I am 55 years old and just been diagnosed with Autism.
After a lot of struggles, loss of a 24 year job and constantly asking my GP for help moving forward I decided to try and AI chat to help me put together a letter to my GP detailing all my struggles in the hope of some progress moving forward. During the AI chat it was suggested I could have autistic burnout. I had not mentioned Autism and never considered it. I just knew I was different somehow and that was about it.
I spoke to my GP about this so they gave me an Autism assessment form to fill in which then eventually went to a full assessment, a lot of forms and an interviews with doctors. The end result, I was diagnosed with autism after years of being diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorder. It seems I have just been adapting and masking my whole life until I finally burnt out.
Right now it feels a bit like everything suddenly now fits into place. I am still trying to process this and there is so much going on in my life right now it's overwhelming so I am struggling and getting stressed out trying to move forward. I keep telling myself one day at a time as is still about two weeks turnaround whilst GP catches up with diagnosis and I find out what support I might be able to get.
Maximus UK is already wanting to interview me over ESA however this was booked before my Autism diagnosis so will have to do some phone calls Monday to update ESA. Have a lot of anxiety over these benefit interviews as need time to process the questions and I hear they try to trip you up.
Anyway, I do feel a lot of positivity about the diagnosis regardless of the anxiety of benefits and employment. It is a shock and I know I will need to give myself time to process it all. In some ways I am excited at the prospect of what feels a bit like a new start.
