Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
A couple of years ago I got an assessment for Autism, the assessor believed while I showed social debilitations that as I couldn't recall much from my childhood that was problematic that I was not fit for autism diagnosis. I had another assessment for Borderline Personality Disorder & then the diagnosis I was given was Extreme Social Anxiety Disorder. While I feel I do have social anxiety I feel that is just part of the puzzle.
Years later, i still feel this way and want to see about getting another assessment as I still feel these debilitations are setting me back in life, my biggest problem being able to fit in within the workplace with colleagues - Which to summarise, I feel I lack the ability to engage with social cues, I'm friendly and will talk to people but I find soon that people learn of my social limitations and the bond gets stale, eventually leading to hostiliy which has caused me to be fired/leave from my job multiple times now.
I am currently working but with the cost of living crisis still hitting heavy I can hardly afford to proceed with another assessment and I fear that if I were to take the plunge I would only get minimal feedback like last time - I don't mean to sound like a demanding brat but I still believe there are far more problems than social anxiety. I went to my GP about this recently and they weren't interested - I have since changed GP because I felt like a complete inconvenience. But if I even get a referral I could be waiting for another 2-3 years again... which is hardly ideal.
So any advice would be appreciated!
I think you need to ask yourself what you think you'd get from an autism diagnosis and then consider if you could get that another way. If your main issue is that your difficulties with social interaction give you problems fitting in at work, it's not like you will magically get better at that after a diagnosis or your colleagues will be much better to you if they know you're autistic (some people may be more understanding, but those people probably aren't going to develop a hostile relationship with someone who's socially awkward in the first place).
Realistically, I'm not sure there's much point in you trying if you can't afford to go private. It's entirely reasonable for a GP to look at the fact that you've already been assessed, nothing much has changed since then and so it would be a waste of time to just go through it again, pushing someone else further down the waiting list who has never been assessed and so has a much higher chance of diagnosis.
I agree with this.
I wanted an official diagnosis for personal certainty more than anything else.
But that diagnosis has not led to any kind of follow on support or help and the very minor changes at work would almost certainly have been made if I had simply reported an anxiety or depression problem to them.