Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi everyone. I was diagnosed with ASD and ADHD last week. This was an online NHS appointment. Was told they would contact my GP and put some "adjustment letters", presumably for work (I am self employed anyway) on my portal, and send me a copy. They also recommended some resources I could read and a You Tube blog I could look at (which I tried and found it insanely annoying). Then that was it! Is something supposed to happen?
I have chosen to see a therapist privately, due to the nature of my work, but aside from that I don't know what to do next.
So what now? Can someone talk me through it please. I have tried looking at other You Tube channels, but I am not finding them useful. They are either too patronising, or incredibly irritating. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated - I'm looking for neutral information rather than someone just talking about themselves for 45 minutes!
Congratulations on your diagnoses and welcome to the community!
The NAS has a great set of articles focused on "after diagnosis", including one covering how you might feel during the subsequent days / weeks / months. You might find them of interest and/or helpful:
NAS - How you might feel after a diagnosis
NAS - Other advice covering post-diagnosis including:
In terms of what to do next, my advice at this point (ie soon after your diagnoses) would be to try and give yourself some time and breathing space to process and absorb everything that you've been through, and let your feelings settle down.
For me, as for many others here, my diagnosis turned out to be much more of the start of a new journey, rather than a conclusion full of ready-made solutions or next steps for my various difficulties.
Your assessment report might contain more information about next steps for your GP. If it doesn’t happen automatically, you might later like to send them a letter requesting a personalised plan. A template letter for this is linked in the “formal support “ article that I mentioned above.
In respect of your therapy, you might find it helpful to borrow or buy this book, which includes discussion of various types of therapy and counselling, together with advice on choosing the right therapist or counsellor - all from an autistic person's viewpoint. Several of us here have found it very helpful, myself included:
The Autistic Survival Guide to Therapy
Thank you. I will have a look. I am actually a counsellor myself, and have sought out counselling immediately for personal and professional reasons. I am hoping the assessment report might contain more information. Thank you for referencing the pages on this site. I have glanced at them, but I seem to be too impatient to read them through to the end