Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, I’m 30, I’ve struggled my whole life with Aspergers (I think) but never been diagnosed. I work in customer service and I used to do written communication only at work which was ok but recently they’ve started putting me on the phones loads. Has caused me lots of anxiety and I feel I’m struggling loads.
Symptoms are; socially awkward, struggle to make eye contact, like a set routine even though I’m poorly organised, struggle with empathy (even get in trouble at work for it), don’t really have many facial expressions, struggle to understand people’s emotions, don’t go out much especially nights out as it’s loud and just awful, very narrow interest in hobbies, food etc, probably loads more things but I won’t bore you.
Went to doctors today to ask for a referral for a diagnosis and the GP said it can take 2 years for a referral and sometimes they can even reject it (is this true?). She then offered me a mental health session or something.
It seemed rather dismissive and my Mum said when I got home (she didn’t know I’d asked for a referral) lots of people have those symptoms. I’ve heard that from quite a few people over the years too (everyone’s on the spectrum etc etc). Makes me doubt myself a bit.
Would it be worth asking for another GP appointment or will that just annoy them and get me on a blacklist? I heard something about an AQ10 but was never asked to fill one out.
If anyone can advise I’d be very grateful, sorry to blabber on so much.
Brad
Hi sounds like we have similar symptoms. Getting a professional diagnosis can take a long time, I have been waiting 4 years, its a bit of a postcode lottery. There is also NHS choices that your GP can refer you to a private provider paid for by the nHS. Thats what I am waiting for but again there is a big waiting list.
I would reccomend looking at autism on youtube, there are quite a few very open people on there ,look at 'the aspie world' and 'autism from the inside'. These helped me alot to work out what I had wrong with me. Try the AQ50 test, it is the standard one professionals use.
Remember you don't need a diagnosis by anybody to be autistic, you can self diagnose. You do have some employment rights although its a grey area and employers need to make resonable adjustments. Some say they can not resonably make adjustmenst, some are ok. I would say initially try and find out more about autism and how it effects your life. Since I found out about mine I push myself less to be normal, put myself in difficult situations less and the like.
good luck
Rob
Thanks for replying Rob. That sounds like an absolute nightmare, 4 years is ridiculous! I read they were supposed to see someone within 3 months.
The aspie world definitely sounds interesting so I’ll check it out.
I feel like a diagnosis would at least excuse me from my unsociable behaviour. At the moment I think people just see me as rude/weird.
Hope all works out for you in the end!