only because of the medical childhood and the OCD.
I would like the opportunity to discuss this further with an appropriate professional, who is understanding of female autism.
I would like to go to my GP to ask for referal, but I am worried about it. I haven't gone to the doctors without my parents before and I am also worried to ask them to help me with this.
I am not sure if I can outline my experiences here for people to support me with, since the rules stated that you "should not provide medical or legal advice to other users. "
If anybody has any support and advice on what I could do, I would be appreciative of the help.
Thank-you,
Jayde.
My advice would be to take some online autism tests. AQ10 and AQ50 (sometimes called just 'AQ') are the most commonly used by clinicians in this country, but the RAADS-R is the most definitive. They can be found here: embrace-autism.com/.../If you score in the autism range it will give you more certainty about following up on a diagnosis.
I have completed these.
AQ10 - Threshold above 6 - I scored 10 / 10
AQ - Theshold above 26 - I scored 38 / 50
EQ - Threshold below 30 - 8 / 80
SQ-R - Theshold above 75 - 117 / 150
RAADS-R - Threshold above 65 - 174 / 240
Aspie Quiz - 110 / 200 (75% chance of being autistic)
CATQ - Threshold above 100 - 92 / 175
The Aspie Quiz doesn't have a threshold.
I scored above threshold in AQ10, AQ, EQ, SQ-R, RAADS-R.
I scored below threshold in CATQ
Right, you seem to already have the answer to your question.
Good night.
I can understand that. The people I communicate best with are austistic.
Thank-you for helping me tonight, Martin. I will definitly go about asking for a referal for diagnosis and getting together the resources I need for that.
It is 10pm now, I have to sign off.
Academic studies have shown that autistic to autistic communication is just as effective as neurotypical to neurotypical communication, the problems arise in autistic to neurotypical communication.
To clarify.
I have been worried about there being something 'wrong' with me, why I cannot understand other people and it leads to fustration on everyone's part.
However, If I were autistic, then this would mean there wasn't something 'wrong' with me, since I communicate well with people who are autistic.
All that you have written could be due to autism, but the only way you will find out for certain is to have an autism assessment. To me, again not a clinician, you have more than enough traits to legitimately seek a referral for an autism assessment. I can offer you no more certainty than that.
I would recommend having a look at the diagnostic criteria for autism in the clinical manuals (can be found online) ICD-10 and DSM-5. See how your traits and history fit the various sections that the criteria are divided into.
The autism community tend not to see autism as 'something wrong', but as a difference from neurotypical norms. Realising that I was autistic, and subsequently being diagnosed, was very useful to me, it gave me a reason for the difficulties and limitations that I have always had. It gave me a certain peace of mind and the ability to forgive myself for past 'failings'. If you are autistic, you will always be autistic, as it is due to a difference in brain architecture and function. However, a knowledge of your autistic traits and the reasons behind them, allows 'work arounds' for problems to be created. A diagnosis also requires, by law, employers to offer accommodations that can make working life much easier.
Incidentally, being autistic does not prevent also having other things. My OCD tendencies were ascribed to my autism, but I have also diagnoses of generalised anxiety disorder and social phobia.