Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
I am 27,in the UK, currently on the waiting list for an assessment after having an ASD screening from an NHS physiatrist, I don't know how long the wait is going to be but for now I am struggling bad with my mental health and this has now resulted in my contract at work being terminated because I have had to take so much time off due to this. I really struggle with socialising and emotions and sleep, which leads to a difficult work life, being exhausted and burnt out constantly. Now I have no job and am not in the right place mentally to look for a new one or hold onto one at the moment. I have tried to reach out to many services for support and have yet to receive any, most professionals are brushing me off and telling me to learn to live with it.
Does anyone have any ideas of some decent support networks, people to contact, services, resources, etc?
Also how do you survive without a job, can you get DLA, UC, PIP?
still waiting for assessment/diagnosis
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you
Hello, I'm new here and so grateful I came across this as I was originally searching for a chat room, so if one exists I would really like to participate. I can relate to everything that is being said, and yes, the diagnosis was very liberating for me as well in the first year, and now I'm going through a heavy depression, and being misdiagnosed with so many other things because it's been months of the depression, and I'm afraid it won't get better the more I try and say maybe a magic pill will make me less autistic. My dilemma is I want to experience everything non autistics experience, and I want to be happy, not behind my peers and still feeling like a child..in my 30s...if anybody else feels this way it would he helpful to put my mind at ease just for tonight.
I really can't get over the hump of being AWARE that my whole life, is going to be grifting through and nothing meaningful milestone wise, and feeling like I'm severely missing out..I'm just struggling mentally with all of that right now.
They are totaly self important and fake. I cannot stand them!
I do find since diagnosis I've talked to people about my condition and often find the answer to me saying what I feel or experience is "just stop doing it" or "well just ignore that and don't focus on it" , like I'm doing it by choice!
So hard to get people to understand what goes on in our heads!
I did find a group who are there to allegedly there to help adults with ASD including getting diagnosed. Unfortunately the experience was entirely negative and felt like the result of a brain storming session from well meaning NT deciding what people like me want and need. Funny how they never ask us isn't it?
I've just been diagnosed late in life, I feel far more autistic since, but from other threads on here I hear that's fairly normal, the focus on the condition makes it worse, so once things settle it should improve.
Eventually it won't feel like a daily battle without any meaningful goals, what you feel now isn't forever.
My view is that we are looking ahead to a future we don't yet understand, so that's where the anxiety comes from. Once we figure things out and find a new normal, that future won't look so bleak. In the meantime try and bring the focus closer in to now, you can sort tomorrow when it gets here, you don't need to have all the answers for it today.
I know all these things are easier said than done and I'm terrible for not taking advice, but I hope it helps,
Take care, I hope it all goes ok!
Edit.. there are some free guided online CBT courses you can get from NHS, self referral, think it used to be called "IATP", Google should find it.