Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, I’ve just been diagnosed aged 25 and I feel this has made things worse as I now know what I thought was just social anxiety (so possibly treatable) is actually autism and so will never go away. Looking back at my life, I realise that autism has had a huge negative impact - I’m unable to do things such as join sports teams or go to parties/social events without experiencing extreme anxiety before going, and then wanting them to be over the whole time I’m there. This has lead to me having no friends at 25 years old which is beginning to take a toll on my mental health. My mind feels like it’s in a constant battle with itself where I want to join in and enjoy playing sports, etc. but when I actually think about doing it, the anxiety kicks in and I end up back where I started. Does anyone else feel the same or have any advice on dealing with the diagnosis?
I try to deal with the anxiety using whatever technique suits the situation, and just carry on.
Other things other than Autism cause anxiety (Current events anyone ;) so collecting "tools" to deal with ones own anxiety is always a good idea.
It's actually a survival thing, too.
And once you are less "anxious" Autism isn't really such a big deal as it was.
But diagnosis was a HUGE DEAL for me, and has knocked me off my game for about three years, but I'm adapting to the reality that to accomplish some things I need willing servants.
"Service" is such a basic and well documented human transaction, that I was already engaging in pre-diagnosis (I do things for people, they do things for me, (and for gods sake, when you get somethng really working, DON'T MESS WITH IT!!)
The only real impact is that I need to ask NT people to do stuff that might appear "odd" to them. Meh.