Published on 12, July, 2020
A friend of mine who is autistic was recently diagnosed with this.
I've read of others here in the past who have the diagnosis.
I've wondered if I have the disorder although I don't have the diagnosis.
When I was younger (around 30 years ago) I remember telling my GP that I felt 'locked into a state of anxiety' and that is when he put me onto antidepressants (again).
A few years later I saw a letter from the hospital which listed my medical conditions and it included anxiety.
This really bemused me as I thought anxiety was just an ordinary part of everyday life.
I believe that the disorder diagnosis is a fairly recently one (I must check that out).
I'm pretty certain that the anxiety will be closely tied into the challenges of being autistic and also I have undiagnosed OCD which is obviously anxiety based and have had this since I was a small child.
What do others think - do you have a diagnosis?
Do you become anxious in certain situations?
Or are you just anxious all the time?
I think that anxiety is only part of everyday life if you are autistic?
NT people do get anxious obviously, but I think it's usually linked to a specific thing like an exam, interview, worry about redundancy or relationship problems. But with Autistic people I think it's always just below the surface and is triggered more often by things that shouldn't be triggers, like being on public transport, being in a supermarket queue, being in the same room as someone who is upset or angry, things not happening at the expected time, etc.