Advice from anyone with asd level one

My sister thought i had adhd so told me to go for an assessment but my whole life i felt like i didn’t fit in and struggled with a lot of things sometimes in subtle ways and sometimes not so subtle so i went to see the dr who suggested it sounded more like autism which shocked me a little because it was unexpected. So she referred me to have an autism and adhd assessment, turned out that it was autism with some adhd traits but not adhd.

Oh yeah I think this happens for the first month or so but try not to look back too hard, just think about what you know about yourself now and what you can learn about yourself to make yourself happier now and in the future. Take some time to learn yourself all over again and slower than you needed to previously.

I was actually wondering how other people came to be diagnosed? Was it through self exploration or from other people? 

Thanks Stuart333 you’re right i do tend to get hung up on the negatives, i was told i catastrophise or something like that so i need to try to stop it. 
i have a mask for sleeping that helps sometimes and regarding weight I’m considered obese but i wouldn’t say i look particularly big on the outside. I need to lose weight though that’s for sure and need to exercise more!

You don't need to get hung up on problems, everyone is different. You want to look for when you are calm, when you are not calm, when you are struggling or find it harder to do things, then look for why.

When calm, you can think straight and do what you want to do. The more uncalm you feel the more nervous energy is being used up. You only have so.much.

Sleep is the number 1 issue for regulation and coping.

You may want to look at a machine to help with the apnea if you haven't already. If weight is a contributory factory then you may want to consider that too. It is worth it. Exercise help regulation too. Nothing crazy, just a 10 or 20 minute walk.

I struggle with sleeping a lot, i have severe sleep apnea so that doesn’t help :/ i don’t drink alcohol or coffee though so i don’t worry about those. I get irritable a lot though mainly with noise so i bought some noise cancelling headphones to try to cut that out.

I will try to write down things that cause me problems like you said. Half the problem is i don’t know what the problems are or don’t recognise them yet. 

What is it you actually have problems with? Start with them and look for ways to make them better. That's it really. You can read a lot.

Finding ways to sleep and relax is the key. You can't avoid all stress, some things are just harder, the issue is making sure you can cope, tag you allow recovery tine and it is sustainable. You have to push a bit to achieve things.

Try to understand yourself by paying attention to how you feel. Look for patterns, journal if necessary. Look at when you are irritable, anxious, frozen, fawning scared, etc. and look at what lead up to it. Did you have too much coffee, not sleep well, drink some alcohol, skip breakfast, forget to drink, have too much work, etc.

Once you know how you behave you can plan around it. Often just knowing makes it less bad.

Thank you Ma.ra. Hello to you too, there are a lot of threads on here to read, i should try doing that instead of getting upset reading the news. Luckily i have had a lot of time where i haven’t had to pretend to be something i’m not when masking and draining myself  but i think that’s part of the problem, i have a lot more time to think about it all too. It would be great just to be able to switch off my thought processes sometimes lol

This is where I’m struggling i guess, i know i’m the same person but i’ve always felt out of place especially in social situations so since the diagnosis i think i’ve been constantly overthinking it all. Need to try not to think too much about it as you say.

Definitely noticing things getting worse but wasn’t sure if it was me being overly paranoid about it. It was one of the things prompting me to have an assessment.

Hello Nefilim !

Welcome to the community!

I hope you’ll like it here. The members helped me a lot — I got very sad after my diagnosis and wrote here under the topic “sadness after diagnosis.” Everything is collected here so we can re-read it.

It was about a month ago. I still remember one part: “happiness is found in unusual places.” That calmed me so much. When I unmask at home, or whenever I can, I try to let myself enjoy my little sensory or cognitive happinesses.

Best wishes!

Most diagnoses in the UK use the ICD diagnostic manual, which does not ascribe levels. The US-based DSM manual does use levels.

You have been autistic since before birth, therefore you are the same person before and after diagnosis. I came to the conclusion that my masking/camouflaging was just as much a part of me as my autism and I stopped agonising over whether the masking me was different to the non-masking me, they are the same person.

I think you have less resilience as you age; things get to you more. But you have more experience and skills and ways to cope.

The two things are pulling in opposite directions so it varies as to which one wins.

Also, stress can bias the outcome at any point.

Thanks profdanger and good evening from the UK, I know having autism isn’t necessarily a bad thing but the timing (i’ve been made redundant a while back and i have had other health issues diagnosed on top of others) sucks and well I could have done with all this happening earlier in life :-s i’ll check the articles on here and forum posts from others, it’s good to know i’m not the only one who is going through it all

Good morning from America, Nefilim!

My best advice is to look on this site for people with similar experiences or read up on the site’s articles. I’ve learned a lot about myself just by reading about other peoples’ experiences. For example, I now recognize that while I have some significant sensitivities to sound and space, there are others that struggle with crowds even more than I.

Nefilim said:

either i seem to be more aware of them or as i age my body is becoming less resilient towards them.

I agree that either is a possibility. Based on what I’ve read here on the forum, it seems that as you age it’s possible to either develop more Autistic characteristics or become less inclined to mask.