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 have been diagnosed with GAD and 'social phobia', I think it is a by-product of my autism. I suspect that I have lived my life scanning other people - allistic people - constantly, to find cues about how I am supposed to behave, because my natural behaviour in childhood was often found strange or was criticised. I am on high alert in social situations and, because how I behave is a performance, I have 'performance anxiety'. In effect, in social situations with people who I am not intimate with, I am often suffering from the equivalent of 'stage fright'. No wonder I have high levels of anxiety.
I'm similar to you Martin, I've not been diagnosed with GAD, but I have been for social phobia. I too look for cues on how to behave, when I was a child I could never understand why people didn't behave the way they did in books or one tv, that led to all sorts of problems!
I do have anticipatory anxiety, I think everyone does, lots of us dont' like the dentist and look forward to it with dread, even though we know we need treatment, I don't know any woman who looks forward to smear tests or the boob squeezing machine. I think a lot of mine is mixed up with PTSD, we all have complex needs and fears, even NT people and to be honest I think seperating things out into NT and non NT does everyone a disservice.